Rating: 
Summary: Possibly The Most ENTERTAINING Film I Have Ever Seen
Review: Notice I didn't say "best".
I really am befuddled by the bad reviews that are on the "front page" of the reviews for ID. Of course it's not "good"; this isn't that type of movie. It's a movie made to entertain.If you don't know the storyline:
"Aliens" come. They attack. We run. We attack. They attack back. We run again. We find a solution. We attack again. They die. While I was somewhat dissapointed at the imagination of the story (the aliens aren't very much different from humans--they have ships and aircraft that fire weapons, their bodies are basically the same, except just in a different form, they use computer-like machines, et cetera), it really didn't make a difference because I liked the movie. I can already see the rocks being thrown by the intellectuals. Will Smith was born for his part in this movie. He plays an alien-bashing Marine captain (with an appearance by Harry Conick, Jr. as well), and ends up helping to save the world in the end. Other notables include Jeff Goldblum and Judd Hirsch(a father/son comedic duo), Bill Pulman (as commander-in-chief), Randy Quaid (a once abducted cropduster), and James Rebhorn(a lovingly cynical Secretary of Defense). ID has action, some thinking, drama and even a little romance, buy ID. You won't regret it. If you want to see a movie that makes you think and you will walk away saying, "that was the best movie I have ever seen...", put ID on hold. Enjoy.
Rating: 
Summary: Shockingly Average
Review: I really don't know what to make of ID4. If you take away the SFX and the patriotic, flag-waving in this film you are left with a very cheap pile of melodramatic sludge.In the first viewing you may not see this but the second and third time you really begin to notice the seriously bad dialogue. It won an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects but some of them are uncomfortably bad. The flames that flow thru the tunnel at the end of the first destruction scene are SO unrealistic. They are way too red. In the same summer Escape from LA was panned for having [bad] FX but this is worse. I feel that if ID4 maintained a dark and ominous tone, much like the shadows cast by the spacecraft, it would have been a much better film. But instead the scriptwriters decided to go for the cheap and easy way of bad jokes and cliched `human drama' storylines. If one tiny little change had been made (If Boomer the Dog never survived the tunnel fire to be more specific) I feel that even this would have been enough to balance out the cheesy humor and quality of the filmmaking. The ending is exciting to watch and the final scenes inside the mothership are very vivid and total eye-candy I wish we could have seen more of this. There were plans for a sequel in early 1997 to be released on January 1st 2000 but Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin left 20th Century Fox, so it was never made. The features on the DVD are stale and boring. Two commentaries recorded at an unhearable volume, plus some uninteresting documentaries. The 5.1 sound (sorry, no DTS) is dead cool and the 2.35:1 anamorphic picture is almost flawless.
Rating: 
Summary: Foreigners or tentacle clad aliens- which is streotyped best
Review: I, of course rather naively, went into this film in the understanding that this was an 'aliens attack the world and are repelled' sci fi romp. I was sorely misguided. Of course it is America who is attacked by nasty ET and subsequently has to save the world(again). The Devlin/ Emmerich duo(yes I hear you cry, they of Godzilla fame) apparantly believe America alone is capable of coming up with the veritable genius of an idea to steal an alien spaceship, fly a wisecracking military goofball and a typically dour scientist/Goldblum persona..., accompanied by an action packed fighter/alien dogfight, featuring world leaders and drunk crop dusters. Such efforts are met with worldwide celebration of American genius, accompanied by the obligatory hackneyed stereotypes. Note to director- Im sure not all Brits use the word 'bloody' six times per sentence. All in all a overblown piece of mastabatory flag waving, destined nevertheless to reap the benefits of a largely ignorant public. Unfortunately this type of thing seems to pervade Hollywood these days, and i kinda blame myself for putting trust in the film industry. I'll try and forget the whole sorry business and get on with my life.
Rating: 
Summary: Guilty As Charged
Review: ID4 tries to be a throwback to the "disaster" films of the 70s. A huge cast of well known actors tries to overcome a major threat and be victorious in the end. Anyone familar with an alien saga known as V, will likely find many similarities between that mini series, and this film. Huge spacecrafts are in orbit around Earth and can be seen over many cities. The world wonders what these visitors have in store for us. David (Jeff Goldblum) determines that the aliens have begun counting down. He and his father (Judd Hirsch) race to Washington D.C. to tell the President (Bill Pullman). Shortly after the 2 men arrive at the White House, the aliens attack, and those that are left, decide to fight back. Thanks to Will Smith the film is saved. The film is your typical "event" movie, many of which, do have a place in cinema history. The effects are pretty good and the film manages to entertain, despite a very contrived script, and lopsided second act. I would consider this film to be a VERY guilty pleasure of mine. As I implied earlier, Will Smith takes what he is given to do and helps to makes it work somehow. Brought to you by the team that made the awful GODZILLA remake, a few years later, at least gave viewers some fun characters in ID4. The "Five Star Collection" 2 disc DVD set has all the extras and is recommended over the single disc versions now available. Folks can choose between the theatrical cut, or the special edition cut, that incorporates an additional 9 minutes into the film The commentaries are a mixed bag and are just OK. Disc 2 offers 3 fluff pieces that describe the way the film was made. Storyboards, original artwork, theatrical trailers, t.v.. spots, and DVD-ROM content top off the set. Not bad extras when you consider the type of film ID4 is trying to be Recommended for anyone who has a guilty pleasure list and needs to add another one
Rating:
Summary: "Hooray for America" etc
Review: It's damned clear from the opening shot (the American flag on the moon, Neil Armstrong's "one small step speech" in the background and the footprints of said astronought and chums) what this is about. Aliens attack the world? Nope. Aliens attack America and get what's coming to them... as if we couldn't guess. Yep, it's that big budget remake of all those B-Movies, with lots of anthems and "God bless America" moments. For everyone in America, this will doubtless be the feelgood blockbuster of the year... for the rest of the world, it's probably the biggest, most expensive lump of cheese yet concieved in the movie industry. The story is nice and simple. Some shamefully mean and nasty aliens descend from the skies, promptly attacking (curiously we see attacks on America and... well, nowhere else, because of course nowhere else would really matter if it was destroyed) and causing mass destruction. The ramifications of this worldwide devastation are never considered, with a general theme of "America will fix it" running through. It's jingoistic to sickening extremes, with the President delivering a nice independence day speech and getting in a plane alongside the normal people (for people read Americans) and attacking those nasty aliens with all the American firepower they can muster. Damned inspiring stuff... if you're American. Of course there's the nice touch that Mr. Average, "Russell Case" (often drunken crop duster who claims to have been abducted by aliens) saves the day with the President nobly paving the way for him. Aw. The whole "Pres'-Helps-Save-The-Day" thing wouldn't get a full blown movie plot until the equally sickening Air Force One, but here it's a little subplot and still an annoying one. Let's be honest... Presidents are puppets, always out of harm's way, and NEVER likely to get stuck into the action. Now I've had my go at that subject, I'll continue. America of course leads the way in saving the world, showing how to destroy the alien beasties by bringing down their ships (and, presumably, crushing miles of land beneath, and causing vast dust clouds, similar to an asteroid collision? Oh well). In fact, the only footage of "the rest of the world dealing with the problem" is a few clips of stereotypical foreigners. For the English we have the likes of "crikey, aliens are invading! Better put the kettle on" and so forth. Nobody seems to mind that aliens invading the world actually involves the rest of the world. Oh well. Anyway, if you can swallow the absurd jingoism, is it actually a good film? Well, Jeff Goldblum - yet again playing his terminal character, the scatterbrained noble genius, but he does it well and is amusing in all his scenes. Bill Puttman is a questionably brave and strong president, probably ranking above the rest of the rather over-comical cast (Will Smith, love him or hate him, does what he does best - yell, do action scenes and come out with one-liners). And the script, oh the script... cheese left right and centre, with aliens whose motives are as simple and clear cut as the film's intention: to make a LOT of money. Which it shamelessly did. The effects are, of course, grand and good. The flying saucers look far meaner than their wobbly ancestors, and the aliens are just as tenticle-clad and slimy as you'd expect. It's all very predictable, yet pleasing in it's reliability. And of course it's entertaining throughout, delivering nothing but eye-pleasing action and lots of loud noises. Yes, despite it's irritating themes, it's fun. It's well worth the title of blockbuster, and is truly suited to those with brains firmly switched off. So I can watch it and like it if I don't think about it - and some of it's moments (Puttman's speech, from a certain perspective - and Russell Case's delightful final moments: "Hello boys, I'm back!" and "Payback's a b**ch aint it!" for example) are touching and funny. So there is definitely fun to be had, and it is, as much as it pains me to say it, definitely worth watching it. For non-Americans it will prove a guilty pleasure, and for those for whom it was made, it will prove a heart-melting flag waver and no mistake. So watch it, laugh at or with it, and enjoy it anyway.
Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: Great movie. Loved the central idea....
Rating:
Summary: wHY IS AMERICA ALWAYS HIT.
Review: This movie was good but what I don't understand is why can't they have some cities in canada or Australia get destroyed once in a ehile. No matter what disaster movie yous ee its either los Angeles or New York (In this case Washington DC). The only cities that haven't gotten destroyed in America was Paris and Shanghai in Armageddon. So America has technology, Aliens don't know that. They want to destroy earth not America! But if your looking for major disaster seens than this is your movie.
Rating:
Summary: Good gosh, is everyone in America an idiot?
Review: This movie has been called "wonderful" and "a great sc-fi movie for the modern times". Anyone who said that is obviously under some sort of trance or perhaps on drugs. This movie, at the most, is a "B" class flik with absolutely no plot and little acting ability. They could have at least made the movie make sense to make up for its horrible acting and scripting but no, it is incoherent dribble. For one thing, it takes place in 4 DAYS! All of that takes place in four days. What? Second of all, how young is that president? You have to be over thirty to be a president and he looks to be thirty at the oldest, possibly younger.
I also noticed that logistics played no part in the making of this movie. The directors said, "We want him to be in a desert." So they put him in huge desert, where there isn't one in real life! Then there's the whole thing about them just saying, "Anyone who can fly or, heck, as even looked at a plane, come over here and we'll give you some top of the line jets to use." but don't get me started. Plus there is the scene where the city gets hit and the lady hides in a small room right next to where the flames are coming and doesn't even get first degree burns.
As for the acting, it is abysmal. But perhaps that's just because it is a horrible plot with crummy dialogue. They throw in mediocre jokes that are repetetive and stupid to begin with.
Finally, the ending doesn't even makes sense. Even if they did destroy the aliens, they still have radiation in the atmosphere and all of their major cities have been wiped out. What will they do about the economy? Luckily, they don't have to worry about it because they'll all be dead from radiation sickness in a few days anyway.
SO, in closing, I agree with everyone else who has given this a bad review and I pity the one person who said that they've seen it twelve times. You poor, disturbed man. It is the worst movie ever created that I have seen (besides "Glen or Glenda", I also pity anyone who has actually seen that). Do not buy or rent this movie, unless you enjoying laughing and making fun of movies. Instead you could just go stab yourself with hot fire pokers or possibly light your hair on fire or something equally enjoyable, you'd have as much fun as if you saw this movie.
Rating:
Summary: What a load of junk
Review: Just put this film in context. The US president, and a drunk cropduster manage to master the intracacies of an F-18, to save the world from invading aliens.God Bless America
Rating:
Summary: One of the greatest action films of all-time!
Review: In 1996, a film called Independence Day exploded onto the world and caused a frenzy in the Box Office. The film is the second most successful sci-fi film of all-time after Star Wars in 1997. Independence Day grossed a staggering $811 million worldwide - the highest box office gross of a sci-fi film on its original release and made huge stars of Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum. Independence Day is without a doubt one of the greatest films of all-time. Yes, the script may be corny at times, but the special effects are absolutely mind-blowing! And that's waht makes a good action film, isn't it? People want to see the special effects and be entertained. Films like these aren't meant to have depth and meaning - they're purely there to entertain you and Independence Day definitely does that! The storyline to Independence Day is pretty basic really... An alien space ship one-fourth the mass of the moon is headed toward Earth, and no one is sure what will happen when it arrives. The president of the United States (Bill Pullman) can only watch as the ship settles into orbit and dispatches several "smaller" craft that take position above every major city in the world. While the president tries to prevent a panic, few people can stay calm at the sight of 15-mile-long space ships hovering over their cities. When Marine Captain Steven Hiller (Will Smith) is called to duty, he's sure the aliens didn't fly all this way just to pick a fight - but he tells his girlfriend to take her son and leave Los Angeles, just in case. Meanwhile, computer genius David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum) discovers that the aliens are using Earth's satellites for their own purpose. In fact, they are counting down. David rounds up his eccentric father (Judd Hirsch) and sets off to explain what's happening to his ex-wife (Margaret Colin). She's the president's communication director, and when David tells her what the aliens are up to, she convinces the president to listen. He quickly orders the cities evacuated and rushes to Air Force One. As the countdown reaches zero, the aliens show the people of Earth exactly what they are planning. They begin an all-out war with no negotiation, no compromise and no mercy. In fact, the human race may well have only one chance to save itself from complete extermination. They realise that all the space ships have an incredibly powerful protective barrier around them. When bombs are sent flying towards the ships, they just bounce off like a tennis ball. Levinson flies into space towards the mother ship with Steven Hiller to infiltrate the ship with a virus which in turn will remove the protective barrier from all the space ships hovering over the Earth's major cities. Independence Day really is the BIG and ultimate sci-fi film of the 1990's. Director by Ronald Emmerich does a brilliant job with giving the audience a fantastic, thrilling time. Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum are the main two and are excellent in their roles and the comedy factor of the film works rather well, unlike in some other films that are disasterous in trying to get the audience to laugh. The way the film is worked around is an ingenious idea - the fact that all this happens around the days on July 4th and that the world fights back in unison on Independence Day is brilliant. OVERALL GRADE: 10/10 Regardless of whether your a fan of sci-fi films with an overall Star Wars feel (I hate all the Star Wars films), you will enjoy this film because it's so gripping and suspenseful. They don't spend 30 minutes talking a load of jibberish like in some other films - they get straight into what the film is about. Which I suppose can be a good thing or a bad thing - but in this case it's definitely the former. The final battle where they finally gain access to destroying the space ships is absolutely incredible - the sheer size of these ships is indescribable and the way the ship is finally destroyed is huge - like the Titanic sinking (in the film) but 100 times more epic and monsterous! Buy Indepndence Day from Amazon today - trust me, you won't regret it!
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