Rating: 
Summary: good the first time, but dvd doesn't help it
Review: This is a movie that is fun and funny the first time you see it. But after that, it is just plain stupid. I thought dvd would help the film, but sorry to say it does not. If you have already seen this film, then forget about it. It is not worth buying.
Rating: 
Summary: Stuff blows up real good.
Review: I'm gonna have to admit that I enjoyed this film when I saw it on the big screen. I paid the matinee ticket price, so that redeems me somewhat... but there's some nice energy here, great special effects, and I'm always glad when female strippers make an appearance (in a PG-13 movie, no less!).First, I'd have to give a thumbs down to the restored footage in the Special Edition cut of the movie. There is no stuff blowing up in the restored footage (which explains why it was probably cut to begin with), and they certainly weren't doing anyone a favor by subjecting us to more horrible acting. Personally, I enjoyed the creature design and most of the action. The ending does leave a lot to be desired. Okay, yes, a computer virus is a good idea, but it'd probably take years to learn and develop programs for an alien computer network... as opposed to the mere seconds that are devoted to it in the movie. I expected to hear some wry comment from Pullman, Goldblum, and/or Will Smith about how easily they were able to infect the alien systems with the virus, but they instead just kept blowing stuff up. So, the movie is a bit silly albeit exciting, and I'd much rather see Special Editions of more important films. As far as audio and video transfers go, I didn't encounter any problems with the discs unlike some other viewers. You can't go wrong; This set should look "real perty" next to your Criterion Edition of Armageddon.
Rating:
Summary: Fun but Dumb as a Box of Hammers
Review: First off, to the reviewer who described ID4 as a "story about pilots who plan to save the world from an alien cruiser who destroy three major cities then Pilots Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum kick butt"...um, have you ever actually seen this movie?Just curious. ID4. Its big and loud and fun, but also cliched and unforgivably dumb at times. A huge factory built corporate-sponsored Blockbuster. A giant cheese-filled Gordita(tm) of a movie. It aims to please, and sometimes does quite well. It also is filled with seen-it-before moments(Literally! It just plain steals them from other movies) and a shallow mix of drama and comedy. There is also this attitude of "Hey! Major cities have been vaporized! Let's crack bad jokes about it!" Some emotions might have been nice. The DVD has many cool extras, especially the Easter Eggs of the raw footage of the news broadcasts. Its a bit hard to imagine watching this movie anytime soon, given recent events, but, let's face it, when we first saw the preview with the exploding White House, we all went "Kewl!" Fun movie. Wish it were deeper and less of a slick, cute blender full of other movie moments.
Rating: 
Summary: "One good movie"!!!
Review: This movie is one of my favorites. I loved the special effects and how everything was getting blowed up. I also loved Will Smith's character because he brought humor to the story.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Will Smith Movie!
Review: Story about pilots who plan to save the world from an alien cruiser who destroy three major cities then Pilots Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum kick butt. An Awesome Movie, Video[with a 3-D Card] and the best DVD with a day of features including a special edition with 9 minutes of new footage, Documentaries, Stills, Trailers and TV Spots. This Movie Rules.
Rating:
Summary: Fun movie, HORRID transfer
Review: This is easily one of the worst transfers to DVD I have ever seen. Good sound, generally good picture, but the film 'artifacts' (that is, the picture becomes jumbled, broken up, and stops completely) during high-action sequences, like the massive dogfight against the evil invading aliens. While this is not a problem with newer players, owners of older machines will find this film almost unwatchable. Do yourself a favor, and buy the widescreen VHS instead.
Rating: 
Summary: Awesome Movie!
Review: This was a very entertaining movie. Earth is invaded by evil alien forces. Nothing the earthlings try can stop the invading aliens. You have an outstanding hero model with Will Smith. This role made me a Will Smith fan. There are action sequences that are too numerous to count. The scenery thar displys the destruction that is brought by the aliens is unbelivieable. The special effects that are used in this movie are also great.There
is also a good rescue of planet earth by Will Smith. You must see this movie. It is well worth your viewing time. This movie will be a collectors item. Buy it.
Rating: 
Summary: ID4=WHAT WERE WE THINKING?
Review: It's truly amazing to look at this "film" now and marvel that it's one of the top grossing motion pictures of all time. Basically, it's a marvel of marketing. Emmerich and Devlin have "borrowed" ideas from really great films and clumsily placed them in their movie. They even swipe the ending of their previous effort, STARGATE (which appeared prior to that in ALIENS and the obscure MOONTRAP). And when they're not lifting other filmmakers' ideas, they're putting in some of the most illogical concepts seen (ie, an alien computer can instantly download a program from an Apple).
Rating:
Summary: Does this story sound familiar?
Review: This movie was "OK" (it came out during the Clinton Presidency, so when they blew up the White House there was quite a bit of cheering in the theater - you do have to appreciate that), but the story isn't original. I personally like the 50s Sci Fi movies myself, and the War of the Worlds was a much more interesting movie than this expensive remake. (Let's go to the original book by H. G. Wells to see how old this story really is). War of the Worlds was certainly was a more suspenseful movie. Can't Hollywood come up with anything original anymore? The special effects in this were good, no doubt about that, but they weren't really believable (name one person that you know that can outrun an explosion in a tunnel). That's Hollywood for you. For excitement and effects, this is a movie that is worth watching. If it's a good story with suspense and a little bit of intelligence that you want to see, than the original War of the Worlds is a much better choice. I think that Gene Barry is a much better actor than Will Smith is and his character was more interesting than the Will Smith character we have in this version of the film. Gene Barry was scared and unsure of the outcome of the invasion in the original (lets face it, he lost all hope but fought to the end and never gave up and understood that the defeat was due to a higher power than man and science) and Will Smith's character was cocky and sure that we could win in Independence Day. Unlike War of the Worlds, there was no doubt how this story would end in this version. It would be nice for Hollywood to have an ounce of creativity and originality in making movies these days, but they won't do that. Hollywood even had to resort to a computer "virus" to defeat the alien invasion in this version rather than a cold virus from the original. Couldn't they come up with another way for the human race to prevail? They rely on special effects to sell tickets. The amount they spend on one explosion could certainly pay for a writer with talent and ability. All in all, I would rather watch something else. All of the remakes of the 50's Sci Fi movies...
Rating:
Summary: All effects - Cheesy plot and dialogue
Review: Ah, this is one of the greatly overhyped movies from a few years ago. I tried desperately to like this movie when I went to see it, but I just couldn't. This movie completely overexaggerates Hollywood's current trend of trying to make all movies that have stupid one-liners to appeal to people of lesser intelligence. Randy Quaid, while humorous in the National Lampoon movies (where he belongs actually), who is annoying at best in this movie, illustrates this point perfectly. That last line of his in the movie "I'm baaaccck" made me practically choke it was so cliche. And let's not forget Bill Pullman's performance as the president of the United States, rallying the people together to fight the aliens. I don't think they could have scripted any more bad/cheesy lines for him to say. That final speech that he gives near the end of the movie is pathetic. Most movies these days are unrealistic. I accept that. But don't try to convince me that a bunch of hicks who fly crop dusters for a living can be taught (in a few hours mind you) how to fly a jet aircraft. Please. Here again you can see Hollywood playing down to the masses and taking everyone's intelligence for granted. And usually I don't get terribly irritated when Hollywood totally bungles the computer-type stuff (can anyone say Hackers?), but this one was pretty bad. The little computer virus with the laughing skull on the alien's computer console was a little too much for me. Lets not forget to mention that the whole movie seemed like one big commercial for apple computers too. What this movie lacks in plot and character development trys to make up with action and special effects. This, however, did not redeem the movie in my mind whatsoever. I give this movie 1 star at best, and maybe even 0 if I could for being one of the worst movies I have ever seen.
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