Contact

Rating:
Summary: revision, not concision
Review: The omission of the central thematic development's climax in the novel, from the motion picture, especially in light of the directors flip overtures to media clip make-overs of Pres. Clinton, and in light of the widespread graphics awareness of the public from the computer generated Mandelbrot Sets to extraterrestrial suggestive Crop Circle and Pictograms viewed on televisions and the internet the world over is nothing other than the most bald faced and inconceivably maladroit screw-up literary portrayal has ever evidenced in film making.

You know, I can not believe how many people have chimed in on this movie! Get out-a-here! What's the deal, we collectively feel that this was the one cinematic experience that would quantify all our extraterrestrial hopes and desires, bring on the enlightenment, persevere the salvation and reification, merge technological incubus with spiritual soundness...etc...etc?

Sing a poor song, and someone who speaks a different language than you will think you're a stereotyped religious bigot, then write a review flagging your title by immitation, then rage against their own construction of whom you are. This movie reviewing cyber environ is all about the eternal battle for accurate emotional and contextual translation. It would be an interesting statistic to know how many international designations relative to the US review movies here. We who seldom travel know so little of the world. Perhaps, it would seem, beyond us, it is a construction, a facade--like the US was in a bubble of Vonnegut dimensions, the Tralfalmadore equivelent of a supra-miserable shell of perception for miserable creatures, ("Slaughterhouse 5", Kurt Vonnegut.)

Anyway...I'm partial to filburts, I, like nuts, am permiable and afford a certain neo-brashness akin to merging words and finding out what's in them. The tragedy of cinematographic revealation is that it so poorly renders the complexity of decoded language from the author's heart and mind. Movies are far removed extractions and substitutes from the authors intentions or frame of mind...you will fare better by reading the book, if you want any kind of porthole into the psyche of the originator of an authored work, and perhaps a better road map to where they were always nudging you. Books think, movies are infomercial distillations impoverished of brain food and lingering intellectual problematics that drive the mind. Movies are fluff, pretty fluff, exciting fluff, but they are as popcorn to the nutritional value of the intellect as the popcorn you eat while watching them.

And, Chicago...Math is Language...When will we learn?

Rating:
Summary: High expectations leads to big dissapointment!
Review: Before I saw this movie I was excited about the concept. I expected a really good movie from a pretty good cast and director. What I got was another dose of Hollow-wood crap! This movie had such promise and fell way short. The love-story subplot was totally unnecessary and really detracted from the overall story and the ending . . . Well let's just sum it up in one word . . . anticlimactic. The movie tries to build up to big finish and what do we get? These aliens send us this extremely complex cryptic message that tell us how to build a device to travel across the galaxy in an instant and only one person can go. Whatever! Then we finally make first contact it looks like a dead realtive who tells us absolutely squat then sends us home to tell the rest of the world uhhh! Bottom line: If you like typical hollywood formulated movies, with love-story, some cool effects, some obstacles/antagonism to main chracter(s) followed by a "hokey ending", then this movie is for you!

Rating:
Summary: One of my favorates
Review: You'd have to be an uncreative, god-fearing moron not to love this movie. Unfortunately, there are lot of people like that out there.

Rating:
Summary: Contact was a religious experience for me
Review: I am disappointed in the low ratings given this movie by many Christians. I consider myself to be a Born-Again Evangelical Roman Catholic Christian. I fould the movie very thought provoking. M. Scott Peck, M.D. an author and Psychiatrist in his book "The Road Less Traveled & Beyond" states that the best way to sell yourself on Christianity (and Grace) is to have a very questioning attitude toward religion. When you decide YES, your faith is built on a solid foundation. This movie puts that philosophy to the test. And for me comes down on the side of God. The scene on the party balconey where the preacher asks Jodie Foster to prove that her father loves her was a stunning revalation for me. She responded that she just knows, but can't prove it. I find that to be one of the strongest statements to support faith in God that I have ever heard. I have used that "prove XXXXX loves you" to support my belief in God on several occasions since the movie. How can we PROVE God loves us (or that he exists) any more than you can PROVE that your husband or whoever loves you. The movie was a religious experience for me. I am sorry other Christians don't see the value in the movie. I suppose that non-believers can support their positions with the movie too. Maybe that is the rub? Jodie Foster's performance was worthy of an Oscar. It was superb!

Rating:
Summary: Zzzzz....
Review: I kept expecting something to happen, and then I realized that the film was over. I'm sorry, but this was about the most uncreative and sheepish attempt at a sci-fi story that I have EVER seen. Jodie Foster spends two hours reading stereo instructions, then heads off to meet the aliens who appear to her as a human. REAL CREATIVE. Boy, what a rush, my imagination is working overtime here. The love sub-plot is completely rediculous.

Rating:
Summary: Great movie, mediocre acting
Review: Foster, McWhatever, and even Woods all give poor, cardboard performances. Despite this, Contact remains one of the most compulsively watchable movies in my collection. As others have also said, the DVD add-ons are top-notch.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best DVD's I've seen so far.
Review: Five stars for both the movie and the DVD! I don't engage in the "grade inflation" of most reviewers at this site, who give out 5 stars too frequently. That rating should be reserved for instances of excellence - a term that should imply some uncommonness - in both the movie and the medium. This DVD has attained that rating. I did not read the book, and my evaluation is not colored by comparisons with it. The movie itself is thoroughly engaging, even for those who, unlike me, are not sci-fi fans. The acting is excellent and the casting was superb. Special effects are not a significant factor in my rating of films, but these are quite remarkable at first sight, and seem more so after watching and listening to the commentaries. The DVD has excellent video reproduction, and is full of extras. The only significant factor of the movie that I criticize is the failure to clearly convey the ambiguity concerning the reality of Ellie's experience. This was not evident to me until hearing the director's commentary. That is a small flaw in a brilliant diamond.

Rating:
Summary: Best movie ever made and I have seen most of them
Review: Contact was so powerful that I frequently found myself shaking during the movie. Never before did I experience something that came close to it in a movie. All the appropriate comments have already been made about the movie and I won't repeat them here but the simple fact of reading those comments made me re-live many of the great moments of the movie. I am completely at a loss to understand the people that did not like it. Some of the poor reviews were from religious fanatics and those we can easily forgive. Some reviews, however, seemed to come from "normal" people and I can only guess that they must be very young ones, not yet able to fully appreciate the capabilities and the joy that a fully working mind provides.

Rating:
Summary: A good movie becomes A GREAT DVD
Review: In some ways, this adaptation of Carl Sagen's novel does not work. There is very little chemistry between Foster and McConaughey (a relationship totally changed from the book), and the ending could have been better scripted.

But I like this movie in spite of its shortcomings. It is a rare combination of an interesting plot line and great special effects. Jodie Foster gives a good performance.

But if you're on the fence about buying this DVD, consider that it has great commentary tracks (by Foster, Zemekis, et all) and some fascinating behind the scenes explanations of how the special effects were constructed. One of the best packaged DVDs for the money.

As a movie, this is good, not exceptional. As a DVD, it is a worthy addition to your collection.

Rating:
Summary: Warner Studios products questionable quality
Review: The movie itself is very good... no question. The issue is the continuous poor quality of Warner Studio DVD's. The quality of the mass produced DVD printing is too often poor. Two DVD copies of Contact and another Warner Studio release (Blade Runner) have audio sync problems halfway through the movie. I won't buy the product if Warner Studios released it on DVD!