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List Price: $12.98 | | Label: Dreamworks Video
Salesrank: 22196
Released: November 22, 2005 |
| Our Price: $3.99 |
| Used Price: $0.01 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Dreamworks War of the Worlds (Full Screen)
Ray Ferrier is a working class man living in New Jersey. He's estranged from his family, his life isn't in order, and he's too caught up with himself. But the unthinkable and, ultimately, the unexpected happens to him in an extraordinary sense. His small town life is shaken violently by the arrival of destructive intruders: Aliens which have come en masse to destroy Earth. As they plow through the country in a wave of mass destruction and violence, Ray must come to the defense of his children. As the world must fend for itself by a new and very advanced enemynot of this world, it's inhabitants must save humanity from a far greater force that threatens to destroy it.
Starring: Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, Justin Chatwin, Miranda Otto, Tim Robbins
Description of War of the Worlds (Full Screen Edition):
Despite super effects, a huge budget, and the cinematic pedigree of alien-happy Steven Spielberg, this take on H.G. Wells's novel is basically a horror film packaged as a sci-fi thrill ride. Instead of a mad slasher, however, Spielberg (along with writers Josh Friedman & David Koepp) utilizes aliens hell-bent on quickly destroying humanity, and the terrifying results that prey upon adult fears, especially in the post-9/11 world. The realistic results could be a new genre, the grim popcorn thriller; often you feel like you're watching Schindler's List more than Spielberg's other thrill-machine movies (Jaws, Jurassic Park). The film centers on Ray Ferrier, a divorced father (Tom Cruise, oh so comfortable) who witnesses one giant craft destroy his New Jersey town and soon is on the road with his teen son (Justin Chatwin) and preteen daughter (Dakota Fanning) in tow, trying to keep ahead of the invasion. The film is, of course, impeccably designed and produced by Spielberg's usual crew of A-class talent. The aliens are genuinely scary, even when the film--like the novel--spends a good chunk of time in a basement. Readers of the book (or viewers of the deft 1953 adaptation) will note the variation of whom and how the aliens come to Earth, which poses some logistical problems. The film opens and closes with narration from the novel read by Morgan Freeman, but Spielberg could have adapted Orson Welles's words from the famous Halloween Eve 1938 radio broadcast: "We couldn't soap all your windows and steal all your garden gates by tomorrow night, so we did the best next thing: we annihilated the world." --Doug Thomas
War of the Worlds at Amazon.com
The Soundtrack | 
The War of the Worlds (1953) | 
War of the Worlds - The Complete First Season (TV series) |
Classic Sci-Fi Movies and Their Remakes | 
Aliens Invade on DVD | 
The Prog-rock Opera (no kidding) |
War of the Worlds (Full Screen Edition) Reviews:
Good Scary Movie 
2009-11-20 - This is a very good scary movie with good acting and directing all around. I believe this is how people would really react in such a disaster.
Dear Steven Spielberg... 
2009-11-07 - When you take H.G. Wells massively influential satire on the brutality of Victorian Britain's imperialist rule and transform it into yet another loud, noisy, badly acted vehicle through which to examine your own divorce trauma for the umpteenth time, you can no longer call it "War Of The Worlds" in any way, shape or form.
This is a bad movie. An absolute stinker.
It doesn't stand up to close - or indeed, any - examination and adheres to absolutely no sense of internal logic.
If anyone can anyone explain to me where the guy got the working DV camera from when we'd just spent the previous five minutes establishing that all the electronics in Tom Cruise's NJ neighbourhood had just been wiped out by the Martian/alien "lightning strikes", I'd be most appreciative.
Also, it was most considerate of the crashing plane to leave a nice little debris-free path for Cruise's people carrier to drive along.
If you're idea of a good time is spending two hours watching Tom Cruise alternating between his two default facial expressions whilst listening to Dakota Fanning screaming her lungs out and being inflicted with enough sugary schmaltz to precipitate the onset of pre-diabetes, then by all means knock yourself out and rent this.
Myself, I'd rather watch paint dry than sit through this execrable bucket of bilge again, and apparently I wasn't the only one who felt this way - as this movie's almost instantaneous appearance in the stock clearance bins of DVD stores across the land, soon after it's release, attested.
Surprised how good it was
2009-11-06 - I am a huge fan of the original War of the Worlds and didn't bother checking this movie version out when it came out because I don't like Tom all that much and I thought nothing could come close to the original; but it was on tele tonight so I happened to watch it.
It was actually very good and I was quite scared watching it (something that doesn't hit me all that often). Tom played his part well. His acting role was very believable as the frightened father.
Lousy DVD transfer 
2009-11-03 - At the cinema this was an enjoyable experience, but on DVD not so much. The video quality is grainy & the sound really needs the true HD audio treatment. As for the actual movie, I don't see why it's getting so many bad reviews. It conveyed the story of an alien invasion of earth rather well. Apart from Tom's children, which I found to be annoying, I recommend this film to anyone who enjoys this genre of film. It was also nice to see a movie go against the trend, & attribute all creation to God, as opposed to the theory of evolution (Morgan Freeman's end narration).
On Step Further
2009-11-01 - I thought it was a good remake until Spielburg decided to show the "aliens" in the barn scene. Destroyed all credibility and lowered the movie to Roland/ Emmerich status for me. Also, the scene that had Cruise and family stealing the van was laughable. Giant alien killing machines are coming down the street vaporizing everybody in sight, but the mechanic is more worried about getting the van back to it's owner. Please!
Audio was superb, and the special effects were good, IMO.
