From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Jul 2 11:10:47 1996 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!sunic!mn6.swip.net!plug.news.pipex.net!pipex!tube.news.pipex.net!pipex!dish.news.pipex.net!pipex!news.be.innet.net!INbe.net!news.nl.innet.net!INnl.net!hunter.premier.net!netnews.worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.att.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: null@filmcritic.com (Christopher Null) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 1 Jul 1996 18:03:30 GMT Organization: Null Publishing Co. Lines: 68 Sender: ecl@mtcts1.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: ecl@mtcts1.att.com Message-ID: <4r93ti$2gt@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: null@filmcritic.com (Christopher Null) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtcts2.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #05541 Keywords: author=Null Originator: ecl@mtcts2 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:4866 rec.arts.sf.reviews:993 INDEPENDENCE DAY A film review by Christopher Null Copyright 1996 Christopher Null INDEPENDENCE DAY marks the glorious realization of what, for me, has been a nearly 25 year wait. Countless prayers have gone unanswered, but on this day, I have finally witnessed on screen what I have only dreamt of all my life, for this film features the complete and total destruction of the city of Houston through the use of nuclear weapons, *by the U.S. government's own hand!* But watching my home town be blown away is only one of the charms of ID4 (the film's hip moniker). First there's the WAR OF THE WORLDS meets STAR WARS meets THE RIGHT STUFF story, about a superior, marauding alien force threatening to annihilate the human race (and almost succeeding). And an all-star cast of freedom fighters (more on them later). Director Roland Emmerich, who redeems himself for the idiocy of STARGATE, and who isn't afraid to kill off the good guys. Some dazzling visuals. Loud sound effects. *Plus* every "Star Trek" and "X-Files" fan in town in the audience. What more do you want? Character-wise, we are peppered with a litany of names and faces, all of whom are surprisingly easy to keep straight, thanks to Emmerich's jumping around in the setting. Will Smith does his BAD BOYS "2001" character. Bill Pullman recalls Michael Douglas's AMERICAN PRESIDENT. Jeff Goldblum: see JURASSIC PARK. Randy Quaid, Harvey Fierstein, Robert Loggia... we pretty much know what to expect from these folks. And while they may seem a bit hackneyed at times, especially with their clich=E9-ridde= n dialogue, there's enough life left over to make everyone interesting. (But why does everyone seem to have a romance sub-plot going on?) And yes, maybe the plot/theme about how a few Americans banding together can stop a vastly superior invading force, end racial discord, and ensure world peace and harmony is a bit much, but *so what?* If you can suspend disbelief enough to accept an alien ship 1/4 the size of the moon is attacking earth, you can accept the Give Peace a Chance bit. Think: the director is a German! Okay... some of the effects are a bit cheesy, too, which doesn't mix well with the really good ones. (The residue of people laughing *at* (not with) the final scene on July 2 really hurts the power of the opening scene on July 3 -- New York City in ruins, the Statue of Liberty laying half-submerged on its side.) Just let these crummy effects go. Understand that much better ones are on the way. Nitpicking? Who, me? Yes, but this time I had a lot of fun on the ride. The whole film is tasty, even the unintentional cheese. Be warned, the movie is 2 hours & 20 minutes long, so pack a picnic basket. But I promise it'll be an excellent trip. And remember: in space, no one can hear a frying Houstonian scream. RATING: **** |------------------------------| \ ***** Perfection \ \ **** Good, memorable film \ \ *** Average, hits and misses \ \ ** Sub-par on many levels \ \ * Unquestionably awful \ |------------------------------| -Christopher Null / null@filmcritic.com / Writer-Producer -Visit the Movie Emporium at http://www.filmcritic.com/ -and Null Set Productions at http://www.filmcritic.com/nullset.htm From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Jul 2 11:11:18 1996 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!sunic!mn6.swip.net!plug.news.pipex.net!pipex!weld.news.pipex.net!pipex!hole.news.pipex.net!pipex!tube.news.pipex.net!pipex!dish.news.pipex.net!pipex!news.be.innet.net!INbe.net!news.nl.innet.net!INnl.net!hunter.premier.net!netnews.worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.att.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: srenshaw@leland.stanford.edu (Scott Renshaw) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 1 Jul 1996 18:04:07 GMT Organization: Stanford University Lines: 90 Sender: ecl@mtcts1.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: ecl@mtcts1.att.com Message-ID: <4r93un$2h1@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: srenshaw@leland.stanford.edu (Scott Renshaw) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtcts2.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #05542 Keywords: author=Renshaw Originator: ecl@mtcts2 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:4864 rec.arts.sf.reviews:992 INDEPENDENCE DAY A film review by Scott Renshaw Copyright 1996 Scott Renshaw Starring: Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Mary McDonnell, Judd Hirsch, Margaret Colin, Randy Quaid, Robert Loggia, Vivica A. Fox. Screenplay: Roland Emmerich, Dean Devlin. Director: Roland Emmerich. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw. In case you are just emerging from Biosphere 2, or have been otherwise hermetically sealed away from all media for the last twelve months, INDEPENDENCE DAY is about an alien invasion of the earth. 20th Century Fox began running teasers for its major summer entry sometime around the mid-1980s; they flew planes over the cities targeted in the film, warning of impending doom; they sent out massive theater lobby cards which required a light rail system to get from one end to the other. Whatever the production budget was for INDEPENDENCE DAY, the marketing budget probably came close to matching it, and it appears to have worked. People are a-buzz over INDEPENDENCE DAY, and theater owners successfully lobbied to have the opening moved up to July 2nd. All that money spent...and by all evidence, not a dime of it went to a good script doctor. By now, I am fully aware that the call for better scripts in summer blockbusters is a cry in the wilderness; the success of TWISTER has proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that little else matters if impressive visual effects are on the bill of fare. What makes INDEPENDENCE DAY so frustrating is that its complete failure as a story does not appear to be the result of laziness. Director Roland Emmerich and producer Dean Devlin, who co-wrote the screenplay, were trying to create an epic tale-of-three-cities, beginning with the appearance over Los Angeles, New York and Washington D.C. of giant spacecraft on July 2nd, their subsequent attack and humanity's attempt to resist on July 4th, and several characters are followed through those three days. There is David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum), a satellite engineer whose ex-wife Connie (Margaret Colin) is the Chief-of-Staff for President Thomas Whitmore (Bill Pullman), and Capt. Steven Hiller (Will Smith), a Marines pilot separated from his girlfriend Jasmine (Vivica A. Fox), a single mother who is one of the few survivors in Los Angeles, along with the First Lady (Mary McDonnell). The half-dozen or so sub-plots which wind through INDEPENDENCE DAY suggest that Emmerich and Devlin really wanted to make human drama matter. Instead, they created a story full of one-dimensional characters, absurd coincidences and laughably uninteresting interpersonal conflicts. A couple of performances manage to rise above the nonsense -- Will Smith, who has far more charisma than this film deserves and is almost always entertaining when he is on-screen, which is not nearly often enough; and Brent Spiner, who has fun as the eccentric scientist in charge of examining the remains of the infamous Roswell, New Mexico spacecraft from the 1950s -- but mostly there are forced emotions and nascent cliches like the bickering-estranged-spouses-who-still-love-each-other. But let's get down to the real business: at times, INDEPENDENCE DAY looks great, a real apocalypse wow. The dog-fight sequences are complex and exciting, particularly a one-on-one battle between Smith's Capt. Hiller and an alien fighter which whizzes through canyons at break-neck speed. At other times, believe it or not, it looks cheap. Some of the digital effects are too soft around the edges, and INDEPENDENCE DAY skimps on a face-to-face showdown with the aliens. That is a big mistake, because the only time in INDEPENDENCE DAY when there is any genuine tension is when scientists get hold of -- and have to deal with -- an alien survivor. There is something cold about an Ultimate Battle which comes down to a showdown between ships. Then again, a swarming alien ground invasion might have given Emmerich and Devlin just one more better film to crib from. INDEPENDENCE DAY feels like a hodge-podge of quotes from science fiction classics like STAR WARS (the "mother ship cruising overhead" opening shot, as well as the trench run finale), RETURN OF THE JEDI (the multi-craft dog-fight) and ALIEN (the design of the aliens). Even the film's self-promoted nickname, "ID4," evokes TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY's "T2" campaign from a few years ago. To top things off, the president gives what is intended to be a rousing address to his hopelessly outnumbered troops; it was supposed to be his "St. Crispin's Day" speech, but it's so lame it makes you wondered how this guy was ever elected _class_ president. INDEPENDENCE DAY appears to be the meticulously constructed result of one of those screenwriting programs which are supposed to give you all the elements for a complete story...and of course, all those elements come from other films. You can't buy inspiration, and INDEPENDENCE DAY is woefully short on anything that rouses the imagination. It's a kick-ass trailer that's wagging a dog. On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 days the earth stood still: 4. -- Scott Renshaw Stanford University http://www-leland.stanford.edu/~srenshaw From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu Jul 4 13:24:12 1996 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!solace!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!munnari.OZ.AU!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!uwm.edu!fnnews.fnal.gov!cbgw1.att.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: bfrazer@panix.com (Bryant Frazer) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 4 Jul 1996 09:51:29 GMT Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC Lines: 132 Sender: ecl@mtcts1.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: ecl@mtcts1.att.com Message-ID: <4rg471$d6e@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: bfrazer@panix.com (Bryant Frazer) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtcts2.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #05577 Keywords: author=Frazer Originator: ecl@mtcts2 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:4897 rec.arts.sf.reviews:998 INDEPENDENCE DAY A film review by Bryant Frazer Copyright 1996 Bryant Frazer Directed by Roland Emmerich Produced by Dean Devlin Written by Emmerich and Devlin Starring Will Smith, Bill Pullman, and Jeff Goldblum USA, 1996 GRADE: C+ What can you say about an alien invasion film with absolutely no sense of danger or menace? Independence Day is an expensive film with ominous production design, and while I was rooting for this movie to tear the roof off the multiplex, nothing that happens on screen ever really gels. Impressive as some of the special effects are -- and some of the shots toward the end of the film are mighty impressive -- they're put to work in support of a story that hardly seems to have been written, and a film that hardly seems to have been directed. The concept is aces, though. On July 2, an alien mothership parks somewhere this side of the moon and dispatches a squadron of 15-mile-wide flying saucers to hover over the major cities of the world. The U.S. government tries to send a friendly message, and flaky citizens from coast to coast throw rooftop celebrations welcoming the alien visitors. The aliens crash the party by decimating New York, Los Angeles, and Washington D.C. On July 3, the remaining humans try in vain to fight back with outmoded weaponry, until a charming nerd posits a devastating weakness in the mothership's systems. On July 4, the counterattack begins. What we have here is a big movie, shot on location in Los Angeles, New York City, and in the deserts of Arizona and Utah. The special effects are big, featuring not just the destruction of some very large landmarks in American cities, but also panoramic dogfights filling up the wide screen with tiny spaceships and jet fighters. This is perhaps the year's most ambitious movie, and it's almost hard to imagine that anyone in Hollywood has been doing anything but post-production work on this behemoth of a summer movie for the last three or four months. So how do you go wrong with a project like this? Well, for starters, maybe you cast Bill Pullman as the President and ostensible leader of the resistance. Oops. Pullman has seemed ill at ease in just about every role he's ever played, and this one is no exception. Granted, he's playing a character who's supposed to be adrift, but you have to wonder how this guy ever got elected (if you read this as political commentary, maybe that's the point -- but at the very least, couldn't Emmerich and Devlin hire a speechwriter to come in and give the President's pep talks some rhetorical juice?). Jeff Goldblum may think he's propping up his resume by continuing to play the requisite blockbuster nerd, but I hope he's socking away the paychecks for a rainy day, since this sort of noncommittal performance is likely to lead him nowhere. Judd Hirsch plays Goldblum's tiresome father as written -- a hopelessly overstated Jew, sort of like Billy Crystal with none of the charm. Randy Quaid hams it up in a supporting role as the Lunatic Who Makes Good, and Mary McDonnell is completely wasted as the First Lady. (Ironic that James Duval plays a small role, since he starred in The Doom Generation, Gregg Araki's black valentine to mainstream filmmaking, just last year.) The tremendously likable Will Smith, on the other hand, almost steals the film away from the special effects team. This is the first time I can recall Hollywood allowing a black man to be the unmitigated star of such a high-stakes production, and Smith breaks the door wide open. In fact, I can't help but think that Independence Day would have been a much better movie if it had started and ended with his character. Instead, Independence Day tries hard to be an epic, purporting to bring heroes together across international borders and cultural lines even as it nurtures its quintessentially American identity. Independence Day is a little more than two hours long, but not nearly long enough to properly contain all of its own ideas. Fast pacing is a virtue in this age of cgi effects and digital editing, but ID cuts its own expository scenes so close to the bone that they can't take advantage of their own strengths. The biggest exception comes during the film's midsection, as Smith lugs an unconscious alien across white desert sands to be incarcerated at a secret U.S. military base. Tirelessly exploiting the American survivalist instinct, X-Files style SF paranoia, and outright xenophobia, these scenes feature the movie's best ideas, its most honest gags, and -- not coincidentally -- its most intense set piece, which recalls Alien and John Carpenter's The Thing. Unfortunately, the tension level drops from there on out as the story becomes more and more ludicrous and the special effects become more and more of an end in themselves. If only there had been some way to bring alien and human face to face one more time, in a stand-off that would require a little more wit than punching keys on a keyboard, or clocking the little alien dude once across the face, Independence Day might have goosed its way to a more gripping conclusion. As it is, the movie shoots its wad early on, running out of shocks and surprises way too soon. Most observations a critic can make are purely academic, of course, in the face of what's sure to be overwhelmingly positive audience reaction. In the absence of any other obvious science fiction or fantasy blockbusters, Independence Day is a big release valve for the kind of tension that just can't be loosed even by Schwarzenegger, tornadoes, and Tom Cruise (in that way, it's a lot like Emmerich and Devlin's previous project, Stargate). During the movie's big tearjerking scene, a woman in the row ahead of me was sobbing loudly; at a big action payoff, the teenager sitting behind me was shouting, I swear, "Yes, yes, yes! Yes! YES!" like Meg Ryan at Katz's Deli. I know it might seem churlish to deny those pleasures, but for my eight bucks, Independence Day just didn't deliver. (After the White House blew up, I started checking my watch, which is never a good sign.) George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and hell, even James Cameron have made their careers on this sort of picture -- the budget-blowing summer extravaganza. And say what you will about the relative merits of True Lies or Jurassic Park, those movies all come with points of view that demonstrate their essential humanity. Terminator 2 is scary, funny, disgusting, and exhilarating because Cameron is a formidable narrative alchemist. Jurassic Park veers effectively from dinosaur terror to paternal tenderness because Spielberg understands that the horrific can reveal the truly humane in all of us (I suppose Schindler's List functions on the same principle). For all its history-making FX work, what Independence Day delivers is mainly earthbound leftovers from the Star Wars trilogy wrapped around some obvious Twister-style "human drama" that involves separated spouses who still love each other. If those relationships are oddly devoid of passion, it's for the same reason that a movie involving the murder of tens of millions of people is oddly bloodless. In its misguided quest for universal appeal, Independence Day is far too calculated, takes too few risks, and shows us not nearly enough about the way human beings really react under pressure. All the right buttons are being pushed, but Independence Day doesn't have a point of view, or a beating heart. -- DEEP FOCUS (Movie Reviews) http://www.panix.com/~bfrazer/flicker/ Last Movie Seen: INDEPENDENCE DAY (C+) From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Jul 5 10:31:36 1996 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!solace!nntp.uio.no!Norway.EU.net!EU.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!nntp-hub2.barrnet.net!news.PBI.net!cbgw3.att.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: jblenkle@calweb.com (Joe Blenkle) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 4 Jul 1996 09:51:14 GMT Organization: CalWeb Internet Services, Inc. Lines: 70 Sender: ecl@mtcts1.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: ecl@mtcts1.att.com Message-ID: <4rg46i$d6c@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> ~Reply-To: jblenkle@calweb.com (Joe Blenkle) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtcts2.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #05575 Keywords: author=Blenkle Originator: ecl@mtcts2 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:4901 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1000 INDEPENDENCE DAY A film review by Joe Blenkle Copyright 1996 Joe Blenkle (**** out of ****) Rated PG-13 If you can suspend all common sense for the two hours and 17 minutes that INDEPENDENCE DAY runs, you'll be in great shape, but if you're one of those moviegoers who looks for things wrong with films, plots and everything else, you'll probably have a field day with this movie. I am one of those who goes to a film to be entertained (i.e. - film reviewer), not a person who looks for things wrong or wonders what signifigance a lamp has sitting on a table (i.e. - film critic), and INDEPENDENCE DAY is a terrific film if you can suspend all belief in reality. As the film is brand new to theaters across the country, I don't want to give too much away, but some of the things that happen in this film are too unbelievable if you think about them for too long. But the wonderful thing about INDEPENDENCE DAY is that the movie doesn't give you a chance to think about anything for too long as it is an edge-of-your-seat thriller all the way through. You may find yourself pondering later on, however, how an Air Force pilot learns to pilot an alien ship in a matter of hours or how a woman survives a firestorm rushing through a tunnel by hiding in a small room as the fire rushes by outside. At the very least she should have suffocated as the fire consumed all the oxygen, or been incinerated by the intense heat only a few feet away. There are many of these insults to common sense throughout the film, but they are easily overlooked due to the intense action throughout the film. By now everyone has heard what INDEPENDENCE DAY is all about. There has been a lot of pre-release hype and for once the film actually lives up to its fantastic billing. The cast list is impressive with a lineup including Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Mary McDonnell, Judd Hirsch, Randy Quaid, Robert Loggia and Brent Spiner. I have never really been a fan of Goldblum's, but this film did a lot to change that. The whole cast does an excellent job holding your attention throughout the movie, especially Smith and later in the film, Goldblum. Spiner's character was somewhat wasted, however, playing a crazed scientist-type in charge of the government's alien research project. Fortunately the audience didn't have to endure his part for very long. The special effects in INDEPENDENCE DAY are fantastic, especially the fireball sequences where buildings are blown apart and early in the film when the alien ships come rolling in engulfed in clouds of fire. There are enough narrow escapes in this film to last you well into next year and an equal number of little twists and turns in the plot that will keep you guessing until the very end. INDEPENDENCE DAY even has its little bits of comedy which will keep you off balance and never knowing what to expect next. I've heard this film described as a cross between STAR WARS, TOP GUN and WAR OF THE WORLDS - and it's every bit that and more. The lines are probably going to be long throughout the summer for this film, but INDEPENDENCE DAY is one movie that is well worth the wait. INDEPENDENCE DAY is a 20th Century Fox presentation starring Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Mary McDonnell, Judd Hirsch, Randy Quaid, Robert Loggia and Brent Spiner. Directed by Roland Emmerich. Produced by Dean Devlin. Executive Producer is Roland Emmerich, Ute Emmerich and William Fay. Screenplay by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich. Release date: July 2, 1996. Running time: 137 minutes. This review, photos, upcoming attractions, links and more can be found on my movie review web page at: http://www.calweb.com/~jblenkle/movies - stop by and visit! Guest reviews welcomed - email me at jblenkle@calweb.com From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Jul 5 10:31:36 1996 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!solace!nntp.uio.no!Norway.EU.net!EU.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!nntp-hub2.barrnet.net!news.PBI.net!cbgw3.att.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: ife.hsu@columbiasc.ncr.com (Ife Hsu) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 4 Jul 1996 09:51:21 GMT Organization: AT&T Global Information Solutions, Columbia SC Lines: 56 Sender: ecl@mtcts1.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: ecl@mtcts1.att.com Message-ID: <4rg46p$d6d@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> ~Reply-To: ife.hsu@columbiasc.ncr.com (Ife Hsu) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtcts2.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #05576 Keywords: author=Hsu Originator: ecl@mtcts2 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:4902 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1001 INDEPENDENCE DAY [Spoilers] A film review by Ife Hsu Copyright 1996 Ife Hsu Twentieth Century Fox Release (1996) Running Time: Approx. 2:20 hr Starring: Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Robert Loggia, Margaret Colin.. Director: Roland Emmerich The idea of alien invasion brings endless plot possibilities. Just describing the far advanced alien technology that permits billions of light-year traveling might have filled up an entire script. But the makers of Independency Day (ID4) chosed to focus on the lives of three characters: An US Marine fighter pilot with aspirations of space-traveling (Will Smith), the American President dealing with negative poll results (Bill Pullman), and a MIT grad/expert in complex-system hacking (Jeff Goldblum). ID4 covers a three day period (July 2nd thru 4th) observing the alien arrival, its destructive colonization tactics, and the world-wide military convergence that fights back the outer space intruders. Implausible and repeated coincidences bring the three main characters together along with the people they care for. In the first two days, ID4 never looses grip to its grand entrance. Many faces are introduced and quickly disposed with minimal care. A single strike was all it took to annihilate New York, Washington, and Los Angeles. So, as expected, the counter-measures by the US military force proved meaningless and ineffective. But in the final day, Smith, Pullman, and Goldblum are converged to devise and execute a survival plan for Earth. At this stage, ID4 loosely introduces a X-File-type government conspiracy and covert operation. It narrows its premise to focus on this group while sketches of the aliens and their technology are quickly shown to satisfy audience's curiosity. The final strike is again built in total disbelief. World-wide forces are joined together via primitive communication mechanism; alien spacecraft can be intuitively piloted; alien's defensive air force is no longer as agile and efficient; all other areas in the planet have equivalent fire-power that can prevail against the invaders. Clearly, ID4 is not to be taken seriously. It is a feel-good movie (despite millions of casualties) that is heavily grounded on special-effects. There is simply not enough time to explain much, and ID4 does not have the intention to do so anyway. *** of **** From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Jul 5 10:31:36 1996 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!solace!eru.mt.luth.se!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!nntp-hub2.barrnet.net!news.PBI.net!cbgw3.att.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: chuckd21@southeast.net (Chuck Dowling) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 4 Jul 1996 09:51:00 GMT Organization: Southeast Network Services, Inc. Lines: 47 Sender: ecl@mtcts1.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: ecl@mtcts1.att.com Message-ID: <4rg464$d6a@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> ~Reply-To: chuckd21@southeast.net (Chuck Dowling) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtcts2.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #05573 Keywords: author=Dowling Originator: ecl@mtcts2 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:4904 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1002 INDEPENDENCE DAY A film review by Chuck Dowling Copyright 1996 Chuck Dowling Independence Day (1996) ***** - C:Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Robert Loggia, Randy Quaid, Mary McDonnell, Judd Hirsch, Brent Spiner, Harvey Fierstein, Harry Connick Jr. This is the greatest summer movie ever. I repeat, this is the greatest summer movie of all-time. This is exactly what a summer movie should be. It's fun, loud, tense, exciting, action-packed, and it will keep your attention for two and a half hours. Unless you've been living in a cave for the last year, you've seen the previews and know what the film is about. If for some reason you don't, here's the plot: aliens start to destroy the earth and we have to stop them. That's it. That's all there is. But it's more than enough. With that you get mass destruction, hundreds of human and alien aircraft dogfighting in the skies, aliens here on earth, the inside of an alien mothership, and lots of suspense. This is a great roller-coaster ride of a movie. That's not to say it doesn't have it's problems. The plot isn't exactly new. Some scenes seem to be "inspired" from several other films including the Star Wars trilogy, The Right Stuff, War of the Worlds and many of the disaster films from the 70s. The music, which is good, just seems to be poured on a little too much at times. Also, Randy Quaid plays a drunk in the film who claims aliens kidnapped him several years ago. Yet, even though there are aliens running around and alien ships are destroying the planet, whenever Quaid mentions that he was kidnapped everyone acts like 'Yeah, yeah, sure you were, ok whatever," and then roll their eyes like he's crazy. But, all of these things are trivial because as I said before, this is the greatest summer movie ever. To be a successful summer movie (or any movie for that matter) the film needs to make you forget your troubles and entertain you. ID4 succeeds fantastically. For two and a half hours you will completely forget about what's going on in your life and be completely engrossed in the lives of the people on the screen. ID4 needs to be seen in a theater to be appreciated because it will likely lose most of it's impact on TV. Director Roland Emmerich completely redeems himself after the dreadfully boring Stargate. -- Chuck Dowling Please visit my movie reviews web site at http://users.southeast.net/~chuckd21/ You'll be glad you did. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Jul 5 10:31:36 1996 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!solace!paladin.american.edu!gatech!usenet.eel.ufl.edu!news-res.gsl.net!news.gsl.net!sgigate.sgi.com!news.msfc.nasa.gov!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!howland.reston.ans.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!nntp-hub2.barrnet.net!news.PBI.net!cbgw3.att.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: berardin@bc.cybernex.net (James Berardinelli) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 4 Jul 1996 09:51:07 GMT Organization: - Lines: 112 Sender: ecl@mtcts1.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: ecl@mtcts1.att.com Message-ID: <4rg46b$d6b@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> ~Reply-To: berardin@bc.cybernex.net (James Berardinelli) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtcts2.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #05574 Keywords: author=Berardinelli Originator: ecl@mtcts2 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:4907 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1004 INDEPENDENCE DAY A film review by James Berardinelli Copyright 1996 James Berardinelli RATING (0 TO 10): 5.5 Alternative Scale: ** out of **** United States, 1996 U.S. Release Date: 7/2/96 (wide) Running Length: 2:22 MPAA Classification: PG-13 (Violence, profanity) Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Cast: Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, Margaret Colin, Robert Loggia, Vivica Fox, Judd Hirsch, Mary McDonnell, Randy Quaid, Brent Spiner, James Rebhorn, Harvey Fierstein, Harry Connick Jr., Adam Baldwin Director: Roland Emmerich Producers: Dean Devlin Screenplay: Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich Cinematography: Karl Walter Lindenlaub Music: David Arnold U.S. Distributor: Twentieth Century Fox Credit the marketing masters at Twentieth Century Fox -- they've managed to make INDEPENDENCE DAY the most eagerly-anticipated motion picture of a potentially record-breaking summer. Tantalizing shots of the White House and Empire State Building being destroyed by alien ships have been shown in multiplexes since last Christmas. It's a saturation philosophy: show the previews before every movie and tell people that this is "the event" of 1996, and they will come. Whether INDEPENDENCE DAY takes in $30 million, $50 million, or $80 million during its first weekend is irrelevant -- it will make a huge splash. Unfortunately, and perhaps not unexpectedly, it doesn't live up to the hype. From the beginning, there have been reasons to doubt INDEPENDENCE DAY's creative foundation. After all, it comes from Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin, the team responsible for STARGATE, one of the most disappointing and derivative science fiction films of the decade. Theirs is not a pedigree to inspire confidence, and, as it turns out, INDEPENDENCE DAY is no better than STARGATE. For mindless action, the first hour is right up there with TWISTER. The special effects are impressive and the movie is suitably noisy. But, this summer especially, we've had all we need of explosions and flashes; the fireworks have lost their zing. Perhaps if INDEPENDENCE DAY had come out earlier, before all the tornadoes, flying dragons, Chunnel helicopter-and-train chases, Rail Guns, and escapes into Alcatraz, I might have welcomed it more warmly. At this point, however, action -- even of the science fiction variety -- has become a stale, overused commodity. Almost everyone loves chocolate, but, if you eat a lot of it, you start feeling sick. I'm sure you understand the comparison. Worse still, INDEPENDENCE DAY gets mired in syrupy, artificial character development, and this bogs down the entire middle act. Once the aliens have blasted their way through New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, this film doesn't offer much in the way of compelling viewing. With its hackneyed plot, feeble attempts at characterization, and predictable finale, the second half of INDEPENDENCE DAY becomes an extremely dull and lifeless affair. In case you haven't figured it out by now, the story centers around an alien invasion. After emerging from the dark side of the moon, a dozen fifteen-mile diameter spaceships enter a hovering patterns over Earth's major cities. In Los Angeles, a marine officer, Captain Steven Hiller (Will Smith), has been recalled from holiday leave to "kick E.T.'s butt." In Washington, President Thomas J. Whitmore (Bill Pullman) is concerned about creating a widespread panic by ordering evacuations. And, in New York City, David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum) has just broken one of the aliens' secret codes, and it leads him to believe that an attack is imminent. As it turns out, he's right, and the human race is soon embroiled in a desperate struggle to survive. The aliens' ships are shielded, and nothing, not even nuclear weapons, can penetrate their defenses. The excessive number of characters is in part responsible for the movie's unnecessarily long running time. Had INDEPENDENCE DAY been a half hour shorter, it would have been more tightly paced and less tedious. Among the superfluous characters are the First Lady (Mary McDonnell), a mentally unstable crop duster (Randy Quaid), and a sneaky Secretary of Defense (James Rebhorn). Since these people have no dramatic impact, all they manage to do is eat up screen time. Like STARGATE, INDEPENDENCE DAY cannibalizes heavily from past science fiction ventures, including THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, STAR WARS, STAR TREK, ALIEN, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, V, THE X-FILES, and about another half-dozen TV programs and movies. It's legitimate to question whether Emmerich and Devlin are capable of doing anything remotely original. There's a distressing sameness and familiarity to both of their big budget science fiction extravaganzas. It's useless to advise people not to see INDEPENDENCE DAY, so I'll issue a warning instead: curb your enthusiasm and don't expect much. With suitably low expectations, you're likely not to be too disappointed, unless you make the mistake of actually thinking about what's taking place on-screen while it's going on. The last half hour is built on a series of contrivances and implausibilities that even a six-year old could find serious flaw with, so be prepared to use the "brain off" switch. But INDEPENDENCE DAY isn't about logic and intelligence. It's about space battles, mass destruction, and a laughably "rousing" speech by the President. This is a spectacle, pure and simple. Unfortunately, because the film makers mistakenly tried to inject a load of weak dramatic elements, INDEPENDENCE DAY turns out to be overlong, overblown, and overdone. For alien invasions this summer, give me THE ARRIVAL instead. - James Berardinelli e-mail: berardin@bc.cybernex.net ReelViews web site: http://www.cybernex.net/~berardin From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Jul 15 13:30:54 1996 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!solace!umdac!newsfeed.sunet.se!news00.sunet.se!sunic!news.sprintlink.net!news-stk-200.sprintlink.net!news.cdsnet.net!news.sprintlink.net!new-news.sprintlink.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!newsxfer2.itd.umich.edu!netnews.worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.att.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: kreme@netcom.com (Lewis Butler) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 5 Jul 1996 12:44:14 GMT Organization: Nyx, the spirit of the Night (telnet nyx.cs.du.edu) Lines: 89 Sender: ecl@mtcts1.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: ecl@mtcts1.att.com Message-ID: <4rj2mu$fht@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: kreme@netcom.com (Lewis Butler) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtcts2.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #05585 Keywords: author=Butler Originator: ecl@mtcts2 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:4909 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1005 INDEPENDENCE DAY A film review by Lewis Butler Copyright 1995 Lewis Butler In short: One of the best action movies to come along in years. INDEPENDENCE DAY (ID4) has everything it needs to take its place with such movies as STAR WARS and TERMINATOR 2. Whether it will attain such heights remians to be seen, but all the makings are there. It is not, however, perfect. +3 on the old -4/+4. ID4 is a movie with something for everyone. It has a large cast of characters, so there's plenty of people to identify with. The plot is basic and simple: Aliens finally come, and they're not friendly. The movie starts with the alien mothership's arrival, a huge ship 1/4th the size of the moon. The first half-hour is all about the arrival and Earth's reaction to it. Then things start getting messy. The plot is thin, but adequate. Before humanity is completely exterminated, we have to find a way to win against superior technology. Seemingly, we don't have a chance. The Alien ships are bigger, more powerful, and they have some sort of energy shield that we can't penetrate. It's going to be tough. Bill Pullman plays the only completly unbelievable character in the movie, an American President who is not a political weasel, but a fairly young ex-fighter pilot hero of the Gulf War, politcally naive. A man of honor and ethics. Basically, he plays a President the exact opposite of our current canidates if they were merged into one. That said, he's a convincing character, and you can't help liking him. He gets the audience on his side when he announces that he is staying in Washington DC even after the 15 mile wide alien spaceship (one of 30) takes position directly over the White House. He send the vice-president and the cabinet to Norad. Of course, we've seen the White House get blown up in the previews... A lot of people die in this movie, obviously. But while it could have been a lot of faceless people, the filmmakers take the time to introduce us to a few of them. It gives the movie a little bit of an edge and prevents it from becoming completely silly summer escapism. It's still mostly that, don't be deceived, but there's enough there to keep you going. One of the things I enjoyed about this film was that it made an effort not to ignore the rest of the world. Yes, it's an American film about Americans, but there are just enough cutaways to other parts of the world so that we know what's happening. And though we don't see them, the rest of the world is fighting their own battle, with just a little bit fo help from the Americans. There are many nice touches throughout the film, and many references, somtimes oblique, to other films. Look for Randy Quaid late in the film doing a scene from... well, that might be considered a spoiler. You'll know it when you see it. Performances are solid all the way around. Some of the highlights are Will Smith, playing a fighter pilot; Judd Hirsch as Jeff Goldblum's father; eff Goldblum as a computer geek; and Brent Spinner as a xenobiologist or soemthing whose been locked away underground for 30 years or so. Pullman, Goldblum, and Smith form the core cast of the film. It is easy to dismiss this as "just another summer movie." But I would remind people of some other, recent, summer movies. HUDSON HAWK. THE LAST ACTION HERO. BEVERLY HILLS COP III. TANGO AND CASH. DIE HARD II. Get the point? While this may not be a "great" movie, it is exactly what it wants to be, entertaining. It is very entertaining. And the effects. I haven't even mentioned the special effects, and this movie is loaded with them. Still, what is there to say? We live in a time where special effects in movies are so good it's really only worth discussing them when they are poorly done. They are not poorly done. They are spectacular. The most impressive effects are the ones involving the destruction of the various cities. See it, it is the best "summer" movie in a lot of summers. Better, even, than TRUE LIES. -- Signatures follow: Distribution of this message by Microsoft, its subsidiaries, or its software shall constitute a violation of my copyrights. Microsoft may license copyrights to my messages, for distribution only, for the sum of $1,000 US per week. -- kreme@cerebus.kreme.com 1015 South Gaylord, Denver, CO 80209 #100 WWW URL [303/722-2009] Vox [303/777-2911] Data From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Jul 15 13:31:27 1996 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!solace!paladin.american.edu!zombie.ncsc.mil!newsgate.duke.edu!hookup!usenet.eel.ufl.edu!spool.mu.edu!munnari.OZ.AU!news.mel.connect.com.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!nntp.coast.net!news.sprintlink.net!news-stk-200.sprintlink.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!uwm.edu!rutgers!cbgw3.att.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: rhodes_steve@tandem.com (Steve Rhodes) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 8 Jul 1996 14:49:50 GMT Organization: Tandem Computers, Inc. Lines: 134 Sender: ecl@mtgbcs.lucent.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: ecl@mtgbcs.lucent.com Message-ID: <4rr76e$185@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: rhodes_steve@tandem.com (Steve Rhodes) NNTP-Posting-Host: mthost1.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #05592 Keywords: author=Rhodes Originator: ecl@mthost1 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:4920 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1007 INDEPENDENCE DAY A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 1996 Steve Rhodes RATING (0 TO ****): **** Okay, I realize that my fellow critics are giving thumbs down to INDEPENDENCE DAY (ID4), but I absolutely love it. Although not as pretentious nor as good STAR WARS, which is the show it most closely resembles, ID4 is the best action and sci-fi thriller I have seen in a long time. It has devastation on a scale that is unmatched by any show I have ever seen, and yet the film is so controlled that kids as young as 7 should be able to see it and enjoy it as well as the adults. Since we were scared by the newspaper stories of the long lines at ID4, we went on Saturday afternoon to see PHENOMENON instead. When we got there, the projector had broken so went over to ID4 where there were long lines and people with umbrellas and ice chests waiting in the heat of the parking lot. To our surprise, most of these people were coming early to buy tickets for later. We bought tickets 10 minutes in advance for the 5:25 show in one of the three theaters showing ID4 and got almost our favorite seats - in the center 10 rows from the screen. I will only setup the plot and give some of the dialog so you can get a flavor of the show, but without giving anything away. Aliens come in a huge planetary size home that is one quarter the diameter of the moon. From their home they dispatch a dozen spaceships that are fifteen miles wide. When these spaceships go overhead they are so large they eclipse the sun forming dark ominous shadows over entire cities. Moreover, they look like flying visions of hell complete with fiery clouds that portend the end of the world. Hollywood of late has two types of picture presidents. One set of movies has presidents who are AWOL as in EXECUTIVE DECISION and BROKEN ARROW. The other set are paeans to Bill Clinton as in THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT. Here for a change we have ex-fighter pilot President Thomas Whitmore (Bill Pullman from WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING and RUTHLESS PEOPLE) who is a reserved version of Teddy Roosevelt. Although he is about Clinton's age, pilot Whitmore is clearly not a Clinton clone as Douglas was in THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT, and there is even a hint in the movie that he is actually a Republican. I liked Pullman's performance. He is believably concerned for all of his people, and although naturally a quite type, he is not afraid to lead and make tough decisions. Jeff Goldblum plays the nerd role of satellite engineer and chief code cracker David Levinson. David's ex-wife Connie (Margaret Colin) is the Chief-of-Staff to the president. Judd Hirsch is David's father Julius. Julius is full of funny homilies as when he tells his son to calm down on the drive to the capital, "What's the rush? You think we'll get to Washington, and it won't be there?" Working in the TV station with David is Marty Gilbert (Harvey Fierstein). When he learns that the aliens are on the way, he advises David as he is running to the bomb shelter, "There is no shame in hiding," and then reflects, "I better call my mother." California is not treated with much respect in the movie. As Captain Steven Hiller (Will Smith) and his girlfriend Jasmine Dubrow (Vivica Fox) are waking up, an alien ship is passing overhead which makes their bed shake. Steve asks, "Is that an earthquake?" Jasmine reassures him with, "not even a four pointer. Go back to sleep." After this is one of many great comedic scenes in the picture. Steve walks outside and looks right noticing his neighbor is leaving and then as he looks all around he gets wide eyed realizing that everybody is leaving. When he figures out what is going on, he tries to reassure Jasmine with, "Look, I don't think that they flew 90 billion light-years here to start a fight." The people in LA are excited about the aliens coming. This is their kind of event. One undulates in rapture, "Oh god, I hope they bring back Elvis." A California teenager uses the come-on line to a girl in his pickup truck, "This may be your last night on earth. Do you want it to be as a virgin?" The serious lines are given to the president. He holds a news conference to proclaim, "the question of whether we are alone in the universe has been answered." The answer, of course, is troubling. Later he tells the world that, "we can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore." Even more than the funny script by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich and the precise and energetic direction by Roland Emmerich, what makes the show burst with excitement are the special effects. The power and the scale of the effects outdoes the death star in STAR WARS and the tornadoes in TWISTER. Actually the picture has aspects of these shows, plus many others (TESTAMENT, TOP GUN, BLADE RUNNER, DR. STRANGELOVE, etc.), but is never derivative. Everything here fills fresh, and yet at its heart this is a classic sci-fi tale from the 50s. Okay, now is the time to address the plausibility issue. If a film is good enough, you can ignore a lot of unlikely material. Up until the solution is found to combat the alien invasion, I found the story reasonably believable. After that it became a bit tougher to suspend disbelieve, but, hey, this is not a National Geographic special afterall. The hellish colors that cinematographer Karl Walter Lindenlaub comes up with work great. The score by David Arnold is dramatic, and it is probably worth buying the CD of it. My favorite actors in the show are Will Smith and Bill Pullman. The first is hilarious and smart, and the second wise and brave. For a great little quirky character Randy Quaid plays crop duster Russell Casse who claims to have been captured by aliens ten years earlier. Watch how the writers tie that in with the rest of the story. Many other good minor characters including Robert Loggia as General Grey, Mary McDonnell as First Lady Marilyn Whitmore, Brent Spiner as mad Dr. Okun, and James Rebhorn as Secretary of Defense Nimziki. Finally, the ending is phenomenal. INDEPENDENCE DAY runs 2:22, and I am glad they did not trim it down to make more money. It is rated PG-13. The amazing thing to me was that I could have safely taken my 7 year old son Jeffrey to see it. There is violence, but it is all of the non-threatening sci-fi variety. If your kids can handle balls of flames and cars blowing up and if they are not frightened at all by Star Wars, they are probably old enough to see INDEPENDENCE DAY. My guess is that most kids 7 and up will love it as I did. There is no sex, nudity, or bad language that I can remember. I give this enjoyable and incredible film my strongest recommendation and top rating of ****. I don't care what the other critics that I respect say. This is a great film, and I am happy to be pushing it. ______________________________________________________________________ **** = One of the top few films of this or any year. A must see film. *** = Excellent show. Look for it. ** = Average movie. Kind of enjoyable. * = Poor show. Don't waste your money. 0 = One of the worst films of this or any year. Totally unbearable. REVIEW WRITTEN ON: July 6, 1996 Opinions expressed are mine and not meant to reflect my employer's. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Jul 15 13:33:19 1996 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!solace!paladin.american.edu!zombie.ncsc.mil!newsgate.duke.edu!agate!spool.mu.edu!munnari.OZ.AU!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!nntp.coast.net!news.sprintlink.net!news-stk-200.sprintlink.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!uwm.edu!rutgers!cbgw3.att.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: droche@frognet.net (David Roche) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 8 Jul 1996 14:49:43 GMT Organization: FrogNet, Inc. Lines: 100 Sender: ecl@mtgbcs.lucent.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: ecl@mtgbcs.lucent.com Message-ID: <4rr767$184@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: droche@frognet.net (David Roche) NNTP-Posting-Host: mthost1.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #05591 Keywords: author=Roche Originator: ecl@mthost1 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:4921 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1008 INDEPENDENCE DAY [Spoilers] A film review by David Roche Copyright 1996 David Roche Why, oh why, do I always believe the hype? Any time that a big big BIG movie is announced, I get so excited, thinking that this is gonna be a GREAT one! Oh yes, this is gonna be a classic, dammit! I'm almost always wrong. I honestly don't remember the last great movie I've seen. Hell, I'll settle for a good one! These days, it seems as though the only movies that satisfy are the low-budget, no-name flicks. They have real characters, genuine plots, and visual beauty un-enhanced by computers. Last night, my sweetie and I went to see "Independence Day"... I was really excited about it, considering the amount of positive press it's been getting. The covers of Time AND Newsweek featured it, so we both thought it had to be worth all the fuss. Boy, were we wrong. It wasn't all bad, though. The first half hour was fairly well done, although I thought that there were too many "Poseiden Adventure"-type characters being introduced. This movie is essentially an Irwin Allen disaster flic without Shelley Winters, which is, in my opinion, a good thing. Anyhow, once we've gotten to know the series of cliched characters (the well-meaning US president who's thought of as a wimp, the drunken vietnam vet living in a trailer, the wife of a fighter pilot who just happens to be an exotic dancer, and so on and so on...), a bunch/flock/herd/ fleet of alien vessels appear in the skies over most major world cities. Then the fun begins. As the aliens, who turn out to be bad news, decide to destroy the cities above which they're hovering, we're treated to some amazing special effects. And then... when the destruction ends, we're left with 90 more minutes to think about what we just saw. 90 minutes or so of every major movie cliche, all rolled into one movie. From mock patriotic speeches, to the death of the president's wife, to the dog that just BARELY makes it to safety during the invasion, to...oh, I can't go on... If anybody reading this is a fan of bad movie cliches, I'd be really interested in hearing how many you may have counted. I'm guessing there have to be at least 50 of them. I groaned at the part where the US president, in the presence of an alien invader, gets a headache suddenly, and manages to learn exactly what the aliens' plans are through some kind of telepathy! How damned convenient, hmm?! What a stroke of luck! But my very favorite, and least favorite, moment occurs when the character played by Jeff Goldblum, decides how to destroy the alien invaders.... WARNING : Spoiler alert!!!! Now LISTEN to this one! Goldblum decides that if the humans could somehow get aboard the alien spacecraft, they could simply upload a computer virus in order to take down the aliens' shields... It's just a matter of convenience that the humans have a perfectly operational alien spacecraft and a person willing to fly it into the motheship. So Goldblum and Will Smith (who is fun in the movie...best thing about it) fly into the mothership, at which Goldblum presses a key and uploads the virus to the alien's main computer (I guess even aliens use IBM-compatibles...or maybe he just transferred some kind of flu virus...that'd make more sense.). To assume that the audience for a modern sci-fi picture would be dumb enough to accept such a banal plot device is insulting to me! Even IF these aliens used what we call "computers", isn't it ridiculous to think that someone could press one key and access them immediately? Especially considering they must use a different language, different materials, different everything. And besides, even if I were to accept such ridiculous BS, don't you think an advanced civilization which has mastered spaceflight to such an extent, would have a damn program installed to ward off computer viruses!! My old piece of junk Amiga computer even had a virus checker!!!! I give up. This is obviously not a review, you're thinking. You're right. It's an appeal to film makers to please make movies which challenge our intelligence. And it's an appeal to film-goers to avoid such mindless drivel, or at least to tell others what you thought of it. If ANYONE out there feels as I do about this film, please write me... I'm so pissed, I'm considering starting a USENET group devoted to ranting about bad movies... GRRRR!!! :) Oh, by the way, out of 5 virii, I give this movie a rating of 1 virus. Thanks David Roche droche@frognet.net From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Jul 15 13:34:53 1996 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!solace!paladin.american.edu!zombie.ncsc.mil!newsgate.duke.edu!godot.cc.duq.edu!newsfeed.pitt.edu!gatech!rutgers!cbgw3.att.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: mleeper@lucent.com (Mark R. Leeper) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 8 Jul 1996 14:49:59 GMT Organization: AT&T, Middletown NJ Lines: 111 Sender: ecl@mtgbcs.lucent.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: ecl@mtgbcs.lucent.com Message-ID: <4rr76n$186@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: mleeper@lucent.com NNTP-Posting-Host: mthost1.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #05593 Keywords: author=Leeper Originator: ecl@mthost1 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:4922 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1009 INDEPENDENCE DAY A film review by Mark R. Leeper Copyright 1996 Mark R. Leeper Capsule: This is a huge production that starts with the plot of the film THE WAR OF THE WORLDS and hangs on it bits and even scenes from a lot of other films. We have a no-holds-barred alien invasion film that is willing to kill off whole cities for the camera. This big spectacular special effects film may be the most visually impressive so far in the 1990s. Much of the audience will get pulled into the action and will not care that the writing borrows so much from many other films. Rating: high +2 (-4 to +4). A discussion of some of the ideas of the film follows the main review in a spoiler section. In retrospect there was something positively refreshing about George Pal's 1953 film THE WAR OF THE WORLDS. Over the years we have seen many alien invasion films in which the aliens come as seed-pods to replace us, or they have an advance guard take over our minds, or they seed our planet with alien vampires. Sometimes they really are friendly; sometimes they only pretend to be friendly; sometimes they are nasty and hide out in swamps; sometimes they steal our scientists. There are only a very small handful of films in which the aliens try straight-ahead overwhelming us with sheer military power. In most of them the aliens equivocate by negotiating at some point as they do in THE MYSTERIANS or EARTH VERSUS THE FLYING SAUCERS. Unique among these films, until now, has been THE WAR OF THE WORLDS in which the implacable aliens arrive with incredible power and start to pound humanity flat--no negotiation, no communication, no quarter given. That is perhaps a very believable scenario for an alien invasion, but since THE WAR OF THE WORLDS nobody has really wanted to tackle it in a movie. One reason it has not been done more often is that it would be really expensive in terms of special effects to do it right, showing scenes of mass destruction rather than telling the view about them. And it would require a script that would have the courage to depict whole population centers destroyed, showing thousands of people being killed. George Pal made a reasonable stab at that with his film, but nobody has really tried it since. Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin apparently observed that film industry's visual technology has caught up with that concept. They also realized that the way was paved for film like this by the success of the television program, "The X-Files." Whatever convinced them that the time was right they now have a super- hit of a film. A huge artificial object appears near the moon and start moving toward Earth. Without warning the skies over major cities go dark as they are covered by mysterious cloud-banks. From the cloud-banks emerge city-sized flying disks, fifteen miles in diameter. For six hours they float in ominous silence. Perhaps the best moments of the script are the tension before the initial attack. The script takes its time, slowly revealing more and more about the alien ships. The script, which was co-authored by Dean Devlin who produced and Roland Emmerich who directed, consciously mimics disaster film writing introducing a large number of characters, most played by solid but second string actors. Bill Pullman plays a rather youthful President of the United States is worried about his strong-willed but nice First Lady Marilyn (Mary McDonnell). He is aided by Constance (Margaret Colin) whose ex-husband David (Jeff Goldblum) is a whiz with computers but he is still working out his relationship with his cute but kvetchy Jewish father Julius (Judd Hirsch). Davis will soon find his fate entwined with hotshot Air Force pilot Captain Hiller (Will Smith). Most of the characters are developed only on the most superficial level with the most touching relationship being that between David and his father. Emmerich and Devlin freely admit that there is much in INDEPENDENCE DAY that was inspired by other films. They cite 1940s war films and 1970s disaster films, but whole scenes seem to be lifted from films like ALIEN and THE RIGHT STUFF. In spite of the safe route of borrowing from established films, the script does take some chances. It is not many, but some characters the audience cares about get killed. While the script is heavy on coincidence and melodrama it never fails to be fun. If this is not an intelligent film, it is not a really dumb one either. It is a big spectacular, almost two and a half hours, with its share of script problems. Much the same can be said of films like THE TEN COMMANDMENTS or THE TOWERING INFERNO. It is not intelligent, but it is fun. There is enough good to compensate for the negative points. I rate it a high +2 on the -4 to +4 scale. Spoiler...Spoiler...Spoiler...Spoiler...Spoiler...Spoiler...Spoiler There are a few of the ideas of the film that needed to be better explained. The aliens were here to steal out precious natural resources, supposedly. Our resources are valuable to us, but Earth is no richer in resources than any other planet in the solar system. It is not at all clear to me why they wasted so much energy and resource subduing a hostile native population. It might have been better adding a few words saying that they needed an atmosphere of oxygen to mine the resources or that they as a policy first subdue any populations that might be a threat before mining a solar system. On the other hand, perhaps it is better to leave them a little mysterious. Part of the problem is that the aliens are a bit too much like us. They share our eyes, nose, mouth configuration, our five-fingered hands. This in spite of the fact that a daisy is a closer relative to us than they are. Not only are they too similar, their technology is way, way too similar. Humans can figure out how to fly craft instrumented for their anatomy and designed by their psychology. We are able to write and run programs on their computers. Isaac Newton was much closer to us than they are in terms of mental processes and I doubt that if he stumbled somehow on a modern PC it would be able to do much with it without instructions. Mark R. Leeper mleeper@lucent.com Copyright 1996 Mark R. Leeper From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Jul 15 13:36:27 1996 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!solace!paladin.american.edu!zombie.ncsc.mil!newsgate.duke.edu!godot.cc.duq.edu!newsfeed.pitt.edu!gatech!rutgers!cbgw3.att.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: mleeper@lucent.com (Mark R. Leeper) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 8 Jul 1996 14:49:59 GMT Organization: AT&T, Middletown NJ Lines: 111 Sender: ecl@mtgbcs.lucent.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: ecl@mtgbcs.lucent.com Message-ID: <4rr76n$186@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: mleeper@lucent.com NNTP-Posting-Host: mthost1.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #05593 Keywords: author=Leeper Originator: ecl@mthost1 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:4922 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1009 INDEPENDENCE DAY A film review by Mark R. Leeper Copyright 1996 Mark R. Leeper Capsule: This is a huge production that starts with the plot of the film THE WAR OF THE WORLDS and hangs on it bits and even scenes from a lot of other films. We have a no-holds-barred alien invasion film that is willing to kill off whole cities for the camera. This big spectacular special effects film may be the most visually impressive so far in the 1990s. Much of the audience will get pulled into the action and will not care that the writing borrows so much from many other films. Rating: high +2 (-4 to +4). A discussion of some of the ideas of the film follows the main review in a spoiler section. In retrospect there was something positively refreshing about George Pal's 1953 film THE WAR OF THE WORLDS. Over the years we have seen many alien invasion films in which the aliens come as seed-pods to replace us, or they have an advance guard take over our minds, or they seed our planet with alien vampires. Sometimes they really are friendly; sometimes they only pretend to be friendly; sometimes they are nasty and hide out in swamps; sometimes they steal our scientists. There are only a very small handful of films in which the aliens try straight-ahead overwhelming us with sheer military power. In most of them the aliens equivocate by negotiating at some point as they do in THE MYSTERIANS or EARTH VERSUS THE FLYING SAUCERS. Unique among these films, until now, has been THE WAR OF THE WORLDS in which the implacable aliens arrive with incredible power and start to pound humanity flat--no negotiation, no communication, no quarter given. That is perhaps a very believable scenario for an alien invasion, but since THE WAR OF THE WORLDS nobody has really wanted to tackle it in a movie. One reason it has not been done more often is that it would be really expensive in terms of special effects to do it right, showing scenes of mass destruction rather than telling the view about them. And it would require a script that would have the courage to depict whole population centers destroyed, showing thousands of people being killed. George Pal made a reasonable stab at that with his film, but nobody has really tried it since. Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin apparently observed that film industry's visual technology has caught up with that concept. They also realized that the way was paved for film like this by the success of the television program, "The X-Files." Whatever convinced them that the time was right they now have a super- hit of a film. A huge artificial object appears near the moon and start moving toward Earth. Without warning the skies over major cities go dark as they are covered by mysterious cloud-banks. From the cloud-banks emerge city-sized flying disks, fifteen miles in diameter. For six hours they float in ominous silence. Perhaps the best moments of the script are the tension before the initial attack. The script takes its time, slowly revealing more and more about the alien ships. The script, which was co-authored by Dean Devlin who produced and Roland Emmerich who directed, consciously mimics disaster film writing introducing a large number of characters, most played by solid but second string actors. Bill Pullman plays a rather youthful President of the United States is worried about his strong-willed but nice First Lady Marilyn (Mary McDonnell). He is aided by Constance (Margaret Colin) whose ex-husband David (Jeff Goldblum) is a whiz with computers but he is still working out his relationship with his cute but kvetchy Jewish father Julius (Judd Hirsch). Davis will soon find his fate entwined with hotshot Air Force pilot Captain Hiller (Will Smith). Most of the characters are developed only on the most superficial level with the most touching relationship being that between David and his father. Emmerich and Devlin freely admit that there is much in INDEPENDENCE DAY that was inspired by other films. They cite 1940s war films and 1970s disaster films, but whole scenes seem to be lifted from films like ALIEN and THE RIGHT STUFF. In spite of the safe route of borrowing from established films, the script does take some chances. It is not many, but some characters the audience cares about get killed. While the script is heavy on coincidence and melodrama it never fails to be fun. If this is not an intelligent film, it is not a really dumb one either. It is a big spectacular, almost two and a half hours, with its share of script problems. Much the same can be said of films like THE TEN COMMANDMENTS or THE TOWERING INFERNO. It is not intelligent, but it is fun. There is enough good to compensate for the negative points. I rate it a high +2 on the -4 to +4 scale. Spoiler...Spoiler...Spoiler...Spoiler...Spoiler...Spoiler...Spoiler There are a few of the ideas of the film that needed to be better explained. The aliens were here to steal out precious natural resources, supposedly. Our resources are valuable to us, but Earth is no richer in resources than any other planet in the solar system. It is not at all clear to me why they wasted so much energy and resource subduing a hostile native population. It might have been better adding a few words saying that they needed an atmosphere of oxygen to mine the resources or that they as a policy first subdue any populations that might be a threat before mining a solar system. On the other hand, perhaps it is better to leave them a little mysterious. Part of the problem is that the aliens are a bit too much like us. They share our eyes, nose, mouth configuration, our five-fingered hands. This in spite of the fact that a daisy is a closer relative to us than they are. Not only are they too similar, their technology is way, way too similar. Humans can figure out how to fly craft instrumented for their anatomy and designed by their psychology. We are able to write and run programs on their computers. Isaac Newton was much closer to us than they are in terms of mental processes and I doubt that if he stumbled somehow on a modern PC it would be able to do much with it without instructions. Mark R. Leeper mleeper@lucent.com Copyright 1996 Mark R. Leeper From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Jul 15 13:36:39 1996 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!solace!paladin.american.edu!zombie.ncsc.mil!newsgate.duke.edu!godot.cc.duq.edu!newsfeed.pitt.edu!gatech!rutgers!cbgw3.att.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: ram@mbisgi.umd.edu (Ram Samudrala) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 8 Jul 1996 14:50:09 GMT Organization: The Centre for Advanced Research in Biotechnology Lines: 51 Sender: ecl@mtgbcs.lucent.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: ecl@mtgbcs.lucent.com Message-ID: <4rr771$187@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: ram@mbisgi.umd.edu (Ram Samudrala) NNTP-Posting-Host: mthost1.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #05594 Keywords: author=Samudrala Originator: ecl@mthost1 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:4923 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1010 INDEPENDENCE DAY A film review by Ram Samudrala Copyright 1996 Ram Samudrala I suppose it is too much to hope that a movie featuring aliens attempting to conquer Earth actually achieve their goal. /Independence Day/, like most other man-meets-alien stories, follows the tradition of letting the weaker side win. Given that, how humans win against the latest threat from outer space is chronicled elaborately in /Independence Day/ with some great special effects and sound. Almost 50 years ago, an alien space ship crashed on earth. Presumably the aliens aboard were investigating the potential of the planet for their eventual consumption. The U.S. government decided not to release any of this information to the public and even people in high positions of political power had no idea this incident occured. The truth is brought to light on July 2 and 3rd, 1996 when a massive contingency of alien spaceships begin to destroy major cities around the globe. On July 4th, America's Independence Day, the planet unites to wage war against the seemingly impenetrable alien forces. When the U.S. government's typical strategies ("nuke the hell out of them") fail, David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum) discovers how to penetrate the mother ship circling in orbit using the alien ship that had crashed in the forties. With the aid of Captain Steven Hiller (Will Smith), they go into space with the intention of launching a computer virus to incapacitate the invaders' shields. The acting is pretty decent. Will Smith is his same old charming yet cocky self. Jeff Goldblum continues to portray the off-beat genius-type who saves the day. Brent Spiner appears in an amazing cameo as an eccentric scientist who is in charge of the Area 51 base that houses the aliens (in formaldehde?) and their ship. Bill Pullman plays a refreshing kind of President not typically seen in movies (or real life for that matter), who actually joins in the fight against the invaders. The basic plot leaves much to be desired, however. While /Independence Day/ is filled with special effects that make the alien invasion look highly realistic, the whole plot was handled better in the Star Trek episodes that involved the invasion of the Borg. I've pondered the issue of what would happen if aliens really invaded the earth. If a race of beings were technologically superior they would completely and totally annihilate us before we blinked. What the aliens are attempting to do in the movie is really no different from what humans have been doing to each other for centuries. me@ram.org || http://www.ram.org || http://www.twisted-helices.com/th From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Jul 15 13:37:19 1996 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!solace!nntp.uio.no!news.cais.net!hunter.premier.net!netnews.worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.att.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: legeros@nando.net (Michael J. Legeros) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 8 Jul 1996 21:06:29 GMT Organization: none Lines: 90 Sender: eleeper@lucent.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: eleeper@lucent.com Message-ID: <4rrt8l$336@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: legeros@nando.net (Michael J. Legeros) NNTP-Posting-Host: mthost2.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #05604 Keywords: author=Legeros Originator: ecl@mthost2 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:4932 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1012 INDEPENDENCE DAY A film review by Michael John Legeros Copyright 1996 Michael John Legeros (Fox) Directed by Roland Emmerich Written by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich Cast Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, Margaret Colin, Robert Loggia, Vivica Fox, Judd Hirsch, Mary McDonnell, Randy Quaid, Brent Spiner, James Rebhorn, Harvey Fierstein, Harry Connick Jr., Adam Baldwin MPAA Rating "PG-13" Running Time 162 minutes Reviewed at Mission Valley Cinemas, Raleigh, NC (2JUL96) == Talk about fireworks! Director Roland Emmerich (STARGATE) and his co-writing and producing partner Dean Devlin (also from STARGATE) have cannily combined three decades worth of popcorn pictures-- chiefly by drawing upon the colliding worlds of George Pal, George Lucas, and Irwin Allen-- to create this spectacular, super-cheesy, and surprisingly good-natured depiction of the end of the world as we know it. The formula should be familiar to anyone under the age of seventy: ominous music precedes a coming threat which is followed by mass destruction which is survived by an ensemble of stock characters who are played by B-list actors who must react to special effects that we know they can't see all while looking very serious as their characters work together to save the rest of the human race. Did I miss anything? Oh yeah, and they make a *lot* of jokes along the way. INDEPENDENCE DAY is conveniently divided into three acts. On day one, titled "July 2," an armada of 15-mile wide spaceships position themselves over the world's major cities. In the United States-- the movie focuses almost entirely on what happens in America. Touche international interests-- panic ensues, people head for the hills, and the President (Bill Pullman, probably miscast but who cares?) wonders if we can't all just get along. In Los Angeles, a rooftop group of "New Agers" are the first to be vaporized-- an amusing touch-- in the most frightening firestorm seen on-screen since TERMINATOR 2: JUDGEMENT DAY. New York and D.C. are also leveled, but not before Air Force One escapes. Billions die and hundreds of theater seats are mangled as audience members hold on for dear life. On day two, titled "July 3" and do you see a pattern here?, the survivors begin formulating their strategies for fighting back. The brain trust, congregated at a secret military installation in the Southwest, includes a brilliant broadcast engineer (Jeff Goldblum), a wise-cracking fighter pilot (Will Smith, a scene- stealer), a suspicious Secretary of Defense (James Rebhorn), and a geeky government scientist played by none other than Brent Spiner, better known as Data from the television series "Star Trek: the Next Generation." (Needless to say, his appearance causes certain audience members to begin foaming at the mouth. Don't forget your Ritalin, boys.) There's even a kooky crop duster on hand, played by Randy Quaid, who swears that he was once abducted by aliens. Thank goodness we're watching a movie that doesn't take itself too seriously! Day three is the big finale, when the President makes a cornball speech and everyone charges off to "kick E.T.'s ass." This last hour is also the weakest section in the film. In particular, the editing could use a few nips and tucks toward the end. (Here, a scene runs long; there, a sequence seems slightly truncated.) Another suggestion for the inevitable director's cut: add more scientific mumbo jumbo. Though INDEPENDENCE DAY consistently adheres to its own scientific principals-- such as joysticks being the intergalactic standard for fighter craft controls-- even a *little* more explanation would go a long way to satisfying the nit-pickers who are currently clogging the Internet with their discussions of same. INDEPENDENCE DAY is probably the most honest of the summer movies. Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin are, indeed, the Real Thing-- that increasingly rare breed of genuine showmen, whose dedication to their craft can seemingly survive any attempt at prepackaging by their marketing department. These guys want nothing more than to put on a good show and, thus, their movie lacks even a whiff of pretension. (Which, undoubtedly, is a source of frustration for many critics.) All that is good, bad, and ugly about sci-fi and disaster films is represented here. Given the range of intentional references-- from the likes of THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE to THE WAR OF THE WORLDS-- I suspect that both Roland and Dean would even be proud to see their movie shown on MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000. It's *that* cool. Grade: B+ -- Mike Legeros - Raleigh, NC legeros@nando.net (h) - legeros@unx.sas.com (w) Visit me in MOVIE HELL From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Jul 15 13:38:37 1996 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!solace!umdac!newsfeed.sunet.se!news00.sunet.se!sunic!news99.sunet.se!news.kth.se!nntp.uio.no!Norway.EU.net!EU.net!sun4nl!sun4nl!wirehub!news.euro.net!venus.euro.net!uunet!in2.uu.net!netnews.worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.att.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: mredman@bvoice.com (Michael Redman) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 13 Jul 1996 13:54:32 GMT Organization: ... Lines: 71 Sender: eleeper@lucent.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: eleeper@lucent.com Message-ID: <4s89qo$lkp@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: mredman@bvoice.com (Michael Redman) NNTP-Posting-Host: mthost1.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #05609 Keywords: author=Redman Originator: ecl@mthost1 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:4943 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1016 INDEPENDENCE DAY A film review by Michael Redman Copyright 1996 Michael Redman ***1/2 (out of ****) First of all, there are several different things going on here, all separate but connected parts of the whole. There is "ID4: The Movie", "ID4: The Ride", and lest we forget, "ID4: The Hype And Cash Machine". Unless you've been in a coma for the past few months or don't have cable and watch only PBS, you've been exposed to the unprecedented advertising campaign. When you heard the words "Independence Day", it was a safe bet they weren't talking about the holiday. Rarely has any film aroused such pre-release excitement. So exciting that it generated over $94 million during its first 5 1/2 days of release. So exciting that dozens of theaters around the country were showing 24 hour screenings for the first few days: shows at 1:30am, 4:00am, 6:30am. So exciting that tickets were sold out hours before the shows to people camping in line with big coolers and sleeping bags. No matter how good the movie turned out to be, the hype was a work of art itself. Somehow Fox even arranged for a massive power black-out up and down the west coast on opening night. "ID4: The Ride"? It's phenomenal! Some films are more like amusement park thrillers than cinema and this is one of the best of that genre. Just take your seat, strap in and hold on. Monitor your cola consumption because the roller coaster doesn't provide many breaks. One of the marks of audience involvement is their relationship with their bladders: how casually they take their trips to the restroom. Here, people are __sprinting__ to and from the john so as not to miss anything. There's enough stuff blown up and smashed and burned to a crisp to satisfy any summer action junkie. Jet fighters zooming here and there, alien death rays trashing all the world's major cities, massive devastation on a global scale! It's perfect! The best science fiction ride since the "Star Wars" films. And then there's that pesky "ID4: The Movie" thing. There are a few problems. There's nothing new here. The producers have ripped off dozens of films ("Close Encounters", "Star Wars", "War Of The Worlds", "The Right Stuff", "Dr. Strangelove", "Jurassic Park", "The Day The Earth Stood Still" and on and on and on), word for word, scene for scene. During one dogfight scene with Will Smith being chased through canyons by an alien ship, I was sure I was about to hear "Use the Force, Will. Use the Force!" I believe that kinder reviewers call these scenes "homages", but it's an odd film that can succeed with nothing but homages. Fortunately "ID4" is that odd film. All of the pieces are well crafted into a quilt that, while it isn't original, sure does its job. The casting is top-notch in most cases. The Fresh Prince is surprisingly refreshing as the wise-cracking jet pilot who becomes earth's last hope. Jeff Goldblum as the computer wiz who figures it all out works well with Judd Hirsch, his kibitzing dad. Randy Quaid, Harvey Fierstein and Harry Connick, Jr., among dozens of others, are grand. Bill Pullman as the Clintonesque president is something of a dead fish (or is that lame duck?), but then, we expect most of our politicians to behave that way. See it. You'll have to forget about any attempt to look at the film intellectually, but let it possess your body and take over. You'll love it! [This originally appeared in "The Bloomington Voice", Bloomington, Indiana, 7/11/96. Michael Redman can be reached at mredman@bvoice.com] From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Jul 15 13:39:27 1996 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!solace!umdac!newsfeed.sunet.se!news00.sunet.se!sunic!news99.sunet.se!news.kth.se!nntp.uio.no!Norway.EU.net!EU.net!sun4nl!sun4nl!wirehub!news.euro.net!venus.euro.net!uunet!in2.uu.net!netnews.worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.att.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: noraruth@aol.com (Andrew Hicks) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 13 Jul 1996 13:54:47 GMT Organization: University of Missouri - Columbia Lines: 86 Sender: eleeper@lucent.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: eleeper@lucent.com Message-ID: <4s89r7$lkq@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: noraruth@aol.com (Andrew Hicks) NNTP-Posting-Host: mthost1.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #05610 Keywords: author=Hicks Originator: ecl@mthost1 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:4944 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1017 INDEPENDENCE DAY A film review by Andrew Hicks Copyright 1996 Andrew Hicks / Fatboy Productions (1996) **** (out of four) Nothing has been more hyped this summer than the release of Independence Day. The trailer has been playing non-stop for months, long enough for me to be able to recite Will Smith's soundbite of "I'm just a little anxious to get up there and kick E.T.'s ass, that's all," in my sleep. And the movie theater I went to was so crowded there were actually cops directing traffic out of the parking lot. It was playing on three screens with a line around the corner and the first showing sold out. With the only other opening-day competition being the John Travolta melodrama PHENOMENON (which looks pretty Tra-volting to me), I knew they were all there for INDEPENDENCE DAY, probably the movie event of the decade so far. But is it worthy to be hailed as an event? In two words -- yes. It may not have the artistic merit of a SCHINDLER'S LIST, but this is the common man's classic, mainstream entertainment that draws average audiences together and envelops them completely. INDEPENDENCE DAY is a huge-scale epic worthy of the hype, one which shamelessly exploits those last lingering shreds of patriotism we all still have. It's STAR WARS plus ALIEN plus TOP GUN with hints of 70's ensemble disaster movies like THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE and AIRPORT (but I'm not holding the last two against them). There are no huge stars in INDEPENDENCE DAY -- no Arnold protecting Vanessa Williams or Sean Connery breaking into Alcatraz, not even any names above the title. Instead we get second-string stars like Will Smith as an overly brave fighter pilot, Jeff Goldblum as the earth-friendly genius (pretty much the same character he played in POWDER), Bill Pullman as the President, Randy Quaid as the eccentric crop duster who claims a previous alien encounter and Judd Hirsch of "Taxi" as Goldblum's stereotypical Jewish father. Then there are the brief screen-time casualties like Harvey Fierstein, who vamps his way through the first reel, Harry Connick Jr. as a fellow fighter pilot and Brent "Data" Spiner, a government scientist who gets attacked by an alien who must have heard his "Old Yellow Eyes" loungeact album on K-Tel records. (Hell, _I'd_ travel the galaxy to kill Spiner after listening to that.) Countless others die, of course, when the giant hovering spacecrafts show up over New York, Washington, L.A. and the other key Earth cities. The first third of INDEPENDENCE DAY, the most chilling and compelling part of the movie, is devoted to the arrival of the spacecrafts over Earth. Scenes of mass panic and destruction on a huge scale abound, with strategic shots of skyscrapers crumbling, giant fireballs engrossing the masses and even the White House exploding ("Hillary! Chelsea!"). Goldblum, a cable technician, is the first to figure out that the aliens haven't come in peace, and intervenes accordingly. But that's just the beginning. The second day of our three day epic brings the first human retaliation attempts, centering around Bad Boy Will Smith's bloated-ego action hero techniques, which is when you remember you're still only watching a movie. As authentic as the INDEPENDENCE DAY visuals are, the biggest implausibilities are in the mostly one-note characters and how lightly they seem to take the news of impending global destruction, as if they'd already read the script and know things will be okay in the end. It's not a perfect movie by any stretch of the imagination but is such an incredible experience that you can easily overlook the rampant implausibility and dialogue which would in other circumstances seem laughable. In forty years, as the special effects become dated, the flaws will seem more obvious and INDEPENDENCE DAY may well join the Bad Movie Hall of Fame, but right now it's the best entertainment of the year. What it lacks in big-name draws or intelligence of plot it more than makes up for in visual effects and the collective anxiety it invokes over the fate of the characters, not to mention the planet. -- Visit the Movie Critic at LARGE homepage at http://www.missouri.edu/~c667778/movies.html Serving America For Over 1/50 of a Century! From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Jul 15 13:39:45 1996 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!solace!umdac!newsfeed.sunet.se!news00.sunet.se!sunic!news99.sunet.se!news.kth.se!nntp.uio.no!Norway.EU.net!EU.net!news-res.gsl.net!news.gsl.net!nntp.coast.net!news.kei.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!in2.uu.net!netnews.worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.att.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: e-jahiel@uiuc.edu (Edwin Jahiel) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 13 Jul 1996 13:55:32 GMT Organization: university of illinois Lines: 86 Sender: eleeper@lucent.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: eleeper@lucent.com Message-ID: <4s89sk$lks@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: e-jahiel@uiuc.edu (Edwin Jahiel) NNTP-Posting-Host: mthost1.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #05613 Keywords: author=Jahiel Originator: ecl@mthost1 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:4945 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1018 INDEPENDENCE DAY A film review by Edwin Jahiel Copyright 1996 Edwin Jahiel INDEPENDENCE DAY ** 1/2 Directed by Roland Emmerich. Written by Dean Devlin & Emmerich. Photograhy, Karl Walter Lindenlaub. Editing, David Brenner. Production design, Oliver Scholl, Patrick Tatopoulos. Music, David Arnold. Cast: Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Mary McDonnell, Judd Hirsch, Margaret Colin, Randy Quaid, Robert Loggia, James Rebhorn, Vivica A. Fox, et al. A TCF release. 145 minutes. Rated PG-13. With the absence of the Soviet Evil Empire, Hollywood is searching for arch-enemies. An old one has resurfaced in "Independence Day" : the Nasties from Outer Space. The action take place on a very near future's July 2,3 and 4, when Earth is attacked by alien machines. The enemy follows the principle of those nested Russian dolls, only limited to three. A mothership one-fourth the size of the moon contains mega-saucers (about 15 miles wide) that contain critters. The mothership (it looks sometimes like a megamongous manhole cover), travels to Earth, releases its ominous saucers that position themselves over major Earth cities, casting giant shadows. They shoot rays that destroy totally New York, Los Angeles and Washington. You wonder why they use the ray-by-ray method instead of a single H-Bomb equivalent. But then this is a kid-flick of the "You who enter here abandon all logic" persuasion. It is also, among a host of deja vu things, a return to the 50s and 60s Cold War fears that sometimes appeared in the guise of space invaders; a monster/horror movie; 70s and 80s space movies; and a countdown flick. There are lots of American heroes around. Highest ranking is President Bill Pullman, a former fighter-plane hero of the Gulf war, but with most of the prowess done by fighter top gun Captain Will Smith. (He has a charming girlfriend, stripper Vivica Fox. She has a kid and a great dog). The brains are supplied by Jeff Goldblum, a computer/communications nerd/genius, whose ex-wife Margaret Colin just happens to be the President's Chief of Staff. (Needless to say the couple are still in love). Many people and vehicles populate IP, which is a no-brains, special effects film, and a fun movie. But at some point after the destruction of the cities (impressive), the film gets increasingly comic-bookish and begins to bore --in my case around minute 80. After this one gets a surfeit of effects at the expense of plot and characters. Some of the effects in the final battle are downright cheap and cheesy composites, like video games. Matters slide down after the Freak Show of an alien critter saved in a secret laboratory years ago, with its craft, after it crash-landed in New Mexico. The alien is straight out of "Alien" movies -- a disgusting, slimy, gooey, oozy affair with tentacles. My interest kept waning, except for worrying about Ms. Fox's lovely big dog. It survived unharmed. ID is as synthetic as they get. The final solution against the aliens is a twist of the 1953 "War of the Worlds" where Martians were destroyed by germs. Here the germs are updated to computer germs or viruses. While I'm at it, let me tell you that I'm writing this on a computer on which I have lavished days of work to get out of a glitch, while Goldblum's laptop does wonders in seconds even after the destruction of the cities. The characters are by and large cardboard creations in whom cliches extend to everything: actions, reactions, facial expressions, gestures --and dialogue with lines like:"All we can do now is pray" or "What your father did was very brave. You should be proud of him." The father in question is another cliche. Vietnam veteran Randy Quaid, who claimed to have been abducted, abused and release by aliens is a subject of mockery and an alcoholic crop-duster pilot. But can't we guess right away that at the end he'll be sober, and a hero? Can't we also guess that the President will join the other brave pilots to attack the outer-spacers? OK, but I draw the line at the crash session where civilians (older former pilots) get instructed in flying the latest US planes --and Captain Smith figures out how to operate the old alien craft! ID tries to a be Politically Correct, but I am not sure that stressing the Jewishness of Goldblum's father (Judd Hirsch) in caricatural fashion, or, similarly, the gayness of a Government scientist (gravel-voiced Harvey Fierstein), were thought through by the film's German writer-director. There are no Asian-Americans, by the way. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Jul 15 13:41:22 1996 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!newsfeed.sunet.se!news00.sunet.se!sunic!mn6.swip.net!solace!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!munnari.OZ.AU!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!in2.uu.net!netnews.worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.att.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: azur@netcom.com (Steve Schear) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 13 Jul 1996 13:55:18 GMT Organization: ? Lines: 83 Sender: eleeper@lucent.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: eleeper@lucent.com Message-ID: <4s89s6$lkr@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: azur@netcom.com (Steve Schear) NNTP-Posting-Host: mthost1.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #05612 Keywords: author=Schear Originator: ecl@mthost1 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:4947 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1019 ID4 = (SCI-FI) - SCI INDEPENDENCE DAY [SPOILER] A film review by Steve Schear Copyright 1996 Steve Schear In short: An entertaining, if juvevile, summer Sci-Fi flic. INDEPENDENCE DAY (ID4) is full of great special effects, poor science, a few memorable one-liners and a thin plot lifted from WAR OF THE WORLDS and a two-part STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION episode. ID4 will no doubt make gobs of money, but I predict will be no more memorable than the team's previous, also flawed, effort "STARGATE". Cast in the footsteps of Irwin Allen's destruction epics, ID4 has a large cast of stereotypical characters with little for an over 25 audience to identify with. The plot is simple: Evil aliens come to conquor Earth in a mother ship 1/4th the size of the moon and dispatch a dozen or so "smaller" ships, only a 15-miles across, to lay waste to Earth's cities. Not since George Pal's 1953 film THE WAR OF THE WORLDS has someone had the guts to offer up a decent global destruction, alien invasion, film. The special effects for showing the massive carnage were considered too expensive. Producer and director Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin (who co-wrote the screenplay) were convinced the technology was ready and cost effective, and the results are spectacular. However, from the start the screenwriters basic leave science behind (they obviously never took Astronomy 101). If an object the size (and assumed mass) of the Mother Ship came into Earth's proximity our world would be quickly torn apart by tidal forces. This is how the astroids were formed. No need to invade. The aliens could just harvest the debris. As humanity's extermination begins, the characters lives are drawn together. Although it seems we don't have a chance, somehow we have to find a way to beat their superior technology. The Alien ships are huge and protected by an impenetratable shield. This is going to be really tough, in fact, its really impossible given the available time and Earth's technolgy. And therein lie the problem! ID4 would have been much better and more believable had the Aliens won the first round, destroying the Earth. Bill Pullman plays the American President as a completly unbelievable character, an honest politition. A naive young ex-fighter pilot of the gulf war, with strong honor and ethics, he'd must have run as a self-funded independent to get elected. He's weak and nice, not at all the type to be a leader. Given the script, the performances are very good. Will Smith plays a charming and cocky fighter pilot; Jeff Goldblum is a nebish computer nerd, with Judd Hirsch as his streotypical Jewish father; and Brent Spinner is great as a recluse xenobiologist in charge of the top-secret Area 51 base. I felt that Brent's role should have been expanded. A good cameo is given by Harry Connick, Jr. as Will's squadron mate, and beautiful Vivica Fox offers up a good love interest for Will. The special effects are the focus of the movie. Most impressive are the destruction of New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. Trekkies should recognize ID4's plot as little more than a thin re-hash of TNG's Borg episode. The Mother ship with its reliance on central coordination is almost straight from the series, as is Goldblum's use of a computer virus to disable the Alien defenses. The President is taken to Area 51 where Brent shows him the bodies of three Aliens and their fighter craft which crashed almost 50 years ago in the New Mexico desert. Government scientists had been studying them all this time, but couldn't figure out how they work, or even get the ship to power up. That is until the Mother ship and its coordinating signal is received. The speed, only a few hours, with which Jeff's character is able to comprehend the intracicies of an Alien technology and devise a computer virus was for me the script's last straw. Jeff and Will volunteer to deliver a pair of nukes to the mother ship using the resurected Alien fighter. That they could fool the Mother ship's advanced communication and coordination technology into accepting into its bossom a craft missing for 50 years, made my jaw drop. The renowned English playright Oscar Wilde must have had works like ID4 in mind when quiped that, "Nobody ever lost money underestimating the intelligence of the audience." From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Jul 15 13:41:41 1996 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!solace!umdac!newsfeed.sunet.se!news00.sunet.se!sunic!news.sprintlink.net!news-stk-200.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!news-stk-11.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!new-news.sprintlink.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!in2.uu.net!netnews.worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.att.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: BXBE64F@prodigy.com (Larry Mcgillicuddy) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 13 Jul 1996 13:56:43 GMT Organization: Prodigy Services Company 1-800-PRODIGY Lines: 57 Sender: eleeper@lucent.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: eleeper@lucent.com Message-ID: <4s89ur$ll0@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: BXBE64F@prodigy.com (Larry Mcgillicuddy) NNTP-Posting-Host: mthost1.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #05611 Keywords: author=McGillicuddy Originator: ecl@mthost1 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:4941 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1014 INDEPENDENCE DAY A film review by Larry McGillicuddy Copyright 1996 Larry McGillicuddy **** (out of 4) Directed by Roland Emmerich Starring Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Will Smith, Margaret Colin,Robert Loggia, Mary McDonnell, Judd Hirsch, Randy Quaid, Harry Connick Jr., Harvey Fierstein, Adam Baldwin, Andrew Keegan, Devon Gummersall Review- Stargate was one of the worst science fiction movies I've ever seen. It was dull, moronic, and not exciting for a minute. Roland Emmerich directed that movie. Someone named Roland Emmerich directed this movie. Before I saw Independence Day, I thought it was the same person. Now I'm not so sure. There is nothing dull or moronic about this movie, and I was gripped the entire way through. In short, Independence Day delivers exactly what it promised. Independence Day provides us with an old reliable scare story. What if we were visited from another planet? What if the visitors were not so friendly? How would we react to this situation? All of these questions are answered in an exciting, intelligent, and humorous way. Aliens have entered our atmosphere. At first we're not so sure what to expect. All the world can do is wait. Then a mathemetician played by Jeff Goldblum (big stretch, huh?) discovers the aliens are using our satellites against us. In doing so, he is able to warn the White House so they can get out of Washington DC soon enough, saving the lives of many, including the president, played by Bill Pullman. A fighter pilot, played by Will Smith, survives a dogfight with an alien spaceship, and drags the alien from its damaged spacecraft to a secret base. Many cities have been destroyed and not much time is left. The Americans must discover a way to fight back. A stellar cast of reliable character actors was assembled for this movie. Bill Pullman plays the president with great dignity and honor, and a speech he gives to the troops on the night of the counterattack had me cheering, along with the rest of the audience. jeff Goldblum, one of my favorite actors, is just as quirky, original, and amusing as he always is. His offbeat line readings are always a great pleasure, and they work very well here. Will Smith is quickly becoming a major movie star, and he is the best hotshot fighter pilot since Tom Cruise. He also gets much funnier things to say than in Bad Boys, for example. And then there are the special effects. Not for one second were any of them unbeleivable. The over 2 hour running time, which never feels long, leaves room for enough romantic subplots that even Jeff Goldblum gets one. If you want to see some Americans banding with the rest of the world to "get up there and woop ET's ass" go see Independence Day. I'll probably be in line with you when I see it again. This movie was worth the hype. **** Excellent *** Good ** Below Par * Very Bad No Stars No Redeeming Qualities at all. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Jul 15 13:42:35 1996 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!newsfeed.sunet.se!news00.sunet.se!sunic!news.sprintlink.net!news-stk-200.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!news-pen-14.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!new-news.sprintlink.net!howland.reston.ans.net!nntp.coast.net!netnews.worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.att.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: jmaguire@biddeford.com (Kevin Maguire) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 14 Jul 1996 15:23:48 GMT Organization: none Lines: 69 Sender: eleeper@lucent.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: eleeper@lucent.com Message-ID: <4sb3e4$ncf@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: jmaguire@biddeford.com (Kevin Maguire) NNTP-Posting-Host: mthost1.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #05634 Keywords: author=Maguire Originator: ecl@mthost1 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:4966 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1023 INDEPENDENCE DAY A film review by Kevin Maguire Copyright 1996 Kevin Maguire Director: Roland Emmerich Producer: Dean Devlin Stars: Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, Harvey Feirstein, Randy Quaid, Mary McDonnell, James Rebhorn, Judd Hirsch, Harry Connick Jr., Robert Loggia. Moviegoers like two things about summer movies. For June and July, we ask for big, slick, hard-nosed thrillers. In August, we check our watches, and go down to the playhouse to watch films that prospered at Cannes and Sundance. You would expect that INDEPENDENCE DAY(Twentieth Century Fox, PG-13) would be exactly number one. But really, ID4 is engineered so that ALL can see the forthright special effects. But really, the filmakers are eliminating where they can get the meat, the action. But no, not one star says a swear. I would expect if a 15 mile long object was hovering into your atmosphere, SOMEONE would say an expletive. Let's steer clear of the complaints for a second, of which I could go on and on about. ID4 sets out to do something that it virtually can't lose at. It's a 75 million dollar picture, with the Empire State Building, the White House and other objects crashing to the ground. I mean, how could the audience be disapointed? The comedy is an engaging part, because it puts more into the characters that a regular action film would. Will Smith plays a fighter pilot, and his lines are well written. he's given one funny line after the other in a desert. But the thing is, when is the comedy appropriate? When Will Smith was in the desert, it was only several minutes after his buddy, played by Harry Connick Jr., was shot down and killed. Smith even laughs when he finds the body, and the alien that gobbled it up. Also, it a scene before that, the pilots are preparing a full-frontal attack on the ship, when we find Will Smith delivering lines again. ID4 seems to have fallen victim to the TWISTER syndrom. The filmmakers, too busy with high level effects, don't bother to give the film any emotional base. It's all action, so essentially, we can't follow the actors, and we can't understand what they do and why they do it. Of course, ID4 will keep you, at least for a good half of it, out of your seat. The advertising campaign, however, has put too many of the films shots in the previews, so I had seen half of them already. ID4, althought not realizing it's trying, is striving to make STAR WARS 4. They're trying to reincarnate the Han Solo character as Will Smith. Of course, Will Smith is not as good an actor as Harrison Ford, and never will be. They try to put Luke Skywalker as the President, played by Bill Pullman, whose wife is in a plane crash, then is discovered by Will Smith's wife. After all this, the movie kills her. My final complaint, however, goes to the writers lack of ingenuity in creating new characters. Jeff Goldblum not only is a blueprint on Ian, the mathematician from JURASSIC PARK, but he has the same lines as him in the end of the movie, saying "Go faster. Must go faster." And Randy Quaid, from the upcoming KINGPIN, is redoing his part from the NATIONAL LAMPOON movies. Ditto for Harvey Feirstein, who plays the gay guy over and over again, so that it gets repetitive. The summer is moving pretty fast, but so far, I'm still waiting for the emotional part of it. Which brings up a pretty interesting point, did ID4 show at Sundance...??? Rating : B- Kevin Maguire From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu Jul 18 11:16:37 1996 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!newsfeed.sunet.se!news00.sunet.se!sunic!news.sprintlink.net!news-stk-200.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!news-chi-13.sprintlink.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!news.kei.com!nntp.coast.net!netnews.worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.att.com!cbgw1.att.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: sci40166@leonis.nus.sg (Chew Joo Siang) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 17 Jul 1996 21:19:17 GMT Organization: National University of Singapore Lines: 74 Sender: eleeper@lucent.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: eleeper@lucent.com Message-ID: <4sjlcl$c2u@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: sci40166@leonis.nus.sg (Chew Joo Siang) NNTP-Posting-Host: mthost1.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #05649 Keywords: author=Siang Originator: ecl@mthost1 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:4981 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1026 INDEPENDENCE DAY A film review by Chew Joo Siang Copyright 1996 Chew Joo Siang Directed by : Roland Emmerich Written by : Dean Devlin & Roland Emmerich Cast : Will Smith (Cpt. Steven Hiller) Bill Pullman (President Whitmore) Jeff Goldblum (David) Randy Quaid (Russell) Judd Hirsch (Julius) Produced by : 20th Century Fox / Centropolis Entertainment Running Time : 2hrs 20minutes Rating : **** out of ***** 50's `ALIENS VS. EARTH' IDEA REVAMPED! If you have been following the movie news over the net, you could not have escaped the hype over ID4. It promises to be THE summer film of the year and it has all the elements necessary. ID4 opened in the US on 2nd of July, and up till now, only after a week of release, it has nearly touched the US$100 million mark, a phenomenon last observed when JURASSIC PARK was released back in 1993. The premise of the movie is disgustingly simple: Earth defends itself against the Aliens, a typical and highly popular 50's Hollywood theme which manifested itself in many films produced in that era. The movie opens via STAR WARS, however unoriginal it may be, it worked. The aliens have sent a large mother ship (supposedly to be 1/4 size of the moon) to attack Earth by deploying attack ships 15 miles in radius to all the major cities on Earth. The US President (Pullman) does not know of the aliens' intention but soon finds out when David (Goldblum) a scientist, discovers that the Aliens are counting down to a synchronised attack on all the major cities. Capt. Hiller (Smith), a hot-shot F-18 pilot are one of the hundreds assigned to take out the hovering alien attack ship over Washington DC. His squadron came under heavy alien fire after discovering that their weapons were useless against the invaders, he crash lands after a spectacular 1-on-1 chase over the Grand Canyon, one of the many highlights of the movie. ID4 features many characters and we are shown the impact on them as the story progresses. Acting on the whole was OK although I thought that Bill Pullman was a bit unsuitable for the president role but he did make a very rousing speech before sending his troops into battle (do we smell a bit of BRAVEHEART here??). No prizes for guessing how ID4 ends, its just plain obvious. ID4 borrows heavily from STAR WARS, RETURN OF THE JEDI, ALIEN and in some parts of the movie, I could even sense a bit of X-FILES on screen. If I were to critically review this movie, ID4 is full of plot holes, corny dialogue, and ridiculously dumb aliens. However below that wFrom rec.arts.sf.reviews Sun Aug 4 02:34:33 1996 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!newsfeed.sunet.se!news00.sunet.se!sunic!news.sprintlink.net!news-stk-200.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!news-chi-13.sprintlink.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!news.kei.com!nntp.coast.net!netnews.worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.att.com!cbgw1.att.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: sci40166@leonis.nus.sg (Chew Joo Siang) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 17 Jul 1996 21:19:17 GMT Organization: National University of Singapore Lines: 74 Sender: eleeper@lucent.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: eleeper@lucent.com Message-ID: <4sjlcl$c2u@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: sci40166@leonis.nus.sg (Chew Joo Siang) NNTP-Posting-Host: mthost1.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #05649 Keywords: author=Siang Originator: ecl@mthost1 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:4981 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1026 INDEPENDENCE DAY A film review by Chew Joo Siang Copyright 1996 Chew Joo Siang Directed by : Roland Emmerich Written by : Dean Devlin & Roland Emmerich Cast : Will Smith (Cpt. Steven Hiller) Bill Pullman (President Whitmore) Jeff Goldblum (David) Randy Quaid (Russell) Judd Hirsch (Julius) Produced by : 20th Century Fox / Centropolis Entertainment Running Time : 2hrs 20minutes Rating : **** out of ***** 50's `ALIENS VS. EARTH' IDEA REVAMPED! If you have been following the movie news over the net, you could not have escaped the hype over ID4. It promises to be THE summer film of the year and it has all the elements necessary. ID4 opened in the US on 2nd of July, and up till now, only after a week of release, it has nearly touched the US$100 million mark, a phenomenon last observed when JURASSIC PARK was released back in 1993. The premise of the movie is disgustingly simple: Earth defends itself against the Aliens, a typical and highly popular 50's Hollywood theme which manifested itself in many films produced in that era. The movie opens via STAR WARS, however unoriginal it may be, it worked. The aliens have sent a large mother ship (supposedly to be 1/4 size of the moon) to attack Earth by deploying attack ships 15 miles in radius to all the major cities on Earth. The US President (Pullman) does not know of the aliens' intention but soon finds out when David (Goldblum) a scientist, discovers that the Aliens are counting down to a synchronised attack on all the major cities. Capt. Hiller (Smith), a hot-shot F-18 pilot are one of the hundreds assigned to take out the hovering alien attack ship over Washington DC. His squadron came under heavy alien fire after discovering that their weapons were useless against the invaders, he crash lands after a spectacular 1-on-1 chase over the Grand Canyon, one of the many highlights of the movie. ID4 features many characters and we are shown the impact on them as the story progresses. Acting on the whole was OK although I thought that Bill Pullman was a bit unsuitable for the president role but he did make a very rousing speech before sending his troops into battle (do we smell a bit of BRAVEHEART here??). No prizes for guessing how ID4 ends, its just plain obvious. ID4 borrows heavily from STAR WARS, RETURN OF THE JEDI, ALIEN and in some parts of the movie, I could even sense a bit of X-FILES on screen. If I were to critically review this movie, ID4 is full of plot holes, corny dialogue, and ridiculously dumb aliens. However below that wafer-thin plot and on-screen flaws, ID4 scored well in playing with the appealing idea of the entire world giving up their petty differences to unite themselves as one force against the alien invasion. An idea which will have the audience strongly rooting for the united front throughout the movie, thus maintaining a screen-viewer interaction that virtually render any holes in the movie acceptable, no matter how ridiculous. ID4 was produced under a modest budget of US$68 million, a film of such magnitude would have easily been another WATERWORLD but director ROLAND EMMERICH (UNIVERSAL SOLDIER, STARGATE) and producer DEAN DEVLIN assembled a team which did their own special effects rather than commissioning it to ILM or any other special effects company. Some of the effects are not too good but most of it are very believable, especially the epic standoff between 150 F-18's and 250 alien saucers, reminiscence of the classic space battle featured in RETURN OF THE JEDI. ID4 is a movie for all. Though there are many explosions and implied deaths, there are no gory scenes of human destruction, thus young kids should be able to take it. Sit back and don't be too critical, chances are you will be absorbed into the movie just as I was. If you are not planning to watch any movies this year, please, at least make time for this one. This film is best watched on the big-screen. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sun Aug 4 02:35:14 1996 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!newsfeed.sunet.se!news00.sunet.se!sunic!news.sprintlink.net!news-stk-200.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!news-chi-13.sprintlink.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!news.kei.com!nntp.coast.net!netnews.worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.att.com!cbgw1.att.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: sbrenner@cts.com (Alex Brenner) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 17 Jul 1996 21:19:40 GMT Organization: None Lines: 152 Sender: eleeper@lucent.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: eleeper@lucent.com Message-ID: <4sjldc$c30@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: sbrenner@cts.com (Alex Brenner) NNTP-Posting-Host: mthost1.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #05650 Keywords: author=Brenner Originator: ecl@mthost1 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:4982 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1027 INDEPENDENCE DAY A film review by Alex Brenner Copyright 1996 Alex Brenner Dir: Roland Emmerich Will Smith Bill Pullman Jeff Goldblum Harvey Fierstein Harry Connick Jr. At the risk of labouring an already overstressed point, I felt that it would be worth adding my tu'penny ha'penny worth to the debate surrounding this vastly popular film. It seems to be the case now that every year the moviegoing public selects one or two films and makes them massively successful, and they are, largely without exception poor, if not downright dire. Last year we had the tedious, contrived 'Batman Forever,' the year before that the characteristically vapid 'Lion King' and the pernicious and subversive 'Forrest Gump,' and then before that, 'Jurassic Park.' It is saying something about a given group of films when dramatically the most successful of their number is that saccharine and manipulative dinosaur epic. And, unsurprisingly, given that it was moulded by the same hands which gave us the terrible 'Stargate,' 'Independence Day' is not going to change any of that. Before I launch into my list of objections, firstly let me state that this is not a bad film in the class of 'Benji: The Hunted' or 'Spy Hard.' It possesses certain moments which a viewer can enjoy, and as a whole it is not what one might categorise as offensively bad. However, much has been made of the many ludicrous moments in the script which betray the creator's uninterest in really suspending disbelief. My personal favourites include the bizarre idea that one could upload a virus into an alien computer, the outrageous fluke of the First Lady a)surviving and b)being found, and the notion that the fire that consumed a whole city might somehow become channelled into a tunnel, which might vaguely be considered reasonable if it were not for the clear portrayal of someone surviving by hiding in a little side door. Preposterous: whoever allowed these into the final script needs to have his powers of discrimination substantially upgraded. Still, one might be prepared to forgive this of the film. After all, amidst a hostile invasion by belligerent super-aliens, one might need a little light relief. The film does not let the critic off so lightly, however: there are deeper problems with the film than that. 'Independence Day' is extremely derivative. Every five minutes I found myself being reminded of other films, usually bad ones: 'Apollo 13,' 'Star Trek 6/Generations,' and, God forbid, 'Stargate.' Upon consideration, it seems that Emmerich is seeking to broaden the appeal of the film by nodding at certain genre conventions. Unfortunately, these nods inevitably lack conviction, and thus the film assumes a patchy 'jack-of-all-trades and master of none' aspect. An example: as the film nears its climax, Jeff Goldblum's character suddenly becomes very concerned about the environment. This is a difficult subject to handle without coming across as glib or manipulative, but here it is such a momentary consideration that it really opens a window on the director's technique. Imagine: 'Gee, the punters like environmental issues ... how can we squeeze it in? Ah-ha ... ' (n.b. this goes some way also towards illustrating the difference between a film like this and 'Mission: Impossible.' For all the latter's faults, it is undoubtedly the work of a man who knows his trade, whereas 'Independence Day' is in the main never more than workmanlike; where 'Independence Day' is derivative, 'Mission: Impossible' is allusive). Another example might be found in the use of homosexuality. Not only does fighter jock Will Smith have a boyfriend, which seems at odds with Airforce regulations, but Harvey Fierstein is also allowed to be his rampant, camp self. Again, one gets the sense that, rather than there being any honesty on Emmerich's part, he instead is winking conspiratorially at Tarantino fans and those who feel that there should be a more full representation of homosexuality on film - without actually sympathising with their causes. It all appears to be terribly cynical to me. These are still gripes, momentary complaints rather than criticisms about the work as a whole. These are yet to come: there is little question that the film is generally jaundiced. With the exception of the effects sequences, moer of which later, the film is subject to a terrible defocussing of dramatic intensity. Where the film should grip, it bores. There are several possible reasons for this. Firstly, Emmerich makes great play of giving his characters lengthy introductions, showing us their private and public personae, giving us a little slice of their lives, and so on. Despite this, the protagonists are still merely caricatures: the cocky fighter jock, the wholesome president, the eccentric Jeff Goldblum intellectual from 'The Fly' and 'Jurassic Park.' Thus the audience instinctively becomes disinvolved in their condition; there is no desire to empathise and thus to become infused with the tensions and emotions of the characters. We simply observe their actions, always very aware that we are watching a film. Secondly, the film has little sense of pace: it ambles along, quite content to deliver an effects shot every so often, while the rest of the time is spent delivering shallow moralistic melodrama. The real problem that denies the film any power or impact is that is simply not awe-inspiring enough. Any film which takes something unusual or remarkable as its centrepiece should retain a sense of wonder from start to finish. Even those films whose central themes are invested elsewhere should probably aim to found their drama on a viewer's enthrallment with event and setting as something significant. Take 'Twelve Monkeys,' a film whose ending is set in a very mundane location, and yet that setting is invested with so much before it, and is so removed from the ordinary by events that have previously occurred, that the viewer is absorbed into the whole situation. Film is inevitably concerned with an aesthetic projection of something a little strange (unless one is going to see one's own biopic), and so it is a shame to render the whole process profane, as in 'Independence Day.' As a final illustration, compare 'Independence Day' with 'Star Wars.' Whereas the latter performed the same feat as the former (only with vastly greater force) by having a very spectacular spaceship opening, it retains that sense of the spectacular until its climax, weaving an epic tale with wonder upon wonder, until by the end the audience is left positively overflowing with received sensation. 'Independence Day,' on the other hand, makes its wonders seem very ordinary, until by the end, one is simply accepting the inwards of the mother ship, or some fantastic battle scene, as par-for-the-course. Given that these are really the film's only selling point, it seems inevitable that the film will become resigned to mediocrity, as it possesses no sense of diminuendo or crescendo, merely jolting from a loud bit to a quiet bit, thus losing any kind of dramatic contrast. Unfortunately, the film to which it must be compared is 'Star Wars,' which reveals 'Independence Day's' epic pretensions as stillborn. Another point which seems incongruous: why are the protagonists of Independence Day not more awed themselves? It makes sense to merely accept intergalactic war when it is part of one's life, as in, you guessed it, 'Star Wars,' but when one is faced with something so profoundly alien, the human psyche would be much more given to trauma than is portrayed in 'Independence Day.' Exploration of such could have enormous dramatic potential: a good delineation of the terror and fear, paranoia and horror that a hostile alien attack would engender could have made the film much more successful, but instead the characters merely bumble through, taking the whole thing very much in their stride, Will Smith at one point cheerfully bopping an alien on the nose. Well, damnit, if the characters aren't gripped by proceedings, then why the hell should I be? Unfortunately, the nature of the film and its publicity only exacerbates these problems. Having been stunned by the trailer, one sits through the movie, undistracted by anything else, waiting for the next effect shot. That is no way to watch a film, but the whole 'Independence Day' phenomenon, film included, leaves one with little choice. Now, having severely criticised the film, there are a few good points, as I said earlier. Pullman, Smith and Goldblum make sympathetic, watchable leads, and the special effects are, of course, stunning, unusually so, even in this day and age. This largely not because of any particular technical brilliance, though that is present, but instead because of their amazing visual flair. Some of the sequences do stand comparison to 'Return of the Jedi' or 'The Abyss' (the special edition, not the vastly inferior original release). The jet strike scenes' thrill comes from a real sense of motion, and there are some scenes in which a ship hovers above ground, while an unholy battle takes place in its shadow, which are stunning, providing the film's only true moments of real emotion, sending a genuine awed shiver down the spine. What a pity, then, that the special effects director's sense of visual style is so much better than Emmerich's: the contrast between these battle scenes and the rest of the film is sometimes really pretty shocking. And, you'll already have seen most of these scenes in the trailer. As a final point of denigration, the score is truly terrible. Where it should be unnoticable, it is intrusive, where it should be ominous or emotive, it lapses into fanfare. The film has enough problems without some of its only good moments being spoiled by some marching brass band. So, like 'Jurassic Park,' it has Jeff Goldblum as that eccentric intellectual, an awful score, it is dramatically pathetic, and it has enough in it to make a fantastic trailer. 'Jurassic Park,' at least, was great cinema, if weak anything else. 'Independence Day,' then, comes across as something of a poor man's 'Jurassic Park:' an impressive feat of mediocrity. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sun Aug 4 02:37:33 1996 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!solace!eru.mt.luth.se!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!news-res.gsl.net!news.gsl.net!portc01.blue.aol.com!newsxfer2.itd.umich.edu!netnews.worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.att.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: tmc@accent.net (P. Clark) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 23 Jul 1996 15:14:29 GMT Organization: Total Net Lines: 48 Sender: eleeper@lucent.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: eleeper@lucent.com Message-ID: <4t2q8l$637@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: tmc@accent.net (P. Clark) NNTP-Posting-Host: mthost1.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #05668 Keywords: author=Clark Originator: ecl@mthost1 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:5002 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1030 INDEPENDENCE DAY A film review by P. Clark Copyright 1996 P. Clark Independance Day is one of this summer's great combination movies. The film features plenty of fast action, heartfelt laughs, sweet romance and go-get-em-tiger heroism. In addition, you could take a kid to see it because there just isn't any gratuitous gore. I think the rest of the industry could take a lesson from this one: Guess what, Charlie, you don't have to have flying limbs to make 'em jump out of their seats! I have heard other critics making mock of the romance elements in this film, and I think that they need a reality check. If one day, God help us, anything like ID4 did happen I know I'd be real worried about my family, even if I was president of the USA. Bill Pullman plays the Pres and I thought he was refreshing, a brave man who is more interested in the welfare of the human race than in the next popularity poll. Will Smith puts in an amusing performance as a fighter pilot who turns out to have serious guts. Again, I don't think his craziness is entirely illogical; after all, Marines have long been known for being out-of-the-ordinary. Maybe an authentic Marine would say Will's a softie, but I still think real men are allowed to have feelings. Jeff Goldblum plays a brilliant if unambitious MIT brain, who has lost his wife (Margaret Colin) to the glamor of Washington. Three cheers for the not-so-average heroism he displays as he fights his way upstream into an evacuating city to bring vital news to the powers-that-be, and then goes along on the mission to deliver the killing blow to the aliens. At least his wife has the brains to realize what she nearly lost and lets him know how she feels before it's too late. Judd Hirsch is Jeff's crusty dad, Randy Quaid a drunken ex-fighter pilot, Brent Spiner a half-mad scientist who's been underground too long. All three put in believable and humourous performances. Um, yeah, I did say believable. ID4 itself requires that all disbelief be left at the door. We have to swallow a really amazing string of coincidences (you'll know what I mean when you see the movie) but Hollywood has long required that of its audience. What is important is that ID4 is in something of a unique class, a feel-good thriller (?!), and since I am capable of making a leap of faith, I enjoyed it. If you're not too demanding that a film be high art, you will too. Pam http://www.accent.net/tmc (At the Movies) From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sun Aug 4 02:38:13 1996 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!solace!news.stealth.net!demos!news1.relcom.ru!EU.net!news.sprintlink.net!news-stk-200.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!news-stk-11.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!new-news.sprintlink.net!nntp.primenet.com!news.cais.net!hunter.premier.net!netnews.worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.att.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: mikew@redshift.com (Mike Warner) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 23 Jul 1996 15:15:51 GMT Organization: ? Lines: 205 Sender: eleeper@lucent.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: eleeper@lucent.com Message-ID: <4t2qb7$63f@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: mikew@redshift.com (Mike Warner) NNTP-Posting-Host: mthost1.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #05669 Keywords: author=Warner Originator: ecl@mthost1 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:5005 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1033 INDEPENDENCE DAY A film review by Mike Warner Copyright 1996 Mike Warner * Preamble For component summary, see http://www.id4.com * Irrational ** Snapshot I'm testosterone overloaded and out for bear. Gentlemen, saddle up, strap me in, and snap my head back. Whaa-- We're in an 8G power-dive and suddenly the flaps are down. Oh, I'm sorry. Excuse me. I didn't realize we had to cut to Will Smith's Significant Other shopping for Huggies. ** Summary Velocity Interruptus. Screenwriting Amateurus. * Rational ** Summary Margaret, what I lack in technique, I'll make up for in size. ** Theory *** Story Good versus Evil. Cowboys and Indians-from-space with a state-of-the-art video treatment. How could I not like the White House getting pulverized? You say Bill and Hillary are on the doorsteps? *** Screenplay **** Structure Look. If you're going to be the butt-kickingest high-velocity fireworks show yet, then do it. Don't ALSO try to be Les Miserables. When you've established a wake and we're all being sucked along at mach 3, don't stop to smell the roses. ***** Space & Time Linear in time. Thank Christ. I don't think I could have handled "Captain Steven Hiller: the Formative Years". Localized in space. Which is fortunate. If the story-tellers had been Stephen King fans, we could have been saddled with following the Japanese Brady Bunch. ***** Threading A story is a set of independent, parallel threads, with a camera following each thread. A screenwriter must be able to switch between threads without disrupting the velocity established by the preceding thread. Trust me, If you don't maintain consistent velocity between threads, the viewer gets pissed. ID4's screenwriters couldn't pull it off. The movie had 20 minutes of disruptive sub-threading that should have been edited out. Come to think of it, maybe these guys ARE Stephen King fans. Verdict: Thread velocity mismatch. **** Characterization Carpe diem, dudes. Instead, let's go with the most embarrassing cliches we can remember. Hell, these guys didn't take Screenwriting 101. In the first class you learn: don’t *tell* the audience; *show* them. Example: Will Smith's incessant carping about how "bad" he is. Yeh right, Will. You couldn't put a submission hold on the Avon Lady. **** Dialogue Again, Carpe diem, dudes. In the world of High Technology, these screenwriters were in over their heads. But don't feel bad, boys. Most screenwriters are. Also, many missed opportunities to delight with things contrasting and unexpected. They should have pulled-in Quentin Tarantino as a script consultant. In dialogue, Quentin knows about Seizing the Moment. ** Practice *** Hype This is where ID4 excelled. They had some excellent clips and whetted our appetites way in advance. Even if the thing had turned out to be as bad as Eraser, the advertising momentum would have pinned the facts in a match. The Marketroids rocked. *** Acting Will Smith [Captain Steven Hiller]. I got real tired, real quick of hearing Will Smith tell me how bad he is. Smith's a wimp. Plus, he can't act. But then, he's not an actor; he's a comedian who can't make the transition. Should have hired Wesley Snipes. Harry Connick Jr. [Jimmy] Here's a musician who *can* make the transition. His impersonation of The Reverend Jesse Jackson is the high point of the film. This guy is dangerous. He can sing Frank Sinatra better than Frank. Have you seen CopyCat? Read my lips: HCJ will receive an oscar within the next 3 years. Jeff Goldblum. [David Levinson] His verbal cadence and propensity to expressive hand gestures are getting him typecast as a techie. See Jurassic Park, Powder. Jeff's cool. Judd Hirsch. [Julius Levinson] The film's other title is How The Jews Saved Earth From Alien Invasion. Judd Hirsch's character is there to remind us that Jeff is a Jew and that it's Jews who are saving our ass--once again. Bill Pullman. [The President] Mis-cast. Bill, god bless his soul, is a mainstream non-entity. You find his picture when you look up the word "uncharismatic." He was pushing his envelope in The Accidental Tourist. In ID4 he has one shining moment to prove to us that he can act, AND ---. Sorry,Bill. You can't really act. See if Uncle Pully can get you into the Carpet business. Brent Spiner. [Dr. Okun] Mis-cast. Plus, he doesn't play a character, he parodies one. I guess the Director went out with the Best Boys for tacos. Spiner should have waited till Emmerich returned, because Spiner apparently suffers from Judgment Deficit Disorder. Hell, there's always the Next Generation residuals. Randy Quaid. [Russel] He could have played the character, but the Director was off with the Best Boys, so Quaid joined Spiner, who also suffers from Judgment Deficit Disorder. In the director's absence, Quaid played a stand-up comic parodying a drunk, something he does about 80 percent of the time, anyway. He's getting a lot of practice. And various space-takers who didn't quit their day jobs, hopefully. *** Direction What direction? I think Emmerich used some of his bloated budget money to go to Disneyland. Couldn't he have waited until the movie ended? There's always the chance that one of the actors would have stumbled over him and he could have used that as an excuse to interject his recommendations on characterization. As Ace would say: loo-hoo-ser *** Effects Pretty much the whole gambit: modelling, compositing, computer imaging, and so forth. I'm beginning to favor the theory that Bill Pullman's character was actually an animatronic device. Hmmm. Anyway, Models are cool. You can down-light a model so that it lacks detail. That way the audience can't tell the blurry thing is a model. You can do the same thing in Software, but Software Engineers are WAY into proving that they can ray-trace better than god. Plus, they want you to see every incredible detail of the texturing on the ten million edge-softened polygons. You want me to blur what? Blur this. Hell, with thirty-thousand dollars worth of Amiga/Video Toaster workstations, networked together ala Babylon-5, they could have had something viewable. Oh well. Why use what works when you have so many Effects Studios familiar with what doesn't? Verdict: Gag me with a model. *** Soundtrack **** Music Very few Movie Makers know how to use the power of Music to drive the velocity and create emotional involvement. Michael Mann is the expert. He proved his expertise in the Miami Vice series. If you want to experience the power of Music to contribute to the effect the Director envisions, check out the last ten minutes of Mann's masterpiece, Manhunter. In ID4, the Makers were either clueless or uninterested. They may have been mesmerized by the Video and forgot about the Audio. Or maybe they had to trim the budget someplace. In the end, when we finally figure out how to take the Alien Octopi to the mat, a few power chords may have been in order. Verdict: At least they didn't use Rap. **** Other THX rules. Some of the low-end notes (the thuds) were quite inspiring. *** Integration Not bad, really. Some of the computer-generated explosions were a little askew of the exploding models, but, hey, captive inertia carries the audience by many of the flawed details. * Recommendation Fuck it! Go see it! ** Rating Rating system : -4 to +4, where 0 = better than a blank screen, but only if you smuggled-in your own candy. +2 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sun Aug 4 02:41:48 1996 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!newsfeed.sunet.se!news00.sunet.se!sunic!news.sprintlink.net!news-stk-200.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!news-chi-13.sprintlink.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!news.kei.com!nntp.coast.net!netnews.worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.att.com!cbgw1.att.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: berardin@bc.cybernex.net (James Berardinelli) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: MULTIPLICITY (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 17 Jul 1996 21:19:58 GMT Organization: - Lines: 93 Sender: eleeper@lucent.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: eleeper@lucent.com Message-ID: <4sjldu$c31@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: berardin@bc.cybernex.net (James Berardinelli) NNTP-Posting-Host: mthost1.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #05651 Keywords: author=Berardinelli Originator: ecl@mthost1 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:4983 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1028 MULTIPLICITY A film review by James Berardinelli Copyright 1996 James Berardinelli RATING (0 TO 10): 6.5 Alternative Scale: **1/2 out of **** United States, 1996 Release date: 7/17/96 (wide) Running Length: 1:55 MPAA Classification: PG-13 (Sexual situations) Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Cast: Michael Keaton, Andie MacDowell, Harris Yulin, Richard Masur, John DeLancie, Eugene Levy Director: Harold Ramis Producers: Trevor Albert and Harold Ramis Screenplay: Mary Hale & Chris Miller and Lowell Ganz & Babaloo Mandel Cinematography: Laszlo Kovacs Music: George Fenton U.S. Distributor: Columbia Pictures At one time or another, we've probably all wished that there was more than one of us. MULTIPLICITY taps into this universal fantasy, using it as the premise for the latest comedy from director Harold Ramis (GROUNDHOG DAY). The involvement of both Ramis and actress Andie MacDowell may recall the 1993 Bill Murray hit, but there really aren't many other intersections or similarities. MULTIPLICITY is more of a "gimmick" motion picture. While GROUNDHOG DAY was a lighthearted fairy tale, this excursion is more like the Michael Keaton show. It's a straight comedy, a great deal of which is of the physical variety. So, although MULTIPLICITY is funny, it's not as heartwarming or inventive as GROUNDHOG DAY. I give Michael Keaton the lion's share of the credit for MULTIPLICITY's success. The script may contain the puns, double entendres, slapstick, and other forms of humor, but Keaton delivers them flawlessly, playing four variations of the same everyday sort of character. The visual effects that place two, three, or four Keatons together are seamless, but it's not difficult to imagine the challenge that performing in some of these scenes can present for an actor. After all, it's not easy to play off of empty space. See Eddie Murphy in the recent updating of THE NUTTY PROFESSOR for another example of this sort of multi-character tour de force. I have never been one to sing Andie MacDowell's praises, and I'm not going to start now. She's had a few solid performances (SEX, LIES, AND VIDEOTAPE and UNSTRUNG HEROES spring to mind), but, in general, I find her to be irritating. Nothing in MULTIPLICITY encourages me to change this point-of-view. At best, it could be argued that she does an adequate job, but this is far from a clinic in the art of acting or capturing the audience's sympathy. I suppose it's necessary to briefly note that MULTIPLICITY is seriously flawed from a technological perspective, but this "unreality" doesn't detract from the film's pure entertainment value. MULTIPLICITY opens by introducing us to Doug Kinney (Keaton), a construction manager for a company whose motto is fast becoming, "If you don't come in on Saturday, don't bother coming in on Sunday." In Doug's words, "Work is first, my family is a close second, and I'm a distant third." He's feeling tired and burnt-out, and, when his wife, Laura (MacDowell), expresses a desire to go back to work, Doug can't figure out how they're going to manage two careers and two children. Enter the mysterious Dr. Leeds (Harris Yulin), who has the answer to all of Doug's problems: cloning. Soon, there are no less than four Dougs running around. In addition to the original, there's #2, the workaholic; #3, the anal retentive; and #4, an imperfect copy of #2 who is affectionately referred to as "Rain Man." And, even though Doug is becoming very productive, things are getting progressively more confusing with each additional copy. MULTIPLICITY is an uncomplicated comedy with a lot of big laughs and a disappointingly weak framing story. Do we ever really care about any of the characters or their situations? With the exception of Doug #1, not really. As far as the promise of MULTIPLICITY is concerned, this script gives us a fertile field only half-tilled. There are moments of near-brilliance, but, for the most part, MULTIPLICITY falls into the "above average, but not great" category. The jokes, which are frequent and frequently successful, make this motion picture worth sitting through, even though, at nearly two hours, it runs on for far too long. For those who are just looking for a movie that scores high on the feel-good comedy scale, MULTIPLICITY is a can't- miss choice. In the end, however, I couldn't help wishing that Ramis had tried for something a little more ambitious, rather than settling for a multiplicity of laughs without much genuine substance. - James Berardinelli e-mail: berardin@bc.cybernex.net ReelViews web site: http://www.cybernex.net/~berardin From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu Sep 5 16:39:02 1996 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!solace!eru.mt.luth.se!news.algonet.se!news.uoregon.edu!arclight.uoregon.edu!netnews.worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.lucent.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: predator@tartarus.uwa.edu.au (Peter Ronaszeki) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 3 Sep 1996 18:35:45 GMT Organization: The University of Western Australia Lines: 87 Sender: eleeper@lucent.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: eleeper@lucent.com Message-ID: <50htq1$32s@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: predator@tartarus.uwa.edu.au (Peter Ronaszeki) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtvoyager.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #05923 Keywords: author=Ronaszeki Originator: ecl@mtvoyager Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:5305 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1073 INDEPENDENCE DAY A film review by Peter Ronaszeki Copyright 1996 Peter Ronaszeki Note: Spoilers have been kept to an absolute minimum, if you've seen the trailers then there should be no more spoilers here than that. Well this was one of the most anticipated movies ever, and after seeing it twice on opening day here in Australia - a summary: STYLE/GENRE: Those expecting an adrenalin pumping action flick (as the previews seem to make out) will be disappointed. This film strangely seems to alternate between Drama, Comedy and Action. A possible analogy is something like the feel of 'Return of the Jedi' (that had serious moments as well as ewok silliness). At times this movie doesn't take itself seriously at all and is played over-the-top for laughs; those of you who want an intense dark movie should look elsewhere. ID4 however *is* suitable for family viewing, which is something not that many movies of this kind can claim. ACTING/DIALOGUE: The cast is a mixed bag, but generally works well. The main leads in this film are Will Smith and Bill Pullman. Smith plays a cool and cocky fighter pilot (admitedly he partially based this on Harrison Ford's Han Solo of the Star Wars movies) that provides most of the laughs. While Pullman tried his best to give us a modern Clinton-esque president. These two leads both come off well. Jeff Goldblum plays practically the same character as he did in Jurassic Park, so no surprises there. Harry Connick Jr. plays Will Smith's comrade and wingman, while Star Trek: The Next Generation's Brent Spiner plays a wacky scientist. And there is a supporting cast of over a hundred small speaking roles. While it's not going to be winning any Best Actor Oscars, the quality of the acting is definitely good enough for a film of this type. STORY/PLOT: The premise is excellent, for sure. But the actual screenplay leaves something to be desired in terms of plausability and realism. While the semi-comic nature of the film doesn't require a super-realistic screenplay, anyone with basic knowledge in certain scientific or military areas will probably feel a little annoyed at the mindlessness of certain sections. It should be remembered though that even films like 'The Empire Strikes Back' had similar inconsistencies (like an atmosphere inside the worm that swallowed the Millenium Falcon). Regardless of this, Independence Day still has a powerful global unity theme that is easy to appreciate, and the gradual intertwining of seemingly unrelated stories as the film progresses is a nice technique not often used in recent times by major Hollywood motion pictures. EFFECTS/PRODUCTION DESIGN: Well we've all seen the superb trailers for this, and the quality of those effect shots cannot be argued. The sheer scale and number of effects shots in Independence Day is very impressive for the $70 Million budget. However, the quality of the effects is a little inconsistent in places. About 10-20% of the effects shots look average, but the amazing things accomplished in the other 80% of the film more than make up for that. The production design is quite good, with interesting spacecraft and alien bio-mechanoid suit designs. Military aircraft fans will be in heaven, with the F-14,F-15,F-16,F-18,B-2,Harrier,Hercules and MIG-31 all making appearances in the movie (although some with only cameos). DIRECTING: The movie's weakest point. Roland Emmerich is the one who previously gave us such terrible films as 'Universal Soldier' and 'Moon 44', as well as the recent film 'Stargate' which received a mixed response from audiences. You have to give Roland Emmerich credit for coming up with a very ambitious premise and some equally ambitious action scenes (like hundreds of fighters and ships on one shot, and the waves of fire) but at the end of the day he isn't a director in the same league as, say, James Cameron. And the director is the most influential person in the film making process, so Mr. Emmerich drags the film down a little (although he does create a few very good scenes too). But basically, the pacing of the film is questionable and combined with the excessive running length, some people may find themselves bored during some of the slower scenes. OVERALL: As long as you watch this with the attitude that it is a comedy / action / drama that doesn't take itself seriously, be prepared to be entertained beyond anything you've seen for a long time! CRITICAL RATING: 7 out of 10 ENTERTAINMENT RATING: 9 out of 10 DEFINITELY RECOMMENDED! -- Peter Ronaszeki (predator@tartarus.uwa.edu.au) From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu Sep 12 12:56:31 1996 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!solace!news.stealth.net!demos!news1.relcom.ru!EU.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!in3.uu.net!netnews.worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.lucent.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: RalphBenner@worldnet.att.net (Ralph Benner) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 10 Sep 1996 18:30:26 GMT Organization: AT&T WorldNet Services Lines: 75 Sender: eleeper@lucent.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: eleeper@lucent.com Message-ID: <514c42$4lj@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: RalphBenner@worldnet.att.net (Ralph Benner) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtvoyager.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #05976 Keywords: author=Benner Originator: ecl@mtvoyager Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:5325 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1079 INDEPENDENCE DAY A film review by Ralph Benner Copyright 1996 Ralph Benner Would INDEPENDENCE DAY be a better movie without all that Area 51 bs? Did director Roland Emmerich and his co-writer Dean Devlin get their filler by watching those sci-fi nuts on Larry King's TNT special? (I confess to seeing it -- twice; anyone who imports a desk and uses the sunset in the near-Roswell desert as his backdrop is a showman deserving of an encore.) Would ID4 be more receptive without Bill Pullman mouthing perfunctory lines that flash in our heads before his cue? Without Randy Quaid's boozer-turned-hero? Without Will Smith a little too conveniently landing his chopper at his decimated base to be greeted by his gal pal? (Vivica Fox is, though, the prettiest black squeeze to grace movies in years.) Let's face it: like JURASSIC PARK, ID4 is just okay. We don't have to be movie addicts or snob technocrats to roll our eyes or turn from the screen when Quaid is on; enjoyable at the "suspend disbelief" level up to a point, we all probably begin to quietly mumble Oh no, they're not going to let him do that and sure enough Harvey Fierstein does his toxic schtick, and Oh God, it's another tiring mutation of Ridley Scott's aliens -- this time much smarter: they're hegemonic invaders. We're going to ID4 to see the long-advertised special effects, which are, alternately, wowie, good and blurry. There's one huge collective disappointment: the mother space ship and its 15 mile-in-diameter babies. We never get near enough to them for clear-eyed views; just when we think we will -- like when one of the midget terrors comes out of its fiery CLOSE ENCOUNTERS cloud over San Francisco -- it's gone; this magnificent "Phenomena" isn't held long enough for us to perceive its paralyzing other-world majesty, what should be one of those "Wow!" moments that only movies can provide. And inside the mother ship, things get awfully hazy, we can't get a techno fix. (We get better views of the movie in the MVP licensing publication Independence Day, the Official Collector's Magazine.) The lack of the luxury to linger is a mistake; this movie is really all about the terror of technological awesomeness and in order to feel the fright and panic, in order to respond to what's pretending to be larger than we are, we need some realistic impressions -- we need to be convinced of the expensive razzle dazzle we're watching. On this level JURASSIC PARK succeeds: if we're unavoidably aware of the mechanical contraptions and computer-generated effects, we're in awfully close proximity; we marvel at how Spielberg and his Merlinettes give their monsters a real charge. In ID4 we want to ooh and aah too, we want to get caught up in the War of the Worlds, yet we're detached -- we're watching FX that initially intimidate, only to become elusive to our senses; they stay "out there" for too long. (And sometimes the effects are shoddy, like the exteriors of the Air Force One model, and the aliens' humpy fighters look like those plastic HairWiz cutters you buy at Walgreen's.) Actually, the movie's trailer, which kept Fox from having to spend much money on ads, has been out there for too long: our politics aside, when the White House explodes, the audience I saw the movie with didn't cheer or react demonstrably in any way -- not like it was reported from theatres during first screenings. We've been too prepared for it; even people who haven't gone to the movies in years have the scene burned into ever-lasting memory. The explosion works against the picture in another way too: it's pop 'em sock 'em sci fi pyrotechnics but it's also pop culture debasement, maybe not too different from women's Stars & Stripes halter tops. (A wit who saw the movie early in its release observed, "Titsnflaggers who want a Constitutional amendment outlawing flag burning seem to be the ones hooting it up the most when the White House gets it.") What laughs there are come out of a peculiar embarrassment: I got a good one over the fact that there was little objection to blowing my town Houston to bits. No one will win any blue screen acting awards, with the exception of a possible Razzie nomination for Quaid. It's Jeff Goldblum's good luck to be cast in blockbusters; I still don't know why it's taking so long for him to play opposite Barbra Streisand -- their ethnic beauty should be able to ignite a raucous romantic comedy. Pullman's wonderfully deep-octaved voice helps, as does the "comeback kid" persona. Playing his Dee Dee Myers, Margaret Colin's a pleasant clone of Mary Louise Parker and Elizabeth Perkins. ID4 has made its virtual three hundred million dollar domestic gross in the same way JURASSIC PARK did -- by giving summer movie audiences the stories they love but movies they end up feeling indifferent about. A loving update of Ray Harryhausen's "Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers," it's not much more than a joint of Roswellian hemp from which outer space buffs can get a so-so buzz. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Jan 14 16:08:54 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!solace!mn6.swip.net!plug.news.pipex.net!pipex!oleane!pasteur.fr!jussieu.fr!math.ohio-state.edu!howland.erols.net!worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.lucent.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: chadpolenz@aol.com (ChadPolenz) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 12 Jan 1997 03:54:24 GMT Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com Lines: 81 Sender: eleeper@lucent.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: eleeper@lucent.com Message-ID: <5b9n9g$hqq@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: chadpolenz@aol.com (ChadPolenz) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtvoyager.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #06677 Keywords: author=Polenz Originator: ecl@mtvoyager Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:6078 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1193 INDEPENDENCE DAY A film review by Chad Polenz Copyright 1997 Chad Polenz **** 1996, PG-13, 145 minutes [2 hours, 25 minutes] [science fiction] starring: Bill Pullman (President Thomas Whitmore), Will Smith (Captain Steve Hiller), Jeff Goldblum (Dave Levinson), Margaret Coplin (Connie), Randy Quaid (Russell Case), Robert Loggia (General Gray), Judd Hirsch (Julius "Pops" Levinson), produced by Dean Devlin, written by Dean Devlin, Roland Emmerich, directed by Roland Emmerich. Wow! I am so blown away by this film that I am nearly speechless. Rarely does a film come along that is such an excellent blend of excellent storytelling, suspense, and adventure and is able to synchronize it as well as this film does. At times this movie becomes something more, it is something that can unite everyone together and move an audience. This is an excellent achievement in great storytelling, special effects, and most of all its ability to take a rather complicated plot and make it so breezy. The sensation and excitement are unlike anything I've ever experienced since the "Star Wars" trilogy, and that's something even remotely difficult to stand up to. The story starts out with some scientists realizing that something huge is approaching the Earth and is giving off a radio code that is reducing itself as it constantly recycles - a definite warning of some type. It gets closer until they realize that it is actually a group of huge UFOs approaching the Earth's atmosphere. Even though not much has happened, the sense of intense excitement and suspense builds very quickly, we are wondering who these aliens are and why they are here. When the ships finally enter the atmosphere, panic ensues and President Thomas Whitmore (Pullman) addresses the country and tries to calm everyone down. One of the scientists who first discovered the aliens (Jeff Goldblum as Dave Levinson) has an ex-wife (Margaret Coplin as Connie) who is an assistant to the president and is able to meet with him and warn him of the countdown. Suddenly the suspense builds to a boil as they realize that they are about to be obliterated. We get quite a cliche escape scene and many terrifying devastation scenes, but the suspense, combined with the excellent special effects are so unbelievable that it is all breathtaking. What follows is a fantastic aerial battle between U.S. Marine F-18 Tomcats and alien ships, perhaps one of the single most exciting scenes I have ever viewed. Just consider the situation for a minute, our own military up against aFrom rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Jan 20 23:33:13 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!solace!mn6.swip.net!plug.news.pipex.net!pipex!oleane!pasteur.fr!jussieu.fr!math.ohio-state.edu!howland.erols.net!worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.lucent.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: chadpolenz@aol.com (ChadPolenz) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 12 Jan 1997 03:54:24 GMT Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com Lines: 81 Sender: eleeper@lucent.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: eleeper@lucent.com Message-ID: <5b9n9g$hqq@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: chadpolenz@aol.com (ChadPolenz) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtvoyager.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #06677 Keywords: author=Polenz Originator: ecl@mtvoyager Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:6078 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1193 INDEPENDENCE DAY A film review by Chad Polenz Copyright 1997 Chad Polenz **** 1996, PG-13, 145 minutes [2 hours, 25 minutes] [science fiction] starring: Bill Pullman (President Thomas Whitmore), Will Smith (Captain Steve Hiller), Jeff Goldblum (Dave Levinson), Margaret Coplin (Connie), Randy Quaid (Russell Case), Robert Loggia (General Gray), Judd Hirsch (Julius "Pops" Levinson), produced by Dean Devlin, written by Dean Devlin, Roland Emmerich, directed by Roland Emmerich. Wow! I am so blown away by this film that I am nearly speechless. Rarely does a film come along that is such an excellent blend of excellent storytelling, suspense, and adventure and is able to synchronize it as well as this film does. At times this movie becomes something more, it is something that can unite everyone together and move an audience. This is an excellent achievement in great storytelling, special effects, and most of all its ability to take a rather complicated plot and make it so breezy. The sensation and excitement are unlike anything I've ever experienced since the "Star Wars" trilogy, and that's something even remotely difficult to stand up to. The story starts out with some scientists realizing that something huge is approaching the Earth and is giving off a radio code that is reducing itself as it constantly recycles - a definite warning of some type. It gets closer until they realize that it is actually a group of huge UFOs approaching the Earth's atmosphere. Even though not much has happened, the sense of intense excitement and suspense builds very quickly, we are wondering who these aliens are and why they are here. When the ships finally enter the atmosphere, panic ensues and President Thomas Whitmore (Pullman) addresses the country and tries to calm everyone down. One of the scientists who first discovered the aliens (Jeff Goldblum as Dave Levinson) has an ex-wife (Margaret Coplin as Connie) who is an assistant to the president and is able to meet with him and warn him of the countdown. Suddenly the suspense builds to a boil as they realize that they are about to be obliterated. We get quite a cliche escape scene and many terrifying devastation scenes, but the suspense, combined with the excellent special effects are so unbelievable that it is all breathtaking. What follows is a fantastic aerial battle between U.S. Marine F-18 Tomcats and alien ships, perhaps one of the single most exciting scenes I have ever viewed. Just consider the situation for a minute, our own military up against aliens from another planet - how cool is that? In most stories of the genre we are so far behind in technology that we are immediately incinerated, here we at least fight back, but do not win (at first). Will Smith also stars as one of those pilots - Captain Steve Hiller, and he was perfectly cast for the role. His character is quite hyper and yet easy going, he seems so right for the film, unlike a character that could have been played by Harrison Ford or Tom Cruise. When Hiller is psyched to "whoop E.T.'s ass" we know exactly how he feels, and when he is actually able to shoot down one of the aliens he is still so psyched that he cold cocks the alien and knocks him out! It does not seem at all corny or trite at the time, the audience is just as psyched and as scared as Hiller is, it works well and this is how the entire movie feels. We did not win because we cannot overpower their technology, will these visitors conquer the planet or just destroy it? When the president and the military all meet at super secret "Area 51" they realize that the CIA had captured an alien ship 50 years ago and has learned much about their anatomy and technology. This is the only real time that film starts to become a little too formulated, just the basic idea of what is happening reminds one of an Ed Wood film. We even get a mad scientist of sorts, but is this a parody or something to be taken seriously? Like all other stories of the sort, Devlin and Emmerich's script makes us wonder if there is any chance at all for victory, and of course some kind of loophole is found, and of course it will take a super exciting, cliffhanger scene to overcome the conflict but the payoff is well worth it. At first we witnessed our boys lose to the aliens and it was exciting just because of the mood, now that the entire world is united together and actually winning it brings about a sense of courage, pride, excitement and suspense. "Independence Day" isn't Shakespeare but it's still very excellent, it might not be the most realistic story but I think that's the point. We tend to take our movies too seriously today, if we just leave our cynicism behind and use our imagination we'll experience something so fantastic words will not be able to describe it. (7/7/96) (12/9/96) [other films of this genre: the "Star Wars" trilogy, "The War Of The Worlds," "V," other films by Emmerich: "Stargate"] From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Mar 25 15:41:08 1997 From: agapow@latcs1.cs.latrobe.edu.au (p-m agapow) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 13 Mar 1997 20:15:27 GMT Organization: Calvin Coolidge Home for Dead Biologists Sender: eleeper@lucent.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: eleeper@lucent.com Message-ID: <5g9n8v$am5@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: agapow@latcs1.cs.latrobe.edu.au (p-m agapow) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtvoyager.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #07117 Keywords: author=Agapow Originator: ecl@mtvoyager Lines: 106 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!solace!mn6.swip.net!newsfeed.sunet.se!news99.sunet.se!newsfeed.luth.se!news.luth.se!erix.ericsson.se!uab.ericsson.se!news.algonet.se!news.cybernet.dk!netcom.net.uk!dispatch.news.demon.net!demon!newsfeed.nacamar.de!news-feed.inet.tele.dk!enews.sgi.com!news.sgi.com!howland.erols.net!worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.lucent.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:6508 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1231 INDEPENDENCE DAY A film review by Paul-Michael Agapow Copyright 1997 Paul-Michael Agapow Plot synopsis: (are you trying to tell me you don't know?) Slimy and easily detestable aliens aliens come to Earth and kill a lot of extras. After the main characters have finish vacillating, they kick alien butt. Fin. In case you're wondering, I was one of two people on the planet who didn't see "In-duh-pendence Day" at the cinema in 1996. The other was Xing!-Kao!, a Bushman who was lost in the wilds of the Serengetti for most of the year. Having just seen the aforementioned film on laserdisc, and given it's about to appear on video, and as Xing! has just made his way back to civilisation, it seems appropriate to reflect on the worth of "In-duh-pendence Day". To pre-empt myself with the verdict, "In-duh-pendence Day" is nothing special. It is not, as some have proclaimed, "the worst movie ever made", nor is is quite worthy of the moniker "IQ4". What it is, is a minor and humourless SF piece with delusions of grandeur, hyped beyond all reason and lumbered with some very unsubtle and nasty subtexts. It's pointless to recount the many plot holes - other have done so thoroughly. But we are not just talking about outrageous contrivances or coincidences (i.e. after the attack the USA is apparently only populated by a dozen characters who can't help but trip over each other) or handwaving (i.e. the famous Mac-compatible alien mothership, obviously using AOCE), but serious logical problems. (What is powering the captured alien scoutship at the end? Why do the aliens need to broadcast a countdown? Don't they have clocks? How does two characters escape from a panicked New York and get to Washington in 6 hours? The military are short on pilots for their aircraft, which goes against all logic and evidence.) The scriptwriters obviously did not care or assumed the audience wouldn't. It is also too simple to blame Roland Emmerich. He is not a great director but "Universal Soldier" and "Stargate" at least have parts that work, even work well. He is just plain out of his depth here, trying to control this sprawling mess. Neither do the actors deliver: Mary McDonnell is the most chipper terminally-ill person you've ever seen ("You're supposed to be dying, stop smiling damnit!") and Jeff Goldblum sleepwalks through his role. Two hours of Judd Hirsch and Randy Quaid overacting their Jewish grandfather and Vietnam vet looney roles respectively, suggests most strongly that they should have been fired at the aliens in retaliation. Special mention should be made of Harry "no soul" Connick Jr, who normally makes a living pretending to be a black musician and here pretends to be a black fighter pilot. Even the usually reliable Bill Pullman, as the US President, looks distinctly uncomfortable. His lips move, sounding out a stirring speech. What you actually hear is him saying "Uh, bad alien! Go away!". When Brent Spiner appears in a thankless cameo as a boffin, you have hopes that Jonathan Frakes will show up in the role of the alien mothership. Alas, no. No, the only people who really did their work for "In-duh-pendence Day" were the marketing experts and the SFX people and they do deserve a lot of credit. Unfortunately, much of the power of the special effects is lost on the small screen but they are still passingly impressive. Also effective are the action scenes, which are at least noisy, energetic and colourful, if too infrequent. But most disturbing are several themes graunched into the movie. The most blatant of this is a clumsy pitch at American patriotism, replete with constant images of flags waving and national monuments. At its extremes this becomes hilarious, with a US flag on the stage curtain at a strip bar, booming theme music that sounds like nothing so much as "Deutschland, Deutschland, Uber Alles" and the combined military of the non-US world sitting in the desert waiting for "the Americans" to give directions. More subtle but unmistakable is the constant reinforcement of traditional sex roles. Goldblum's prissy effeminate boss is shown to be a mama's boy and a coward before being killed. With the menfolk rushing around and fighting aliens, the women are left with little to do, asides from mind the children and look on admiringly. Those that have a man are reunited with them and plight their troth. Those that don't, die. Goldblum's eco-conscious SNAG is triumphantly transformed into a cigar-chomping Real Man by the end, come back to claim his woman. This, in my mind, is the most disturbing thing about "In-duh-pendence Day". At the end, one is left an impression of clumsiness. There are certainly worse films, more illogical ones, worse scripted ones, dumber ones. But rolled into one long-winded parcel - that's ID4. [*/misfire] and a remake of "This Island Earth" on the Sid and Nancy scale. "Independence Day" Directed by Roland Emmerich. Starring Jeff Goldblum, Judd Hirsch, Randy Quaid, Bill Pullman, Will Smith, Mary McDonnell, Margret Colin, Vivica Fox, Brent Spiner, Robert Loggia, Harvey Fierstein, Harry Connick Jr. Released 1996. ------ paul-michael agapow (agapow@latcs1.oz.au), La Trobe Uni, Infocalypse From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Mar 25 15:41:13 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!sunic!mn6.swip.net!weld.news.pipex.net!pipex!burn.news.pipex.net!pipex!hose.news.pipex.net!pipex!rill.news.pipex.net!pipex!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.lucent.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: syegul@ix.netcom.com (Serdar Yegulalp) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 21 Mar 1997 19:57:16 GMT Organization: Jackie Chan's Kung Fu Process Servers Lines: 63 Sender: eleeper@lucent.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: eleeper@lucent.com Message-ID: <5gup6s$3p8@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: syegul@ix.netcom.com (Serdar Yegulalp) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtvoyager.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #07159 Keywords: author=Yegulalp Originator: ecl@mtvoyager Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:6557 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1240 INDEPENDENCE DAY A film review by Serdar Yegulalp Copyright 1997 Serdar Yegulalp CAPSULE: Big, stupid B-movie that would have been more fun if we could have seen the strings from which the UFO models were hanging. I waited a long time before codifying my feelings about INDEPENDENCE DAY, a big, stupid movie that commanded a massive audience mostly by sheer audacity. The trailers and promotional material for ID4 sold the flick on one point: "In this movie, the world blows up. Come and see!" Putting aside the basically reprehensible nature of this kind of hard sell, what's left? An extremely expensive B picture that, because of its cost and size and pretentiousness (yes, pretentiousness), isn't nearly as much fun as it could have been. It's a surefire perpetual rental hit and frat-party MST3K-style video keeper, but it's still incredibly dumb. (One of the surest signs that Hollywood is losing its grip: MARS ATTACKS! which post-dated ID4 and could have parodied that movie brilliantly, couldn't even do *that* well. Figures.) The plot is old, old, old. Big alien ships arrive and hover over our major cities ("in exactly the same way that bricks don't" -- Douglas Adams). They eventually start blowing everything up. (A very sarcastic underground-press poster showed the shot of the White House getting blasted and the caption PROOF OF ALIEN INTELLIGENCE.) Mankind finds a way to fight back. Everything that hasn't been blown up in the first half of the movie is blown up in the second half. The end. (At least until they decide to write "ID5".) There are some moments throughout the movie, individual touches, that garner a laugh or a shock. Will Smith's performance as a hot-dog pilot who apparently seems to know how to fly alien spacecraft from having looked at them is funny (and his monologue with an unconscious alien in the desert is destined to become bumper-sticker material); he's probably the best thing in the movie. But the movie as a whole is just impossibly stupid, a total failure of real imagination. The effects are impressive, but they're monolithic and unimaginative. (White House blows up. Empire State Building blows up. And the picture of Lady Liberty, trashed, is more or less ripped from PLANET OF THE APES. Et any number of ceteras.) I mentioned pretentiousness. At various points during the flick, we're allegedly supposed to have our sympathies enlisted for some sort of patriotic revival, a feeling that good ole Ammurrican ingenuity will rise up and remake the world once again. Give me a break. The low point of the movie, in this vein, is a speech by Bill Pullman (playing a Clintonesque [i.e., spineless?] president) which rather clumsily ties in the movie's title with a rallying cry. I waited for someone to clobber him with a brick and get on with it. (Actually, maybe the real nadir was reached when the video game tie-in was released a couple of weeks ago -- which is more enjoyable than anything the *movie* has to offer.) From what I understand, a three-hour extended version of the movie will be appearing sometime later this year on LaserDisc. I've been on trips to the DMV that were shorter and less dimwitted. One-half out of four motherships. ____________________________________________________________________________ syegul@ix.netcom.com EFNet IRC: GinRei http://serdar.home.ml.org another worldly device... ____________________________________________________________________________ From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu May 22 17:18:11 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news99.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!sunic!surfnet.nl!howland.erols.net!worldnet.att.net!cbgw2.lucent.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: ChadPolenz@aol.com (Chad Polenz) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: 20 May 1997 01:12:59 GMT Organization: America Online Lines: 63 Sender: evelynleeper@geocities.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: evelynleeper@geocities.com Message-ID: <5lqtqr$2dq@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: ChadPolenz@aol.com (Chad Polenz) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtvoyager.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #07622 Keywords: author=Polenz Originator: ecl@mtvoyager Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:7019 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1289 INDEPENDENCE DAY A film review by Chad Polenz Copyright 1997 Chad Polenz **** (out of 4 = excellent) 1996, PG-13, 145 minutes [2 hours, 25 minutes] [science fiction] starring: Bill Pullman (President Thomas Whitmore), Will Smith (Captain Steve Hiller), Jeff Goldblum (David Levinson), Margaret Coplin (Connie), produced by Dean Devlin, written by Dean Devlin, Roland Emmerich, directed by Roland Emmerich. Wow! I am so blown away by this film I am nearly speechless. Rarely does a film come along that is such a good mix of excellent storytelling, suspense and adventure, and is able to synchronize it as well as this film does. The story starts out with scientists realizing something huge is nearing the moon and is giving off a radio code that is reducing itself as it constantly recycles - a definite warning of some type. It gets closer until they realize that it is actually a group of huge UFOs approaching the Earth's atmosphere. The sense of intense excitement builds very quickly, as we are wondering who these aliens are and why they are here. Soon the ships enter the atmosphere, and mass hysteria ensues. President Thomas Whitmore (Pullman) addresses the country and tries to calm everyone down, but doesn't advocate evacution, and even stays in the White House with a UFO right above it. One of the scientists who first discovered the secret alien code (Jeff Goldblum as David Levinson) has an ex-wife (Margaret Coplin as Connie) who is an assistant to the president and is able to meet with him and warn him of the countdown. We get quite a cliche escape scene and many terrifying devastation scenes, but the suspense, combined with the excellent special effects are so incredible it is breathtaking. Just the act of trying to describe these actions does not do the film justice at all, it is much more complicated and detailed. It really must be seen to be appreciated. In the wake of the total carnage there is a fantastic aerial battle between U.S. Marine F-18 Tomcats and alien ships, perhaps one of the most exciting scenes I have ever viewed. Just consider the situation: our own military up against aliens from another planet - how cool is that? Maybe that sounds like something from an Ed Wood movie, but if there was ever an exception to the rules "Independence Day" is it. We fight back, but do not win (at first). Will Smith deserves special mention as Captain Steve Hiller; his character is quite hyper and yet he is always able to keep his cool and make for one of the most likable characters to come along in a long time. When he is anxious to "Whoop E.T.'s ass" we know exactly how he feels. When the president and most of the main characters meet at the secret Area 51 military base they realize the CIA had captured an alien ship 50 years ago and has learned much about their anatomy and technology. This element might seem a little too convient, even the mad scientist character (played by Brent Spiner with just the right touch of comic relief) seems a little out of place. But the movie doesn't really try to put itself forward as the most realistic film ever made, it just wants us to have fun watching it, and I sure did. The final act is a very fast-paced, last ditch effort at fighting back. It seems as if the world is about to be obliterated, but suddenly a loophole is found. It's a very dangerous risk that the entire world is about to embark upon, but they really have nothing to lose, and great risk (when done properly) equals great suspense which equals great victory, which we do get here, not once, but twice (actually, you might even say three times). "Independence Day" is an either love-it or hate-it movie. You could scrutinize every little detail and unrealistic point but that would be a waste of time. We tend to take our movies too seriously today, so if we just leave our cynicism behind and use our imagination we'll experience something so fantastic that words will not be able to describe it. From /home/matoh/tmp/sf-rev Fri Aug 22 16:31:05 1997 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Jul 15 23:07:36 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lejonet.se!newsfeed1.telia.com!masternews.telia.net!newssrv.ita.tip.net!ubnnews.unisource.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!surfnet.nl!howland.erols.net!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!uchinews!cbgw2.lucent.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: ChadPolenz@aol.com (Chad Polenz) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.past-films Date: 23 Jun 1997 15:11:52 GMT Organization: America Online Lines: 78 Sender: evelynleeper@geocities.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: evelynleeper@geocities.com Message-ID: <5om3no$18o@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> ~Reply-To: ChadPolenz@aol.com (Chad Polenz) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtvoyager.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #07902 Keywords: author=Polenz Originator: ecl@mtvoyager Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:7326 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1371 INDEPENDENCE DAY A film review by Chad Polenz Copyright 1997 Chad Polenz **** (out of 4 = excellent) 1996, PG-13, 145 minutes [2 hours, 25 minutes] [science fiction] starring: Bill Pullman (President Thomas Whitmore), Will Smith (Captain Steve Hiller), Jeff Goldblum (David Levinson), Margaret Coplin (Connie), produced by Dean Devlin, written by Dean Devlin, Roland Emmerich, directed by Roland Emmerich. Wow! I am so blown away by "Independence Day" I am nearly speechless. Rarely does a film come along that is such a good mix of excellent storytelling, great characters, suspense and adventure, and is able to synchronize it as well as this film does. It's a 1950s sci-fi flick updated for the 90s and it works wonderfully. The story starts out with some scientists realizing something huge is nearing the moon and is giving off a signal that is reducing itself as it constantly recycles (a warning of some type). It gets closer until they realize it is actually a group of huge UFOs about to enter the Earth's atmosphere. The sense of intense excitement builds quickly, as we are wondering who these aliens are and why they are here. Soon the ships enter the atmosphere, and mass hysteria ensues. President Thomas Whitmore (Pullman) addresses the country and tries to calm everyone down, but doesn't advocate evacuation. He even stays in the White House with a UFO right above it. David Levinson (Goldblum), the scientist who discovered the alien signal has an ex-wife named Connie (Coplin) who is an assistant to the president and is able to meet with him and warn him of the countdown. The entire first act introduces us to all the aforementioned characters and at least a dozen more around the country. In Nevada we meet Russell Case (Randy Quaid), an alcoholic crop duster who says he was abducted by aliens. On the west coast we meet Captain Steve Hiller (Smith), his girlfriend Jasmine (Vivica Fox), and friend and co-pilot Jimmy (Harry Connick Jr.). There is a definite sense of camaraderie and intimate relationships between these people, so that when they are separated, we hope (and know) they'll get back together. Maybe the first act is a bit long, but the payoff is worth it. The scenes of disaster are beautifully photographed in conjunction with the great special effects, but it is the suspense that makes it so exciting. Even the cliche last second escape scenes work. Most of the film goes through the motions you'd expect it to. We try our hardest to fight back which is fantastic in and of itself (our own military up against flying saucers - how cool is that?). Unfortunately more tragedy ensues, but at the same time there are moments of sheer joy, such as Hiller outmaneuvering an alien ship in the Grand Canyon, or when a dog jumps to safety in a split second. Yes, there are many elements here that are miraculous, plugged-in sci-fi stuff like Area 51 and all the loopholes that are found, but because the film is so interesting to watch with its great editing and story structure, everything works as its supposed to. The film also has a great sense of humor which stems from a layer of clever satire, not just one-liners. There are many inside jokes and parodies that pay homage to the film's inspiration, not to mention the characters themselves who are hilarious at times. This keeps everything lighthearted, which in turn adds to the sheer fun of it all. The final act is a fast-paced, last ditch effort at fighting back, much in the spirit of the "Star Wars" films. It's a dangerous risk the entire world embarks upon, but a speech given by Whitmore raises morale and is quite moving on a metaphysical level. Risk, when used properly, yields great suspense, which in turn makes the resolution grand, which is what we get here, not once, but twice (you might even say three times)! "Independence Day" is a love-it or hate-it movie. You could scrutinize every little detail and unrealistic point but that would be a waste of time. If you leave your cynicism behind you'll experience something so fantastic words will not be able to describe it (well... I guess I could describe it after all). Please visit Chad'z Movie Page @ http://members.aol.com/ChadPolenz From /home/matoh/tmp/sf-rev Fri Aug 22 16:31:08 1997 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Jul 15 23:07:38 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lejonet.se!newsfeed1.telia.com!masternews.telia.net!newssrv.ita.tip.net!ubnnews.unisource.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news.belnet.be!news.rediris.es!news.apfel.de!howland.erols.net!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!uchinews!cbgw2.lucent.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: chandlerb@geocities.com (Ted Prigge) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 23 Jun 1997 15:27:41 GMT Organization: - Lines: 91 Sender: evelynleeper@geocities.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: evelynleeper@geocities.com Message-ID: <5om4ld$1ah@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> ~Reply-To: chandlerb@geocities.com (Ted Prigge) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtvoyager.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #07913 Keywords: author=Prigge Originator: ecl@mtvoyager Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:7294 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1357 INDEPENDENCE DAY A film review by Ted Prigge Copyright 1997 Ted Prigge Director: Roland Emmerich Writers: Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich Starring: Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, Judd Hirsch, Margaret Colin, Randy Quaid, Mary MacDonnell, Vivica A. Fox, Robert Loggia, Harvey Fierstein, Harry Connick Jr., Brent Spiner, Adam Baldwin According to popular film opinion, a film's greatness is determined by time. Take for example "Casablanca." Great film, even today. It's still as powerful as it was when it came out and still as romantic and tragic. Another example would be "Star Wars," which had a very, very healthy box office gross despite the fact that we had all seen it about 3 billion times before. But as I rewatched "Independence Day" when it came out on video after being the number one hit of 1996, I kinda felt like it wasn't as cool as when I had first seen it. I had liked it when I saw it the first time (*** was my original view) and basically saw it as a good "escape film." But when I rewatched it, I felt cheated. Thus, the curse of the "event film." "Independence Day" is like that kid who come out of nowhere and makes everybody happy at once (except for a couple kids - the critics, in this situation). But after a while, this kid becomes annoying and you just wait for the next one. Well, this kid is the "event film" in my little analogy. And when I rewatched "Independence Day," not only did it not look cooler at all on the big screen, but I felt insulted the whole time. There are too many gaping craters in the plot and you just aren't sure if it's comedy or hokey drama. One scene, you'll see a hilariously nebbish scene between Jeff Goldblum and Judd Hirsch; the next you'll see a bunch of military uptight guys walking around, saying corny lines. The worst is a scene between Brent Spiner and Bill Pullman where Spiner is sayinig something innocently funny but is barked like a junkyard dog by Bill Pullman who gives him the most unitentionally funniest speech since the end of "Glen or Glenda?" Now this annoying kid's problem is that in the process of trying to make everyone like him all at once, he shows he has no balls. And "Independence Day" has no balls. It plays it safe everywhere. It throws in a ton of action that is borrowed from other superior films. The chase scene between the alien ship and Will Smith is straight out of "Star Wars." I mean, isn't that Devil's Den? And the aliens are about as anticlimactic as Demi Moore's breasts in "Striptease." They're these octopus men, boring freaking octopus men. I mean, come on. The aliens in "2001" were more interesting and you didn't even see them! Basically the plot is straight from a B-Movie from the 50s: aliens come to earth and we wonder if they're hostile or peaceful. Okay, it's an interesting topic, but it's not handled greatly. Now they aren't and somehow a computer geek, Jeff Goldblum, figure out they're using our satellites as a countdown to destruction. Yep. These aliens are not only heavily armed, they're stupid too. They also use the same kind of computer as we do, but that comes about later. The president (Bill Pullman), who's under attack for being a wimp, decides this would be a nice time to be belligerent, and he decides he'll stay in the White House which the aliens have covered. I don't care if it's Bob freaking Dole in the White House, get him out of there. I don't care if you have to inject him with sodium pentathol, just get him out of there. Later on, he's stupid and wants to fly in the attack on a big alien ship. I think it's time for impeachment for this guy. He's more senile than Reagan on pot. Then there's a cocky pilot (Will Smith) who is the only person to survive the counter-attack on the second day and becomes Moses in leading his children to the elusive Area 51 (the film's only sign of being brave). His girlfriend's a stripper sharing a subplot with "Striptease" in that she has to do it for her son. Come on, she has a fighter pilot boyfriend/soon-to-be fiance. I think she can quit that job and get a more respectable job at Long John Silvers. She's also the few, the proud, the lucky to survive the igniting of L.A. (as well as her dog, who narrowly survives). There are some bright spots. They tossed in enough old film homages to keep me laughing. The best one is when Jeff Goldblum (nicely named David) turns on his computer and a picture of HAL comes up and says, "Good Morning, Dave." And they even played R.E.M.'s "It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) at the beginning. And Judd Hirsch steals the film by actually acting great (he's a stereotype, but I just loved the man anyway). But there are no real subtle comic moments. Will gets way too many one-liners and he has no one to play off of (execept Jeff towards the end, and the two do great). As I said, this film has no balls. It is just aiming for a crowd pleaser and that's what it is. But after a couple months, we all move on to the next "event" film while intaking little films and a couple indy ones for good measure. But at least the indy ones last for a lifetime. This one's short on batteries. MY RATING (out of 5): ** From /home/matoh/tmp/sf-rev Fri Aug 22 16:44:29 1997 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Aug 18 15:23:23 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lejonet.se!newsfeed1.telia.com!borg.edu.sollentuna.se!news5.transpac.net!oden.abc.se!dos.canit.se!seunet!mn7.swip.net!mn6.swip.net!nntp.uio.no!newsfeed.nacamar.de!news.maxwell.syr.edu!infeed1.internetmci.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!netnews.nwnet.net!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: sethbook@panix.com (Seth Bookey) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Independence Day (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 2 Aug 1997 15:19:25 GMT Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC Lines: 51 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <5rvj5t$qqa@nntp5.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer38.u.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #08431 Keywords: author=bookey X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer38.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:7833 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1468 Independence Day (1996) Seen on 5 July 1996 with Andrea and Kerry at the Ziegfield for $8.50. Also seen repeatedly on HBO in June 1997. After months of watching previews for *Independence Day* it was clear that I would be seeing it whether I wanted to or not. Gigantic space ships looming over great cities, worried citizens looking skyward, and every landmark familiar to us blown to smithereens. While watching one preview months earlier, the White House is blown up and at least one exuberant audience member exclaimed "Sign me up!" Like movies before and after it, the special effects and the previews were the true stars of the show. Did you go to Towering Inferno to see Fred Astaire pet a cat? Did you sit through Earthquake to see Ava Gardner throw barbs at Charlton Heston? I didn't think so. Consequently, you didn't go to *Independence Day* to see Jeff Goldblum chomp on a cigar; you went to see the Capitol blown to bits. I was hoping for the IRS building, but no dice. It is clear now why the stars of the movie were not prominently featured in the previews. The entire story is subordinate to the special effects. The biggest let down in Independence Day is the opportunity to make the movie something more than a jingoistic flag waving epic in which only an American can think up a way to beat the aliens (that it takes a minorities to do it is something at least). It is also disappointing that after all the build-up to see the aliens, they are two dimensional as well. Their entire dialogue and mission is limited to about three or four words, indicated they are simply evil and bellicose. Like I said, the buildup is terrific and the let down tremendous. The best scenes after the aliens start microwaving the world's great cities occur in the "notorious" Area 51 in the subterranean lab the government has kept secret all these decades. But it all ends in macho swagger. Oy gevalt. The cast is good but not stellar. The comic talents of Judd Hirsch, Margaret Colin, and Harvey Fierstein do go a long way to temper the general testosterone nonsense perpetuated by Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Robert Loggia and a host of others; and if Randy Quaid was included to make sure we were annoyed, mission accomplished. In anachronistic retrospect, Contact and Men in Black are preferable. Copyright (c) 1997, Seth J. Bookey, New York, NY 10021, sethbook@panix.com More movie reviews by Seth Bookey are available at http://www.geocities.com/Athens/2679/kino.html. From /home/matoh/tmp/sf-rev Fri Aug 22 16:44:32 1997 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Aug 18 15:23:24 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news99.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!sunic!mn6.swip.net!nntp.uio.no!www.nntp.primenet.com!globalcenter1!news.primenet.com!nntp.primenet.com!newsfeed.nacamar.de!wnfeed!204.127.130.5!worldnet.att.net!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: Steve Kong Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Independence Day (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 14 Aug 1997 23:29:58 GMT Organization: None Lines: 95 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <5t04dm$o81@nntp5.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer34.u.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #08587 Keywords: author=kong X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer34.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:7975 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1488 INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996) A film review by Steve Kong Copyright 1997 Steve Kong Well, what can you say about a film brought to you by Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin, the "creative" team behind Stargate? Not much. They bring more uninspired sci-fi that is not more than a derivative of many original films before it. To say the least, Independence Day is an overly long special effects driven summer movie. Is that bad? In some cases no, and for a while, it looked as if Independence Day was going to be good. Independence Day is the textbook example of a special effects and media hype driven movie. The story is almost quick and easy, aliens come to Earth, they don't want to make friends and share in knowledge, they want to destroy us and mine our planet for all its got. If Emmerich and Devlin could have make the movie with such a short sweet premise and then driven that with special effects, Independence Day would have turned out OK. But, Emmerich and Devlin chose to add to the story. Adding to the story a large set of two-dimensional characters and their stock cliched lives. And then on top of that, to make Americans happy, they sprinkle on some hurrah for the audiences in the US. This puts a tremendous weight on the film, and halfway through the film, the weight starts to crush the film. Independence Day starts off well with the song "It's the End of the World." And then gets even better with the alien attack. But, after the attack, the film starts to strain. And for the next forty some odd minutes, it almost seems as if the film has come to a complete halt. The ending is exciting enough, but it is not a good enough pay off for the slow midsection of the film. I admit, I had a bit of silly fun when I saw the film, and I even own the film on laserdisc. But, it is that center of mass in this film that crushes the film. Independence Day runs two hours and twenty-five minutes, the film could have easily been edited down to two hours or even an hour and a half, but Emmerich and Devlin push on and try to tell a few love stories in between. The special effects are there, and they are satisfying to a point, but some of the effects look very retro in comparison to some of the current crop of special effects. The aliens look different enough from any other movie alien, but the question is, how do those guys stand on those small feet? The aliens in here are scary, but they are not as scary as Giger's Alien from the Alien Trilogy. The spacecraft? Cute, but mostly uninspired, the mother ship is a blob, and the small fighter ships are smaller blobs. The biggest joy of the movie is Will Smith, who currently is still protecting Earth from aliens in the more enjoyable Men In Black. Smith gives as good as a performance he can with the limited role he is given. Judd Hirsch gives a wonderfully funny performance as Goldblum's father. And the last, though strangely morbid, joy of the film is the destruction sequence that was shown oh-so-much during the trailers. Pullman also does a decent job as the President of the United States, but he looks a bit young for that position. As for the other supporting roles they include the following. Vivica Fox as a stripper that Smith's character is going to marry. Randy Quaid as a, get this, drunken pilot, and Quaid highly overplays his part. Robert Loggia plays a stiff General. Mary McDonnell gets to play First Lady. Brent Spiner (Data from Star Trek The Next Generation) makes a guest appearance as a scientist working at Area 51. There are about another half a dozen other speaking roles in Independence Day. With this many speaking roles, you can see how characters can easily be turned into two-dimensional characters. Had a few of these characters been consolidated into a more three-dimensional and interesting character, it would have made the movie better. I can make a long list of gripes I have with the movie, but I won't (though if you really want, email me). See the movie and you can see why I have a long list of gripes. Sure, this is supposed to be a loud, dumb, explosive summer film, but Emmerich and Devlin have taken the dumb part to an extreme. I think that in some cases they have taken it to an extreme to inject some humor, but in other cases, as with the ending, they have just taken it to the extreme. This leaves the audience asking themselves, "How dumb do you think we are?" Is Independence Day fun? Yes, to an extent. The first third is fun. The last third is fun. The midsection is atrocious. Now that Independence Day is out on video, rent it and try it out. And be glad that your VCR can fast-forward, because skipping the midsection is almost necessary to enjoy the film. Emmerich and Devlin's next "creative" outing will be next summers' Godzilla, let's hope that somewhere between the release of Independence Day and the editing of Godzilla that they have learned to cut a faster moving, tighter, and a little bit smarter movie. But, I doubt this, for Independence Day had made a boatload of money because of early media hype, which afterwards the film did not live up to. Godzilla previews have now started, and the media machine is turning, lets see if Emmerich and Devlin can churn out something worthy of the massive media hype this time. !=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=! steve kong "I want something else boiled@earthlink.net to get me through this spy on me: steve-cam.home.ml.org semi-charmed kinda life" - 3eb movie reviews: hardboiled.home.ml.org !=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=! From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Jan 30 16:26:47 1998 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lejonet.se!linkoping.trab.se!malmo.trab.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!cam-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!news.idt.net!news-peer-east.sprintlink.net!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!Sprint!worldnet.att.net!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: "Jason Wallis" Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Retrospective: Independence Day (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 8 Jan 1998 17:37:12 GMT Organization: None Lines: 68 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <6932s8$5d2$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> Reply-To: NNTP-Posting-Host: homer15.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 884281032 5538 (None) 140.142.64.1 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #10528 Keywords: author=wallis X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer15.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:9894 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1731 "Independence Day" (1996) A Film Review by Jason Wallis "Independence Day" * * 1/2 (out of four) Starring Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Mary McDonnell, Judd Hirsch, Brent Spiner and Randy Quaid Directed by Roland Emmerich Anyone who knows me is aware of my hatred for comtemporary Hollywood. I loathe almost every big budget Hollywood production I come across. Oh, sure, there's the rare exception (i.e. "Face/Off" and "Men in Black"), but they're mostly just cash-cow crap. And the only reason these exceptions are actually good is because of character development or just sheer cleverness. Well, Roland Emmerich's "Independence Day" posseses neither of these qualities. But I was shocked to discover that, although in a very guilty-pleasurish way, I actually kinnda dug it. Usually, I am not entertained by mere explosions and loud noises, but the makers of "Independence Day" (or "ID4") accompany all the stupid explosions and whatnot with some very good one-liners, delivered very effectivly by the entire cast. I particularly liked (as I'm sure everyone did) the character played by Will Smith. I was never a big fan of his TV show "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air" and have never seen nor have any desire to see "Bad Boys" (mostly because of Martin Lawrence - can't stand the guy), but here, he shows that he was some real talent that other action stars like Sylvester Stalone or Ah-nold Schwarzenegger very rarely get to display. And when he made the fantastic "Men in Black" the following year, he proved to the world (or me, at least) that he truly deserves his star status. Judd Hirsch and Randy Quaid are also great in their roles, by the way. But, having said that, there are not enough strong points in "Independence Day" for me to really recommend it. Many great actors are wasted in this film, especially Brent Spiner. Now I've never been a huge Trekie, but anyone who's seen even a single episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" can see that Spiner is an excellent actor (he even had a cool cameo in "Phenomenon"). But no, instead of taking a well-written role to make make a cameo appearence, he has to choose to play the sterotypical nutcase scientist. In "Star Trek", even though he played an android, you could see underlying emotions that not very many other actors could pull-off. Here, he just seems like a grown-up asshole trying to be funny. And then there's Bill Pullman, who I'm a huge fan of. He shines in almost every film he's in and I think he even deserves an Oscar nomination for his recent role in "Lost Highway". Well, here, he sucks. And it's not that his acting sucks, it's that his character is very poorly written and extrememly one-dimentional. However, you can't really blame poor Bill because, despite how good of an actor you are, if you're given a bad character, you can't be expected to perform. Just look at Jack Nicholson in "Mars Attacks!". Even though he's the greatest actor to ever live, he couldn't get anything out of his character (or characters, in his case). And as for Roland Emmerich, he just needs to find a good story to film. With his earlier "Stargate", even though the actual final product was horrible, he showed amazing skill as a director. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention all the people who were calling this piece of psuedocrap "Star Wars" for the 90s. Do yourself a favor and watch it again, only this time on video. Just 'cause a movie is loud and shakes your seat in the theater, that doesn't mean it can be compared to a classic like "Star Wars" or any of it's sequels. That just isn't right. So, I actually almost-sorta-kinnda recommend "Independence Day" just for the performances from Will Smith, Judd Hirsch and Randy Quaid and maybe even for some of the one-liners. But I still don't see how the American public can make this one of the top grossing films of all time. Maybe it's not up to me to understand... Visit Jason Wallis' "Filmaholics Anonymous" web page at http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Boulevard/7475 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sat Jul 31 15:04:36 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!news-peer-europe.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!netnews.com!newsfeed.direct.ca!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: David Bridson Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Retrospective: Independence Day (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 31 Jul 1999 06:20:14 GMT Organization: Customer of Planet Online Lines: 55 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7nu4iu$124c$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer04.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 933402014 34956 (None) 140.142.17.35 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #19682 Keywords: author=bridson X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer04.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:18818 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2412 Title : Independence Day Director : Roland Emmerich Year : 1996 Length : 142 minutes Rating : ***** (on a 1 to 5 star scale) Will Smith .... Captain Steven Hiller Bill Pullman .... President Thomas J. Whitmore Jeff Goldblum .... David Levinson Mary McDonnell .... Marilyn Whitmore Judd Hirsch .... Julius Levinson Robert Loggia .... General William Grey Randy Quaid .... Russell Casse Margaret Colin .... Constance Spano James Rebhorn .... Albert Nimzicki Harvey Fierstein .... Marty Gilbert In June/July/August what the audience wants is something which is non-stop entertaining. Any movie which is not non-stop entertaining during the Summer is likely to have people walking to the Lobby to get their hands on an Ice-Cream, then going to sit in a nice, ventilated place with lots of shade. Any movie which slows down in pace during these months isn't really going to do too well. Perhaps this would explain why Independence Day (or ID4, according to Trailers/Adverts) was such a success. It doesn't contain anything which would even remotely challenge the audience, and it just takes the audience on a ride for over 2 hours, rarely letting them stop for a few breaths. This movie is pure entertainment. It's not going to challenge you, but that's exactly what you need in the Summer. It has its faults, but I really think these are insignificant in an otherwise extremely entertaining movie. If you didn't know from all the trailers and general hype, this movie is the story of an Alien plot to destroy the world. It's been done countless times before (most notably by Orson Welles' "Mercury Theatre" troupe). It's not the most strikingly original story, but the film is so well done that it betters many of its predecessors. The cast is really one of the best you could hope for, with Bill Pullman as the President charged with the task of ridding the world of the aliens, Will Smith as Captain Hiller, a fighter pilot, and Jeff Goldblum as a "cable guy". You wouldn't expect it from a disaster flick, but this is really a feel-good movie. Sure, millions of people are killed (without much gore) yet man's triumph over the aliens is just great. Also unexpected from a disaster movie: you can take the kids to this one! I can't recall more than a few swear words in the entire film, and there isn't much violence (well, a little sci-fi violence, but it's not real). Overall, unmissable. If you haven't seen it, rent (or even buy, as I have) it now! David Bridson From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sun Mar 23 12:58:21 2003 Path: news.island.liu.se!news.ida.liu.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!uninett.no!uio.no!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!sn-xit-03!sn-xit-06!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: Dragan Antulov Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Retrospective: Independence Day (1996) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.past-films Date: Fri, 14 Feb 2003 20:11:38 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 34117 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 842560 X-RT-TitleID: 1071806 X-RT-AuthorID: 1307 X-RT-RatingText: 5/10 Summary: r.a.m.r. #34117 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: abuse@supernews.com Lines: 88 Xref: news.island.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:5944 rec.arts.sf.reviews:493 INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996) A Film Review Copyright Dragan Antulov 2003 The best known of all movie casualties of WTC attacks is INDEPENDENCE DAY, 1996 science fiction spectacle directed by Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin. On September 11th 2001 many horrified spectators and commentators, lost for words to describe their feelings and images that they had witnessed or saw, used the phrase "It is just like INDEPENDENCE DAY". But they were wrong, because five years earlier, when they saw images of American cities and landmarks being obliterated, they cheered in the cinema, being entertained by that fictional destruction. Five years later the destruction wasn't fictional and the perception of INDEPENDENCE DAY was forever changed. The plot of INDEPENDENCE DAY is rather simple. On July 2nd, two days before America's greatest holiday, SETI scientists discover giant meteor approaching Earth. The meteor is soon revealed to be huge alien space ship, from which 25 smaller ships come out and take positions over major Earth cities. While US President Thomas J. Whitmore (played by Bill Pullman) desperately want to prevent panic and speculate about aliens' attention, former scientist and cable operator David Levinson (played by Jeff Goldblum) deciphers aliens signals and becomes convinced that the attack is imminent. Next day, Washington, New York, Los Angeles and many other cities are destroyed. Survivors, led by President, take shelter in secret Area 51 military base, rumoured to have captured alien ship on its premises. From there, President and his team must quickly find ways to defeat seemingly invulnerable aliens before 4th July - the day when the aliens would finish off destroy all human life on Earth. Without WTC tragedy, INDEPENDENCE DAY would have been remembered as nothing more than terribly over-hyped, yet very successful Hollywood summer blockbuster. Like in many similar films, the most of the creative effort was invested in clever ways to promote the film, than into special effects - all at the expense of things like plot and characters. The result is the series of truly impressive images, but they are connected with rather weak story with plenty of serious scientific implausibilities and the characters are nothing more than the series of cliches - many of them introduced simply to fill up "PC" quotas. Yet, even with such creative flaws, there is something like a genuine artistic vision hiding under cover of Hollywood commercialism. Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich obviously took this film as an excellent opportunity to make some of their childhood dreams true and spend tens of millions dollars in order to create good old-fashioned SF film about Earth having to fight brutal alien invasion. Many fans of SF cinema would be satisfied with many nods to genre classics like George Pal's WAR OF THE WORLDS, George Lucas' STAR WARS or Ridley Scott's ALIEN. Emmerich and Devlin even manage to transcend the American chauvinism implied in the title and suggest that the only way for Earth to fight aliens and solve problems of similar attitude lies in better international co-operation and understanding. The positive attitude of the film could be seen even in the cast, which makes quite a valiant effort in order to elevate their characters over cliches. Bill Pullman is quite effective as President who transforms from indecisive weakling into resolute hero, while Will Smith with his wise-cracking helps the audience accept some of the less credible aspects of the film. All in all, INDEPENDENCE DAY probably didn't deserve all of its box-office numbers, but it didn't deserve snobbish critics' bashing either. One day, when the technology makes special effects obsolete and memories of 2001 fade away, new generations might see this film as one of prime guilty pleasures from our time. RATING: 5/10 (++) Review written on February 14th 2003 Dragan Antulov a.k.a. Drax http://film.purger.com - Filmske recenzije na hrvatskom/Movie Reviews in Croatian http://www.purger.com/users/drax/reviews.htm - Movie Reviews in English http://www.ofcs.org - Online Film Critics Society ========== X-RAMR-ID: 34117 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 842560 X-RT-TitleID: 1071806 X-RT-AuthorID: 1307 X-RT-RatingText: 5/10