Contact

Rating:
Summary: Top notch, thoughtful sci-fi
Review: This movie tells an intelligent story about a possible type of first contact between humanity and an extra-terrestrial civilization. While that is part of the reason that I gave this movie 5 stars, I was even more impressed by the director's ability to catch a glimpse of what can be the dog-eat-dog world of scientific funding, credit and credibility.

Jodi Foster plays a brilliant, budding young scientist who wants to pursue SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) work. Her former mentor (Tom Skerritt), now head of the National Science Foundation (the government's primary funding agency for science), sees that work as professional suicide. He then does what he can to pull the rug out from under her and her work. In the meantime, Foster meets McConaughey, a handsome ex-priest who seeks truth not via science, but through spirituality.

When Foster recognizes that contact is taking place and she makes that information public, Skerritt swoops in and attempts to take control of the project.

I am extremely impressed by this movie's ability to tell a great story of a possibility, presenting the premis of non-confrontational contact. This is no shoot-em up movie. It does, however, have a healthy dose of special effects, but those effects are not the heart of the show.

There are interesting plot developments, instructive insights into the lengths that some scientists may go to gain recognition among their professional peers, and the conflict that some scientists face when they realize that there are more ways to learn about who we are and why we are than via science.

I encourage you to give this movie a look. The combination of story, acting, special effects, and implications of the story make for a great movie!

5 stars all the way.

Alan Holyoak

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: 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: the sum is greater than the parts
Review: I really disliked this movie the first time i saw it. My biggest dislike was for Matthew McConaughey charachter which I thought was way overdone. After viewing it again i still have problems with McConaugheys simpistic and intrusive portrayal of a "modern man of faith" but focused more on his messages which represent genuine skepticism but eventual reconciliation between science and religion. Jodie Foster is awesome as usual - its terrific seeing her in a Sci-Fi movie and I hope she does more of this in the future. The DVD Video and Sound is very good and adds a lot to the ambience and impact of the film.

Rating:
Summary: Now that's entertainment !
Review: You know, it could have been worse. What if instead of being some benevolent, intergalactic boyscout race of beings way over there on Vega, they had been Annoying Saucer People or The Slime That Wouldn't Leave... What if they'd cosmically e-mailed the plans for a one-way 'star gate' through which, after we'd built it then threw the switch, millions of the (insectoid?) (globulous?)(fill in the blank)little bastards marched out and took over the world? I think it would have kept Industrial Light & Magic computer animators busy for months...oh well. The ending we got was better anyway, it actually made you think about faith.

Rating:
Summary: Contact
Review: I read the book before seeing the film, always a mistake, as the one genre is not like the other. There are many constraints, primarily budgetary and temporal, to making a film from a book. By reading it after seeing the film one is not disappointed by the lacunae left from editing out "extraneous" material in the interest of brevity, and the written version allows the reader to enlarge on relationships and side plots. This instance was no exception. Although I enjoyed the characters, and certainly the actors chosen for the parts were perfect for them, I felt they were a little "flatter" than in the book despite being real people. I also preferred the resolution of the father-daughter situation in the book to that in the film. The best feature of the film was the opportunity to actually see some of the technology and locations of astronomical research.

Rating:
Summary: Contact is a kind goodbye for Carl Sagan
Review: I continually find myself watching this dvd over and over... certainly Sagan's tale is a good yarn with excellent movement of the plot.... and Foster again acts with wonderful depth... and the effects integrate well... but most of all it leaves us asking questions about ourselves, who we are, how we define ourselves, we take askance at our failings and our shortcomings... the movie will move you while engaging your thoughts well after it is done.