Rating: 
Summary: A Good Science Fiction Read!
Review: In my mind there are two kinds of science fiction in the world ... one: Earth is under attack by aliens, space ships, secret government aircraft, save the president!, laser missiles, and a lame movie ... and two: the good kind. Guess what kind this is?Contact is mostly about the impacts of a message from intelligent life forms on the human race. Argus, a project set to scan the cosmos for communications from intelligent life forms finds a baffling sequence of zeros and ones, coming from somewhere around the star Vega. It is decrypted, and Earth is sent into a multi-trillion dollar investment, and a huge controversy. Religious leaders fight against scientists over the true meaning of the message. The characters entertain me, and I love their personalities. They are all very human ... no one is a super hero. It takes place from the point of view of Eleanor Arroway, director of the Argus project and genius. She goes through a transformation in the course of the book, her personality changing and her mind widening. Other characters include the intriguing Hadden, (and his spectacular ending), and a hilarious female president of the United States. This is not a modern book, (we're past the year 2000 and there are no space stations or alien communications in sight), but it is not dated. Set your mind back a few years before you read it. Contact, though the abrupt ending may disappoint some, is about the unification of the world. This is not lame alien attack science fiction ... the aliens actually open the eyes of scientists and bring about a new age for Earth. A common goal helps to bring about world peace. If you love science fiction, read this! Entertaining, intriguing, and a book that will hold you interest, Contact is what I recommend for the science fiction reader.
Rating: 
Summary: Against boredom, the gods themselves struggle in vain
Review: I too have seen the movie N many times and have even read the
book, and as a result, I too appreciate how much better the movie is than
the book, and here is why: Here is Why the Movie 'Contact' improves on Sagan's original book IMHO: 1. it is not clear why there is no explanation in the SETI message of what the
object of the trip is to be, i.e. why go? In the book the aliens evidently
cant resist showing us the equivalent of their hobby room, just like a nerdy
earthling, 'hey come on over and look at my widgets' (see pg 364 "that's
what we mainly do - engineering") But in the movie, there is zero technical
presentation from the alien contact, only a spiritual connection, so
evidently the purely technical nature of the original message was a trick or
lure to fool a techie-obsessed culture into being directly shown by an
'incredibly technologically advanced' civilisation that, 'hey, that's not
where it's at, loving one another is where it's at'. 2. Removing the technical content from the actual contact experience was a
stroke of genius and greatly increased the power of the movie, and gave it a
subtlety missing in Sagan's book. 3. Sagan's vision of the alien's interests are just extrapolations on his
own. He evidently would like to design galaxies.
Also, the aliens are not motivated by a quest for knowledge, but out
of boredom. (pg 364: "no new galaxies .. just the same old crowd.
Everything's getting run down. It'll be boring.") ("Against boredom, the gods themselves struggle in vain." - Nietzsche) In the movie, the aliens are evidently motivated out of love, there is
no hint that they are bored. "See, in all our searching, the only thing we've found that makes the
emptiness bearable, is each other."
-Dad-prime 4. Sagan tries to make the case that a scientist's experience of the
'numinous' in calculating pi to N-billion digits is on a par with the
religious experience of the numinous. He misses the point that one
person's calculation makes another's irrelevant and redundant, whereas
one person's religious experience of the numinous, does not make
another's redundant. This the message of Ellie after the return:
'I wish everyone could have this experience'. She is cast in the
classic position of every earth mystic in history, rendered incapable
of conveying the numinosity but yearning for everyone to participate.
Yet both the book and movie fail in making the leap to the religious
experience of the numinous as being valuable precisely because it is
available to all and not dependent on a BIG EXPENSIVE MACHINE. All this is not to denigrate Sagan's book which I enjoyed. And I think he
might agree the movie improved on his original concept in ways he hadnt
thought of, and I am sure he would have delighted in the unforeseen
improvements, like a real scientist. Rest In Bliss, Carl, we love ya :) ------------------------
"They said that's the way it's been done for billions of years."
-Ellie
Rating:
Summary: Personally, my favorite sci-fi film.
Review: A message from outer space is received by a radio astronomer (Jodie Foster). Once deciphered, it reveals the blueprints of how to build a mechanism that can transport one person. The question now is who will go on this journey and where will this transport take them? With unyielding confidence and intelligence, Contact takes an intriguing premise and develops it to near perfection, mixing equal parts character drama, suspense, romance, adventure, along with excellent special effects into a deft blend. This is thought-provoking material delivered with a sure hand from Spielberg protege, Robert Zemeckis, who's become every bit as fine a director as his teacher was. Great performances from Jodie Foster, William Fichtner, and David Morse (the latter two of which are the best character actors working today).
Rating: 
Summary: A collect call from outer space...
Review: CONTACT tackles the question of life beyond the stars. A question asked by most thinking beings on the planet. The story capitalizes on that interest but unfortunately pulls the rug out from underneath. The story concepts are at times rewarding, but the film is brought down by a ridiculous romance and a first alien contact payoff that leaves you feeling ripped off. Jodie Foster is Ellie Arroway, a scientist with an ear for aliens spends most of her life looking for financial support for her search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Most doors are slammed until aliens return the call. Then the film becomes a "Right Stuff" quest for the individual to take the journey to meet the aliens. The film culminates in the actual eye-rolling contact. Occasionally, Ellie is joined by her love interest, an uninteresting preacher portrayed by Matthew McConaughey. Not only is the romance trite and convenient, it also rings untrue. Director Robert Zemeckis does some creative filmmaking here, but often the scenes are overdrawn. The opening journey through space is a wildly stimulating start to the film. Also stimulating is the creation of an alien 'machine'. It is an effects marvel. Capitalizing on an element he used in Forrest Gump, Zemeckis uses political celebrity appearances to ground the film into reality. Jay Leno, Robert Novak and Leon Harris are amongst the appearances. Even former President Clinton appears giving a speech that was non-specific enough when he first said it that Zemeckis could use it to address aliens in the film. These are some of the best moments in the overlong film, a sad statement in a special effects film about alien contact. Subplots could have been shortened or removed. The CONTACT DVD is pretty loaded with several commentaries. The Video and Audio transfer are stellar and can definitely test your sound system. Like the movie or not, the stars will still beckon us so more films will explore the void. CONTACT skims the topic.
Rating: 
Summary: Six Degrees of Separation ... From A Good Nap
Review: Jodie Foster is truly a wonderfully gifted actress, and any reasonable thinking person can understand her desire to attach herself to high quality films. CONTACT is extraordinarily well-made; it's contemporary, with a message for our times; and it delivers a highly personal message against the backdrop of learning we're not alone in the universe. It also happens to be boring as hell. Based on a book that was too cerebral for its own good, CONTACT shows you that a journey to the stars in completely unnecessary ... as you'll only find the aliens taking the form of your dead father. You already know what he looks like and what he'd like to say, so what's the point?
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: I'm a believer in extra-terrestrial life for the exact reason this film's characters believe in them: if we were alone, it would be a pretty large chunk of wasted space. ALIENS EXIST! this film does a masterful job at how people would react to this message received back. and there is a powerful message about faith and science being able to work together, though that message may seem a bit heavy-handed. On a side note, i doubt we'd ever come into contact with aliens, and not for the lack of trying, but just because the distance is far too great. i would love it if we were to contact other beings, but it wont happen just yet.
Rating: 
Summary: Abysmal, ridiculous, shallow, and overacted
Review: With plot holes big enough to drive a truck through this clunker is tough to get through without cursing Hollywood over and over.
This movie is so transparent it is sickening: A small group of scientists working against the inept and corrupt world, discover a
signal from space, Vega, no less!
Every single character in this farce is a glaring stereotype:
1. Dedicated, driven, misunderstood, lone scientist.
2. Corrupt and self-serving leaders.
3. Keep-it-secret government officials.
4. The Public, which are either loony UFO nuts, or right wing bible thumpers.
5. ET's who are advanced enough to build time travel devices but can only detect us by monitoring TV broadcasts.
6. ET's who think we are so fragile that not only can't they show themselves but they must also limit contact to a few minutes
(no doubt due to some obscure Hollywood law).
7. Lover who backstabs at a crucial moment.
8. All breakthroughs come only after a protracted and emotional personal confrontation. The opening scene is the only worthwhile part of the entire movie.
Jodie severely overacts this one to the point of discomfort. Most of the time her face is so scrunched up it looks like she is going
to burst a blood vessel. The script is unoriginal (whole scenes are pilfered, then butchered, from 2001: A Space odessy and
X-files), the science is schlocky and juvenile, and the ending is typical TV fare. To those individuals who think this is how the real Contact will happen you are in for a rude awakening.
It has already happened and it wasn't touchy-feely.
Go see "Fire In The Sky" or read the "Andreasson" sagas
Rating:
Summary: A Fascinating Trip
Review: This movie was so much more than I expected, from the awesome opening that starts on earth and pulls back until you are far beyond all known galaxies, to the flashbacks of Ellie (Jodie Foster) as a little girl, to the climatic trip to another planet where the "alien" she meets is not at all what you're expecting.
Everything about this film was awesome with one major flaw, the ending. Although Ellie was gone for a long time, no time passed on earth, so no one believes here. However, there is the fact that her camcorder recorded an hour of static, which is impossilbe if no time elapsed. But James Woods still won't publicly admit that she went to another planet and the movie ends. But the machine is still there, and still very much intact, why don't they just send him so he can see for himself?
This flaw is never explained - never is it said that the machine can only be used once. Other than that, it is a magnificent film, the best part is when they make the first contact, it is handled in a Very realistic way, not with ships the size of Arizona firing on earth, but with a simple mathatmatical message beamed to earth in tones, which the scientists must then decifer, very thought provoking. I highly recommend this film.
Rating:
Summary: The Harmony of Science and Faith
Review: "Contact" came to my attention after watching the film, which I dearly love. As books are usually better than films I was elated to finally settle in and begin the journey. I will say that the book and movie are dramatically different in many respects and I love both for different reasons, but this novel surpasses the film in a great many of those respects.
Just short of the new Millennium (1999), the Earth receives its first message from intelligent life in outer space. Ellie Arroway is the romantic, ambitious scientist at the center of Sagan's tale and her personal struggles and beliefs, as well as those of her colleagues, magnify the sentiments of the world around them. They are faced with meeting a new alien intelligence, new tests of faith, many of which they would've never expected within the realms of science, and they must come to terms with their new knowledge in order to make sense of an ever-changing world.
How would a society react to such a realization of life beyond our planet, how would it affect the everyday lives of those involved, and how would it change the way science and religion function? All of these questions are addressed in Sagan's staggering, uplifting, poignant piece of fiction.
Steeped in technical and scientific terms, the book is challenging, but incredibly fulfilling. I came away from the last page with a deep sense of satisfaction, awe, and a great regard for Sagan's method of bringing science to the masses. This book really makes you evaluate the harmony of science and faith and points out that the two, indeed, can work together.
Rating:
Summary: 3-2-1 Contact
Review: Although "Contact" may not muster enough vision to keep company with the mother of all Sci-fi films, "2001", it possesses something the latter sorely lacked: a character to lend the film its emotional center. The closest "2001" ever came to a likable, emotive character was HAL -- the monotone supercomputer that could read lips and offed all but one of the astronauts from its ship. Of course, this was also Kubrick's intent -- his ironic jab that perfectly articulated his nihilistic and irredeemable philosophy on man's nature. Though in a sense it's not fair to compare the two films, I invite the comparison nonetheless to highlight the curious yin and yang relationship the two films bear. One is the darker, lonelier and colder view of man's future; while the other posits the more optimistic philosophy that man makes up the smaller part of a larger - and friendlier - intergalactic community. While Kubrick's version is more compelling, not to mention far creepier, Zemeckis' "Contact" is pure comfort food, thoroughly entertaining and benign. Jodie Foster as always, delivers a believable performance. As Ellie Arroway, the scientist who heads an independently funded program to find signs of life in outer space, Foster finds and delivers the heart of a girl orphaned at a young age.
While the DVD comes with the stock extra features, there's nothing particularly noteworthy or original, not to mention anything revealing in Foster's or Zemeckis' voiced-over comments. But for what it's worth, Contact is still a great movie about not having to feel you're alone. And a sci-fi film that can achieve such, is worth occupying a space in my DVD library.
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