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List Price: $14.98 | | Label: 20th Century Fox
Salesrank: 10731
Released: February 11, 2003 |
| Our Price: $6.00 |
| Used Price: $5.25 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
On July 2nd communications systems worldwide are sent into chaos. A number of enormous objects are on a collision course with Earth that are revealed to be gigantic alien spacecraft. After attempts to communicate with the aliens go nowhere an ex-scientist turned cable technician discovers that the aliens are going to attack. On July 3rd the aliens destroy New York Los Angeles and Washington. The survivors devise a plan to fight back and July 4th becomes the day humanity will fight for its freedom. July 4th is their Independence Day...System Requirements: Running Time 153 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: PG-13 UPC: 024543036685 Manufacturer No: 2003668
Description of Independence Day (Single Disc Widescreen Edition):
In Independence Day, a scientist played by Jeff Goldblum once actually had a fistfight with a man (Bill Pullman) who is now president of the United States. That same president, late in the film, personally flies a jet fighter to deliver a payload of missiles against an attack by extraterrestrials. Independence Day is the kind of movie so giddy with its own outrageousness that one doesn't even blink at such howlers in the plot. Directed by Roland Emmerich, Independence Day is a pastiche of conventions from flying-saucer movies from the 1940s and 1950s, replete with icky monsters and bizarre coincidences that create convenient shortcuts in the story. (Such as the way the girlfriend of one of the film's heroes--played by Will Smith--just happens to run across the president's injured wife, who are then both rescued by Smith's character who somehow runs across them in alien-ravaged Los Angeles County.) The movie is just sheer fun, aided by a cast that knows how to balance the retro requirements of the genre with a more contemporary feel. --Tom Keogh
Independence Day (Single Disc Widescreen Edition) Reviews:
ruined by goldblum 
2008-10-13 - This movie could have been better if Jeff Goldblum and religion was left out. Jeff goldblum sucks as an actor. He ruined the Jerassic Park movies but, fits "The Fly" movie fine. Why is being Jewish a concern in this movie? It could have been left out! This movie could have been much better if changed in other ways also.Jeff G has no acting skill!
War of the Worlds 
2008-10-06 - I don't know how to explain to somebody that likes this why this movie sucks. Here's a few random things that come to mind in no particular order: 1) Will Smith is an uninteresting actor except for when he was in MEN IN BLACK and some other movie I can't remember the title of. 2) Bill Pullman is the president. 3) The president is one of the heros of the movie. LAME. Presidents are cowards and frauds that would hide in a bunker somewhere. 4) The plot is dumb and sucks; particularly the silly backstory between the president and Jeff Goldblum. 5) The name of the movie is lame. INDEPENDENCE DAY. Right. First we kicked British --- and now the aliens. America Rules!!! USA! USA! USA! America is saves the planet. The way the aliens are defeated- Lol! OK, "it's just a movie". It was a virus that destroyed them like in some other story about an alien invasion, but this time one for the alien's computers. "Star Wars" for the next generation I spot a reviewer claim?! SAY WHAT?? Sorry, that reviewer doesn't got a clue. And comparing it to STARSHIP TROOPERS? No, that is completely wrong. Saying this movie is better than STARSHIP TROOPERS is a complete misunderstanding of what STARSHIP TROOPERS was about. They didn't get it. STARSHIP TROOPERS is both a brilliant satire AND highly entertaining, well crafted sci-fi adventure flick in certain aspects masquerading as a B movie as well as perfect parody of WWII propaganda films. TROOPERS lightheartedly calls the viewer's attention to the propensity of propagandized humans for senseless violence without conscience, comicly using a war of humans versus mindless, souless, agressive "bugs" to make the point. Stuff that works: I like seeing the White House explode and other stuff. The alien ships look pretty cool.
Brilliant entertainment 
2008-10-01 - You don't need the philosophies of Plato or Schopenhauer or Descartes to watch this film. Watch it for what it is: an suspenseful action-packed sci-fi film. Although it does seem a bit long (just over 140 minutes), the film doesn't seem to drag at all. The subplots are interesting, and the special effects won't really disappoint. The actors and their characters are memorable (the chemstry between Goldblum and Hirsch is a plus for the father-and-son genre). David Arnold's music is spectacular, and it's one of my favorite scores. And finally, I don't really mind the overpatriotism found in this film, just as long as I can focus on the action and the aliens.
A-
Flawed yet still fun disaster flick 
2008-09-13 - Before superpowered crimefighting men in tights dominated the summer movie landscape, there were asteroids (Armageddon, Deep Impact), tornadoes (Twister), and giant lizards (Godzilla) destroying national landmarks that caused people to flock to their air-conditioned movie theaters in the summer months. But the film that seemingly started it all was 1996's Independence Day.
Directed by Roland Emmerich and produced by Emmerich and his partner (or in most cases, co-offender) Dean Devlin, the "masterminds" behind the so-so sci-fi film Stargate. While on the press junket for Stargate, they were questioned about their belief in aliens, which they responded that one day we may wake up to find alien spaceships in the sky. At that moment, the concept for their next film was born.
Some call Independence Day "the Star Wars of the 90's", but Independence Day lacks the religious mysticism and homages to Westerns and samurai films. What it does have is a love for old sci-fi B-movies like The Day the Earth Stood Still, movies made to be more fun than based in heady subtext or scientific fact.
The story takes place over the span of three days: July 2nd, July 3rd, and July 4th. The film begins on July 2nd with the ominous shadows of the invaders' massive spaceships slowly enveloping everything they pass, and we're introduced to a number of characters and their own storylines, so many that I might not be able to list them all here. You have President Whitmore (Bill "I'm Not Bill Paxton" Pullman), a former Gulf War fighter pilot whom the opinion polls are turning against for his seemingly ineffectiveness and lack of resolve. You have M.I.T. grad turned cable guy David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum) whom is still coping with his divorce and uncovers the aliens' secret plan. You have Air Force pilot Steven Hiller (Will Smith), who applies to be an astronaut but is rejected because of his relationship with his girlfriend, a stripper and single mom named Jasmine (Vivica A. Fox). Oh, and then there's Randy Quaid's Russell Casse, a Vietnam War veteran who spends his days in a drunken stupor, supporting his three children as a crop duster and recalling his own alien abduction. All of their destinies somehow intersect throughout the film as the extraterrestrials launch their attack,
The aliens attack on July 2nd, blasting blue-green rays of energy down on major cities around the world, causing tidal waves of fire that kill millions and leave the cities in flaming ruins. The Earth forces mount an aerial counterattack on July 3rd, but are vastly outnumbered and quickly overwhelmed by the swarm of technologically-advanced aliens, whom then take out most Army bases. Frustrations mount as it becomes more and more apparent that the aliens seem unstoppable. The remaining American forces retreat to the modern-day mythical Area 51, where they organize one final strike at the aliens on July 4th.
Many of the characters are stock and cliche, like the science whiz no one wants to listen to but who is always right, or the trigger-happy government suit whose only response to a problem seems to involve firing all available weaponry at the enemy despite the repeated failure of said weaponry. (Emmerich and Devlin are known for falling back on these very cliches in their other movies, as evidenced by their Independence Day follow-up Godzilla), and several of the plot points seem highly contrived and unlikely. A simple computer virus being compatible with advanced alien technology seems ridiculous, so the possibility that said computer virus being capable of taking down technologically-advanced alien force fields is even more ridiculous, and that's saying a lot when you're talking about a movie about an alien invasion. But the special effects are the real stars here (though some shots do look noticibly green-screened if you look closely), and the underdog story of outgunned and outmatched Earth forces taking on a seemingly invincible alien threat is a crowd pleaser. And you can't help but cheer a little bit when poor Russell Casse gets his revenge. This is probably the best film by Emmerich and Devlin to date, something that doesn't look to be changing anytime soon.
Good character developments & acting. Special effects were good at that time but not good compared to movies of the last 4 years
2008-08-25 - It has good character developments and acting. The special effects were good at that time but not good compared to movies of the last 4 years. It's worth watching.
