Rating: 
Summary: What a let down
Review: I first saw this at the cinema, as a long time sci fi buff I'd seen the trailers and was expecting another Star Wars. I didn't get it and I think that may be the main problem. As a film it's OK A little heavy handed in parts ( The cute dog should have been crisped ). And the speeches, my god who wrote them, didn't the proof reader point out they were toe curlingly cheesy ? But OK wasn't enough after the build up. I can now watch ID on it's own merits and quite enjoy it, but the huge disappointment of that first viewing has lasted a long time.
Rating: 
Summary: WAR of the WORLDS: 4 July,Anno Domini
Review: INDEPENDENCE DAY was,perhaps. the most hyped movie in pop history. Simultaneous release in multiplex cinemas across USA was marketing triumph as awesome as ID4's ALIEN baddies satellite- computer coordinated strike against major capital cities of Mankind. Most viewers thoroughly enjoyed seeing CIVILIZATION shaken to its foundations by rad-bad attitude ET's. Days later(after $tats came in)"Guilty Pleasure factor" was invoked by pseudo-literati claiming the film invoked too many 50's B/Sci-fi cliches and virtually ripped-off GEORGE PAL'S & H.G.Well's WAR of the WORLDS classic: AMEN...ID4--for genre admirers--has recovered just renown as spectacle ultra non plus; plus pride-of place among disaster epics. The cast is fine. Especially Jeff Goldblum,whose wry un-Mad scientist persona is particularly winning. SFX(model work; mattes & CGI)are excellent; and would have passed muster with Master Harry Rayhausen. As Brent Spinner...genuine fruit cake nutty,guardian scientist of legendary AREA 51...ecstatically proclaims: "This (movie)Is Exciting!"It is. Perhaps Director-Producer Emmerich and buddies got what they deserved in magnificently bogus GODZILLA.INDEPENDENCE DAY, however,is classy .And it's a Family Film to be unapologetically enjoyed. STAR WARS it isn't(neither is most of STAR WARS).If you've seen ID4 and liked it additional viewings won't disappoint. If you missed this WAR of the WORLDs reprise,check it out: only the ALIENS didn't like it.
Rating: 
Summary: Lots of SciFi myths rolled together for a FUN movie.
Review: Hey. How can anyone give this 1 star? This movie is so much fun you have to count the smiles whiles its on. Sometimes the smile is because they just said something stupid, like alien abduction or Rosewell. Sure this has more amazing coincidences than a James Bond movie. There is no nudity and I recall only one foul expletive. I thought Jeff Goldbloom was great in this movie and if there was any doubt about Wil Smiths shotting star, this movie ended that.
Rating:
Summary: Gives new meaning to July 4th!
Review: It's July 2, and the world as we know it is about to change. It seems that the question of "are we alone in the universe" has been answered, and in a big way. And unfortunately, for us, they do not come bearing gifts. At least, not the peaceful kind. This successfulness of this movie comes not from the movie itself, but from the marketing that was behind it. When it opened, it played once a hour for 24 hours straight in movie theaters across the country. No movie before this had ever attempted anything like it, making it the most talked about movie long before it ever opened. Needless to say, millions of people went to go see it. And although many people have since panned this movie, it is still considered a big success. There is no question that "Independence Day" is one of the cheesiest movies ever made. Yes, there are plot holes big enough to drive a Mack truck through. However, if you are analyzing the plot like this you are missing the big picture. If you are going to watch the movie, watch it for the comedy (it is very funny), the action (some very good flight fight scenes), and the special effects (one of the best when it came out). Whether the writers, producers, and director intended it to be or not, this is a mindless, entertaining movie that fun to watch. Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum are a blast to watch. They make the most of ham-handed script that should otherwise be put out of its misery. Yes, I have given it five-stars even though technically it deserves less because of the script and plot issues. But I have to give it a full rating because everytime I watch it, I get lost in the fun of this movie. Rent this movie first before you buy it to see how you will like it. And remember, just ignore the believability and plot issues. They aren't important. Just sit back and let this movie take you in with the action and special effects. You will be glad you did.
Rating: 
Summary: Spectacularly Stupid
Review: Rarely has so much money been wasted on a movie production. That is, if your yardstick for money well spent is the quality of the final product. But if you measure by return-on-investment, well, that's another matter. And by all accounts, Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich raked in big bucks with this film, and continue to do so with the video release. Really, I wonder why so many are taken in by this piece of garbage. Okay, I've set the tone: I'm not mincing words. What this box office blockbuster gives us is a silly, shabbily-told story, moronic dialogue, annoying, unfunny jokes that keep repeating, characters with about as much depth as cardboard cutouts, and the worst acting this side of Ed Wood-- all dressed up in spectacular special effects. Oh sure, it's all in the spirit of retro sci-fi fun, but I contend that a 1996 movie should be judged by 1996 standards. And when you see so many glaring lapses in basic storytelling in a big-budget Hollywood production, you really can't be very forgiving. An Air Force fighter plane outraces an alien spacecraft thousands of years more advanced. The First Lady survives her helicpoter being blown to bits, and emerges with just a few scratches and bruises. The girlfriend of one of the heroes just happens to find said First Lady in the wreckage of the destroyed city. Later, said hero, an Air Force pilot, also conveniently locates said girlfriend mere moments after landing his chopper in the city. In the first place, what was the point of the First Lady surviving, only to succumb to internal injuries later? So she could deliver her stupid line, "Liar" one more time when her husband tells her she'll be fine? Wait, there's more. A bunch of civilians with limited flying experience -- including a drunken old cropduster, complete with bottle in hand -- undergo a quickie training course in how to fly fighter planes, and then go off to fight the aliens in their spacecraft. And guess who emerges the biggest hero? You got it, the old drunk. Meanwhile, earlier-mentioned Air Force pilot has somehow managed to learn how to fly an alien craft. ("Excuse me, sir, I've seen these things in action, I know their maneuvering capabilities." Yeah, right, so it's that simple.) Later, he outmaneuvers the far-advanced and presumably far-more-skilled alien pilots flying their own spacecrafts. And he does this in the mothership, which should be unfamiliar to him and familiar to them. This is one of the highest-grossing films of all time? Cripes, no wonder scientists are looking for intelligent life on other planets. There's obviously not enough of that here.
Rating:
Summary: Superficial Fun
Review: During the summer of 1996, a movie came to the silver screen which was the pinnacle of a long line of bad scifi movies and pointless blockbusters--Independence Day. Let's face it, folks. This movie is cliched and corny at times but, hey, it's cool! A lot of people didn't enjoy this movie, and my only explanation for that is simply that they don't understand that this is intended to be nothing more than the superficial 2 hours of entertainment that it is. It isn't Star Wars, and it wasn't intended to be. As long as you understand that and can appreciate stupid, fun, action-packed movies, then you will like this movie. The 5-star DVD release is excellent (they ought to release classics with special editions like this), but the single-disc editions are not. If you are going to buy ID4, be sure that you are buying the 5-star edition. This movie gets 3 1/2 stars, and an extra half star because of the excellend DVD treatment. Bring out the popcorn!
Rating:
Summary: Let this DVD land in your player & let it take over!
Review: Evil aliens invade our planet & destroy every major city so they claim our planet as their own. Nothing seems to stop them! Can they be stopped? Watch & find out! SUPER-DUPER SFX! Highly recommended!
Rating:
Summary: One Of The Greatest Science Fiction Films Of All Time!
Review: Oh, if only I had been able to see this on the big screen. What an experience that would be! INDEPENDENCE DAY is one of the best movies I've ever seen; I can't think of one single flaw in the film. Casting is perfect, music is spectacular, and special effects . . . . . . . they simply define the term "special effect"! No matter how many times I see this movie, they're still just as mind-boggling. It's no wonder they won an Oscar for them. INDEPENDENCE DAY is nothing short of a miracle. It takes a plot that had essentially been told countless times throughout the past fifty years, upgrades it with all that has been previously mentioned (along with nerve-wracking suspense and simple, wholesome humor), and turns it into a modern masterpiece of epic proportions. In my opinion, it should've won Best Picture of 1996! The two-disc Five Star Collection DVD is one of the best ever made. The making-of documentaries are insightful and very interesting, the "mocumentary" is pretty entertaining, and the menus are just plain awesome! But the best part of this DVD is the movie itself, as it includes nine minutes of footage not seen in theaters. Every single new scene/addition brings more depth, characterization, and humor to the story. The picture and sound quality is nothing short of flawless. It's a real shame this DVD is out of stock on this website. GET AHOLD OF IT BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY!
Rating:
Summary: A Great Fireworks Display of a SF movie!
Review: Independence Day Offers Fireworks and Thrills
One of the best science fiction films made in recent years, Roland Emmerich's Independence Day highlights a clever script, an A-list cast (which includes Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum, Judd Hirsch, Margaret Colin, and Robert Loggia, just to name a few of the actors) and eye-popping special effects. This film is essentially a 1950s "flying saucers attack Earth" movie - indeed, it is almost a remake of George Pal's War of the Worlds, which some of us baby boomers may recall seeing either as a "Creature Features" offering on independent television stations in the 1970s or as a Late Show feature when networks like ABC and CBS carried feature films in those pre-"Nightline," pre-David Letterman days....uh, nights. The plot is essentially the same as most "alien invasion" movies of those Red-scare 1950s: flying saucers appear literally out of the blue, we try to make contact, they invade, we resist. Chaos ensues, there are big battles with the Bug Eyed Monsters (BEMs), cities are destroyed, and the war goes the BEMs' way until some scientist or brave military hero comes up with either a wonder weapon or last-minute desperation tactic and saves the day. (And often in these movies the male lead ended up smooching with the female lead....) And it is exactly this back-to-the-future "retro" feel that is the heart of Independence Day's appeal. It takes all these clichés and makes them work in such a way that audiences familiar with "invaders from space" can recognize the tongue-in-cheek tone of Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich's screenplay and smile, and there are lots of visual and dialogue tips of the hats to films such as Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and other science fiction series. Still, the strongest influence is War of the Worlds, not only thematically but structurally as well. For instance, in both the original 1890s novel and the modernized George Pal version of War of the Worlds, a trio of emissaries waving a white flag approach the Martians' landing cylinder, only to be vaporized by the invaders' heat ray. In Independence Day there is a similar scene, when a trio of especially fitted helicopters attempts to communicate with the aliens' ship over Washington. The aliens respond to this Close Encounters-style light show with a violent show of force. In another echo of Pal's 1950s movie, President Thomas J. Whitmore (Bill Pullman) reluctantly orders a B-2 Spirit to attack one of the alien vessels with nuclear weapons. Not only does the attack fail miserably as in War of the Worlds, but the B-2A itself is based on the Northrop "flying wing" which appeared in the older film (making use of stock film of test flight footage, since the flying wing was never in U.S. Air Force service). Even the ending is derived from H.G. Wells' novel, though the twist that Devlin and Emmerich used was not only clever but very 1990s. Instead of being infected by Earth germs as the Martians were in War of the Worlds, in this film the creepy BEMs are done in by....a computer virus created by David Levinson (Goldblum). (And if you have not seen the sequence when Levinson and Marine pilot Steven Hiller [Smith] plant the virus aboard the alien ship, keep your eyes open for a reference to another classic science fiction film!) Independence Day comes in two versions of the DVD: a barebones one-disc edition which has both the theatrical and Special Editions of the movie, commentary by Emmerich and Devlin, commentary by the visual effects supervisors, plus the usual language and subtitles options. 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment also released a pricier 2-disc Five Star Collection edition which has this disc plus another extra features disc. I have the one-disc edition, and though I miss the theatrical trailers and other goodies, I am satisfied with the DVD I own.
Rating:
Summary: Puts the "E" in Escapism
Review: In scanning the reviews for this product it appears many of the reviewers took the film more seriously than director Roland Emmerich, his cast, and crew. INDEPENDENCE DAY isn't meant to be believed--only enjoyed. It's pure escapism, a vehicle to take us away (if only temporarily) from the trials and tribulations of our busy lives. This is a science fiction Disneyland, complete with laughs, thrills, drama, intrigue, and heartpounding action. If memory serves me correctly, this was Will Smith's first major role on the big screen. Not only is he very funny, he projects a commanding presence that subsequently launched his cinematic career. Jeff Goldblum is wonderful as nervous computer guru David Levinson, and his chemistry and timing with Smith is fun to watch. Bill Pullman as President Thomas J. Whitmore stays stoic and reserved, even when crawling into a fighter jet himself to lead one last attack against the evil aliens. But Judd Hirsch and Randy Quaid steal the show: Hirsch as Goldblum's eccentric, over-supportive father; Quaid as a grisly alcoholic cropduster, a former alien "captive" who is given the best line and scene in the entire film. Sure, some of this movie is annoying (Mary McDonnell as First Lady Marilyn Whitmore giggling the line, "Liar," over and over), but when it comes to a white-knuckled sci-fi ride about humanity taking on an alien culture threatening our very existence, INDEPENDENCE DAY delivers. And, if you don't take it too seriously, you might even have a smile on your face. So pull up a chair, relax. . .escape.
--D. Mikels
|
