Subject: REVIEW: INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996)

From: [email-masked] (Ted Prigge)
Date: 23 Jun 1997 15:27:41 GMT

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): **