Contact

Rating:
Summary: Engaging and surprisingly human in scale
Review: This is not your typical sci-fi movie. If you want spaceships blasting each other or evil aliens with mental powers, try Star Wars or Dark City. This is the culmination of a lifetime spent communicating the awesome potential of scientific discovery in layman's terms. I am, of course, speaking of Carl Sagan, the heart and soul of this movie.

Sagan's vision, so eloquently translated by Robert Zemeckis and brought to life by Jodie Foster and Matthew McConaughey, is a realistic exploration of mankind's reaction to first contact with extraterrestrial intelligence. Skepticism, hope, wonder, fear, distrust, and wide-eyed enthusiasm greet the "Message from Vega." Zemeckis stays true to Sagan and delivers a thoughtful character study, a surprisingly even-handed debate on religion and science, and a commentary on mankind's readiness for entry into the Galactic milieu.

One of the finest and most scientifically (circa 1990's) accurate sci-fi dramas of the past 10 years. (Except for the fact that we search thousands of frequencies at once, so humans don't actually listen to signals from space.) Foster's performance is worth the price of the movie.

Rating:
Summary: What a great book
Review: Contact is a great book that is completely satisfying in the end. I would not say that the plot is completely original but the themes are thought provoking.

Does intelligent life exist outside the earth? That is not a controversy in this book because the book is one, fiction and second, SETI is really just a setting for the greater theme of faith, expansion of the mind, etc. It would be like arguing the historical accuracy of "War and Peace" when the real theme is the growth and changing of the human character.

Sagan challenges the reader to think out of our own limited minds when dealing with expansive/infinite concepts like the universe or even God.

Rating:
Summary: A Brilliantly Crafted Movie
Review: I first read Carl Sagan's novel "Contact" as a teenager and was instantly hooked on the stories premise of intelligent beings sending us a coded message that held within it the blueprints to build a machine. It was a book I just couldn't put down and one that sticks in my mind as a truly great story. However I am always skeptical of films made from books, as they never capture the true essence of the story. This one did not disappoint though.

Jodie Foster plays Ellie Arroway, a radio astronomer, desperately seeking signs of extraterrestrial life in the universe. This sign eventually manifests itself in the form of the above-mentioned message. What follows is a thought provoking journey of love, betrayal and political intrigue as she fights for the machine to be built and for her place on the maiden voyage. Her performance is full of enthusiasm and heartfelt emotion.

The DVD is positively brimming with extras including insights on how certain special effects scenes where created as well as three (yes THREE! ) audio commentaries from Jodie Foster, the director Robert Zemeckis and the guys responsible for the special effects. Jodie's commentary is informative and she puts herself across as a very intelligent woman. As for picture and sound quality you cannot fault this DVD. The picture is crisp and flawless while the sound is an audio treat for the Home Cinema enthusiast. It will put your Dolby Digital amp to the test with plenty of use of surround sound, especially during the scenes within the machine. The opening scene with the camera pulling away from Earth will leave you in awe.

In a nutshell this DVD is worth every penny and one that I will return to again and again.

One to show your friends just how good DVD can be.

Steve.

Rating:
Summary: Contact DVD Review: A Truly Superb movie!
Review: This film was very important for me to watch. I don't know too much about Carl Sagan but I've listened to enough Art Bell that I am interested in SETI and the pursuit to find out the truth of life outside our universe.

This movie focuses on several topics such as extra-terrestrial life and also the battle between science and religion. I for one am a person who thinks scientifically but at the same time a God believing person and for others they can't compare the two, both are at opposite ends of the spectrum and this movie is really good at showing that.

Also, the involvement of the US government. Very interesting. Also, the movie uses a lot of major newscasters from CNN and President Bill Clinton. Also, very interesting.

This DVD is one of the best intelligent movies and the whole story including the special effects are wonderful. The video is nice and clear and the use of many colors in the film are brilliant. The sound on digital 5.1 is also very nice.

As for the DVD extras, I have to give Warner Bros. an applause for doing this movie justice by including three feature length commentaries by Jodie Foster, the director and producer Robert Zeickis and Steve Starkey and another group being Ken Ralston and Stephen Rosebaum. Also, it was nice to see the computer animation concepts and tests, special effects designs and more. I'm not sure if there were many deleted or cut scenes but I wish they included them but I can't expect much, they did a great job and by including three commentaries, that's really awesome!

I'm sure some people will love or hate this film due to the science vs. religion overtone but I know what my heart believes and I can only say that this DVD is highly recommended!

Rating:
Summary: Read this Book.....
Review: I saw the movie Contact, and I wanted to read the book. Boy, this is a great book! Much more detail and plot than the move (no kidding right!). Once you start reading this book, you will not want to stop until you are done. It is not an overly technical book, but one everyone can read and enjoy... you may even learn something about science and space!

Rating:
Summary: Ending still unsatisfying
Review: I'm glad I saw the film first.

I read the book to find details missing from the movie, and I was somewhat disappointed. The text lacked the excitement that I expected, and the writing was long-winded at times. Not enough hard SF details for me.

Rating:
Summary: Amazingly Well Done
Review: Another masterpiece by Jodie Foster. Foster can make the worst movie tolerable--e.g., Nell--or make a good movie into a great one--e.g., Silence of the Lambs.

Here, the movie starts out with a great plot and Foster does not disappoint. Foster plays a scientist obsessed by the search for extra-territorial intelligence, the SETI project, at a time when government cutbacks are shutting the project down. Foster portrays the scientist obsessed by her field but unable to make others understand how important her interest is very well. The scene in which Foster first hears an alien message is particularly powerful and the subsequent search to understand the alien message is very interesting. Although I am not a scientist, the task of decoding the message was easy to follow but, at the same time was somehow complex and even suspenseful. The scenes of contact are low key and, in many ways similar to the analogous scenes in 2001. I believe this was intentional given the other similarities of this movie to 2001. Most obviously, the search for extraterrestrial life in both movies results in a story more about the human condition than about our interaction with other life forms.

A note of further interest: there is a surprising, although understated, scene at the end which seems to explain everything but on further reflection, still leaves almost everything unresolved.

Finally, several reviewers have complained about the Matthew McConaughey character, the modern man of faith. McConaughey plays a man struggling to keep science within the bounds of morality, religious or otherwise. Jodie Foster's character and he clash since she is not only a scientist who believes in knowledge without moral limits and does not believe in G-d. Rather than take sides on this debate, the movie, instead, presents both sides fairly and then proposes that the two views can co-exist peacefully without either banishing G-d from our lives or putting irrational limits on science.

I applaud Hollywood for dealing with this issue, even superficially, since it is controversial and yields no easy solutions. The McConaughey character changes my review from a four star review (very good, but not special) to a five star review for a rare movie which is both entertaining and intelligent.

Rating:
Summary: Intriguing look at life
Review: I went into this movie thinking is was going to all be about space travel, when in fact its about how we as people are all very unique and special, and its time we realize this, and ignore all the petty problems we create for our selves. This is one of those movies that really makes you think, at least thats what i got out of it.

Aside from the excellent story, this movie has some very good special effects. There was one scene in particular where the machine ends up being destroyed. That was a great job, and in this dvd there is a featurette showing how that whole scene was composited. I was amazed at how much work and detail go into a scene like that. There are also many other addons on the dvd which explain other things.

Rating:
Summary: Thought provoking science theory, not just sci fi.
Review: The best science-fiction film of 1997 and one of the best of all time. Based on the book by the late Carl Sagan, this film examines the possibility of life on other planets and the means to make "contact" with them. There is however an even more profound question this film ponders. At the forefront of one of history's oldest battles are the two contenders of science and religion. The story begins with Eleanor Arroway (Jodie Foster in one of the greatest female roles I have ever seen on film) as a young girl. As an extraordinarily brilliant child, she shows the making of a scientist at an early age. The death of her mother and later her father (both at a very tender age) only push her to explore the limitless boundaries of the life/faith dilemma. As the film progresses, the intermingling of science and religion become more apparent. After Arroway receives what is believed to be a signal of life in outer space, she is determined to go into space (at risk of death) to explore the origin of the alien life. What follows before the flight is a plethora of red tape enough to frustrate God. The religious community, from liberal to fundamentalist, is determined to make its voice known to the world by apprehending Arroway and convincing her that it is a question of faith and not science that life exists. Enter cynic philosopher and Minister Palmer Joss (Matthew McConaughey). His close relations to Arroway and his visibility on the world stage create a fabulous breeding ground for conflict and make the audience think hard about the dual truths and ambiguities of both religion and science. In fact, the line between science and faith almost seems to disappear at times. In the end, we are left to our own conclusions about what is what, but not without feeling that science and religion have both been given a fair shake. If you are expecting laserbattles and intergalactic dictators on mega-spaceships, then Contact will certainly disappoint you. However, if you are expecting to dive deeply into the thought process and see a Sci-fi film, which is more on the philosophical side with, many questions left unanswered (like 2001: A Space Odyssey), then you are in for a great voyage into the unknown. The best thing about this film aside from the material it approaches is the handpicked cast. Aside from Foster, James Woods is remarkable as a starchy-shirt, bureaucrat who refuses to bend to what he cannot see, Angela Bassett is the open-minded and contemporary believer in the science community who is more willing to accept Foster's story than anybody else. John Hurt is the eccentric billionaire who is Foster's only real ticket to the spaceflight. On a less powerful note, McConaughey is unable to make his role interesting or even the least bit appealing. The only thing he can convince us of is that he cannot deliver such a powerful character as his is supposed to be.

Rating:
Summary: Hopeful and thought provoking
Review: I don't know what these one star raters are thinking. If nothing else this book and movie give you some very important things to think about. We are not alone be it an alien civilization or an omnipresent, omniscient God. I like to think that both exist together. There is also the hope that we may be reunited with our lost loved ones, be it in a tropical Pensacola paradise or the Paradise that Christ describes for us in the Bible. Either way it would be wonderful. I can't think of a better way to spend an evening or two reading this book or watching the movie. Thank you Carl for giving us this part of you.