Subject: REVIEW: INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996)

From: [email-masked] (Chew Joo Siang)
Date: 17 Jul 1996 21:19:17 GMT

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
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From: [email-masked] (Chew Joo Siang)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews
Subject: REVIEW: INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996)
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Date: 17 Jul 1996 21:19:17 GMT
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                              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.