John Travolta Movie:

				Salesrank:
		MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) Media: DVD

Editorial Review:
When Battlefield Earth was released in May 2000, this inept sci-fi epic qualified as an instant camp classic, prompting Daily Variety to call it "the Showgirls of sci-fi shoot-'em-ups." Other reviews were united in their derision, and toy stores were left with truckloads of Battlefield Earth action figures that nobody wanted. As the film's star and coproducer, John Travolta must have felt an urge to enlist in the witness protection program.

Recklessly adapted from the novel by sci-fi author and Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard and set in the year 3000, the film is no worse than many cheesy sci-fi flicks, but the sight of Travolta as a burly, dreadlocked alien from the planet Psychlo provokes unintentional laughter from first frame to final credits. As Terl, the Psychlo security chief who conquers Earth and hatches a secret scheme to steal all the gold from Fort Knox (which sits conveniently in wide-open vaults), Travolta hams it up as if he knows he's in a camp-fest. (In a cameo as a long-tongued Psychlo seductress, Travolta's wife, Kelly Preston, only adds to the absurdity.) Barry Pepper (the praying sharpshooter from Saving Private Ryan) tries his best to convey charisma as Jonnie, the human slave who leads an uprising against Terl's tyranny, but he's adrift in a foolish plot that makes even smart humans look stupid.

The decrepit look of a dreary future is convincingly established (the ruins of Washington D.C. recall Logan's Run on a grander scale), but in the wake of its ludicrous climax, the best that Battlefield Earth can hope for is a Dune-like fate: it might improve in a longer director's cut--but that's wishful thinking. --Jeff Shannon

Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000 [Region 2] Reviews:
worth watching
2009-12-01 - I must admit because of the reviews, which were universally negative, I avoided Battlefield Earth for years. It looked too cheesy even for me. Then one night I gave it a shot. What I saw was a post apocalyptic society being dominated by aliens (Psychlos) that were one wink and a nod from doing away with all of humanity. I am attracted to post apocalyptic story's and end of the world tales. This movie was both rolled into one. I thought John Travolta and Forrest Whitaker performances playing selfish sadistic overlords were excellent. I enjoyed the way the movie portrayed their greed and glee in humiliating underlings which was evidently a character trait in their species.
Yes evil is a bad thing, but it's fun to watch. I enjoyed the evil Psychlos because of their uninhibited greed, their Leering, their non stop gloating, their tendency to betray, their infinity to dominate, their complete lack of compassion and empathy along with their amoral cruelty. There were all kinds of problems with the movie such as the over acting. I am also not fan of the story's author, Ron Hubbard. I did however enjoy the dark humor and greed portrayed portrayed but the Psychlos. A lot of what occurs within the film is ridiculous. But I recommend watching it.

Not quite as bad as it looks
2009-10-18 - I know, I know...

Gaping plot holes, cheesy lines, ridiculous coincidences, hammy acting, lack of faithfulness to the novel (which, although no classic, was apparently much more sensible than this)....'Battlefield Earth' is certainly not a good movie. However, the reviewers slamming it as the worst movie ever made are wrong. It is certainly deeply flawed, but it does have a certain cheesy attraction.

The biggest problem lies not so much with the film itself, but the fact that it takes itself so seriously. If 'Battlefield Earth' were simply another pulp blockbuster like 'Independence Day', you could probably forgive alot of the stupidity on display here. But this movie so obviously sets out to be something "Big" and important. Check out the "making of" section of the DVD; the cast and crew really do seem to think they're making the next '2001' here. So instead of being able to laugh off the implausibilities in the story, the movie's self-important seriousness forces us to notice them, emphasising over and over again the leaps in logic and cavernous holes in the plot. The gap between the creators' ambitions and the eventual outcome is hilariously wide, and you can only wonder why nobody thought to ask how cavemen can fly a plane in a week, or books and fuel kept for 1000 years are in perfect working order.

Many people bag John Travolta's role, but I actually think his slightly self-conscious hamminess comes closest to what the film should have been. It's Barry Pepper's leaden performance that really drags this film into the depths, making ridiculous scenes even more cringeworthy with his po-faced earnestness. You just have to laugh at his deadly serious attempts to teach cavemen trigonometry, for example. Even worse, the director seems desperate to make a major artistic statement (because this film is going to be the new '2001', remember?), so he employs a variety of tilted angles, extreme close-ups, partial-scene, and other distorted camera effects which are just annoying.

So if you are after a genuine, thought-provoking sci-fi film, then look elsewhere.

However....'Battlefield Earth' is entertaining to an extent, provided you just take it as a cheesy B-grade sci-fi flick and not the big budget flop it was. The movie works alot better if you just surrender to its stupidity instead of fighting it.

This is a great movie! Think about what is happening now!
2009-08-07 - It doesn't have to be aliens or ETs that shut you out of your world and take over.
It just could be the international bankers, the private FED, and the corrupt US Federal Gov.
Why do you think that they spend so much money to get elected?
How are they going to pay back their "friends" that donated those funds?
Where do you think that money comes from?
That's right! - From you!
Watch this movie again with this perspective in mind, and you will see a whole new world! Yours!
Then go see this 5 minute wonderful clip created on[...] from the movie "V For Vendetta"...
"V's Message for the U.S.A"
[...]

Interesting Movie
2009-07-26 - Battlefield Earth brings to the screen a futuristic scenario where aliens are in control of Earth and humans have been reduced to a mere slave-race.
It is the year 3000 and the Pshyclos, an evil race of aliens, have taken over planet Earth to satisfy their need for raw materials. Subsequently, humans have become an endangered species...
Don't look for the movie to make much sense; it doesn't.
John Travolta, Forest Whitaker, Barry Pepper, and the rest of the cast carry out their performances well though the acting is nothing extraordinary.
The setting, the (full of holes) plot, the (weak) dialogues, the special effects, and the music make for an amusing film.
In a nutshell, it's probably not a movie you would want to add to your collection, but it will provide for an evening's entertainment (especially if intoxicated and/or in a silly mood).



WHAT PRICE SCIENTOLOGY? WHO CARES?
2009-07-21 - Well, poodles, Once more I returned home after a relaxing facial and manicure only to find that little Jimmy jr. had yet again poisoned the family DVD player with some heinous assault called BATTLEFIELD EARTH. How he managed to bribe his Germanic governess Mrs. Whipcrack to remove his fetters and take him to the local video store is still under investigation. (I would have thought this beyond her. She claimed to be former Gestapo on her resume.) With my freshly painted nails digging into my palms, and a growing concern for the I.Q. of my youngest son, I sat down to witness what could quite possibly be the worst movie of the new millennium.

Released to scathing reviews in the summer of 2000, one could only hope that BATTLEFIELD EARTH was, as many paranoid trogs would have it, a subliminal recruitment for the L. Ron Hubbard religion/carpetbagging operation, because then it might have some purpose. Otherwise, it is a brain-baking travesty, a Hollywood laughingstock that must inevitably damn at least some of the careers wrapped up in it. It's difficult to imagine how John Travolta, (whose personal project this was in one way or another), got away with his reputation and price tag intact. As a Rasta-coiffed alien in six-finger fur gloves and big Gene Simmons boots prone to drinking what looks like Gatorade at his local alien gin mill, Travolta utters dialogue only LOST IN SPACE's Dr. Smith could get away with, including multiple exclamations about Earth being "this horrid planet!" Much to his hammy dismay, Travolta's Terl is stuck on Earth monitoring its security after the Psychlos have essentially wiped out civilization and are busy strip-mining the planet.

Jonnie (Barry Pepper) gets captured by the Psychlos; when Terl decides to surreptitiously have "man-animals" mine gold for personal profit, he slaps Jonnie into a brain-educating machine, not realizing that Jonnie has a Captain Kirk-like need to be free. The revolution takes forever to happen, and director Roger Christian's 45-degree angles, hyper-closeups and hemorrhaging slo-mo shots virtually comprise a textbook in how to make an irritating, ineffective and dull action film. Unarguably the dumbest sci-fi novel ever to be a bestseller in this country (if it was one - anti-Hubbardians think there's a warehouse full of paperbacks somewhere), BATTLEFIELD EARTH makes it to the screen with its nova-sized plot holes (caveman learning how to formation-fly Harriers in a few days!), glaring inconsistencies ("Six Psychlos coming fast!"; cut to six aliens walking very slowly) and slackjawed foolishness intact.

Don't even get me going on the Fort Knox debacle, or Kelly Preston's cameo as an alien trollop with a foot-long tongue, or Pepper's portentous reading of the Declaration of Independence. I haven't seen such a laughably incompetent summer movie since summer movies became summer movies some years ago, and that's saying a pantload. As to Mrs. Whipcrack, we have a special room in our basement for people who don't follow orders. Perhaps she might enjoy a little visit down there next to our sloppy gardener Mr. Chu.