film: Independence Day

[tambourine-man]

Good Lord!

What an awful film! I remember when it came out the special effects were touted as amazing, the script inspirational... well, I watched it last night and it was without doubt the campiest piece of shit ever. It was a bit like watching Star Wars again as an adult... you suddenly realise that C-3PO is a raging queen, just like you suddenly realise that Bill Pullman can't act without tripping over his imaginary penis. The man acts with his dick. Every scene he kinda adjusts himself to overly-assert his masculinity or perform a piece of "smell the fart" acting. Ugh. It was cringeworthy.

What else? Jeff Goldblum's dreadful performance (which was basically a cobbled-together rip-off of his role in Jurassic Park). Robert Loggia's awfully mis-casted in the role as the General... "who's Robert Loggia" you ask? Why, he's the perennially orange dude who started his career as an Oompa Lumpah.

I always knew it had every cliché in the book - from the effeminate British pilots, the even more effeminate French, the cigar-chewing General, the Jewish tell-it-like-it-is father, right through to the "I'm gonna take one more shot (because my penis huge)" President - it's just a terribly, terribly camp film... and I never realised it until yesterday. The one saving grace was the nuclear missile that fired through the alien's control centre. Although, I almost hoped that the alien ship would spiral out of control and land on Universal Studios. Or Will Smith.

 

[Banquo]

hehe...my favorite parts:

- the President flying an air force jet
- the fact that alien computers are Macintosh-compatible
- when the guy who plays Data on Star Trek gets all neurotic in Area 51

there's a line in there when the tide starts to turn, something like "the Americans have a plan." someone who saw this in a UK theater told me there was audience snickering like no time in history and a sarcastic shout of "right-o, we're saved!"

 

[alasdairm]

poking holes in independence day is like "looking for meaning in a paulie shore movie" (thanks, clueless).

seriously, it's a big budget summer blockbuster where 99% of the budget went to special effects. get over it, sit back and let the nonsense take you and it's ridiculous fun!



alasdair

 

[TALLY]

When i was a kid I liked the part where they have the alien locked up in a room and it starts talking to them. When it starts talking to the president, It sounds like the alien says..."release boobies". He doesnt really say that, but it sure sounds like it.

 

[ghtto_cwby]

I liked the movie, especially the part when Will Smith sees the Alien after the space ship crashes in the desert the way he approaches the space ship and what he says when he sees the alien

 

[dbailey11]

Haha, old movie, brand new thread. Why lord, why?

 

[GreenEyedGirrrL]

"why lord, why"
agreed.

 

[ladyinthesky]

i liked the movie when i first saw it but its played out

 

[Pander Bear]

you think watching that again was bad, try watching Mortal Combat.

 

[L2R]

^i cringed at mortal kombat even as a kid.

id4 is why i love Mars Attacks as much as i do

 

[indelibleface]

When I first saw it when I was 11, it was the coolest movie I had ever seen.

Fast forward to today -- I'm now 21, and I'll admit that it's still campy fun. It's a terrible film by all reasonable standards, but if you look at it as a cheesy popcorn flick, it's highly entertaining. Just turn off your reasoning centers with a healthy dose of marijuana, grab some nachos, and sit back and enjoy the fine cheddar cheese of Independence Day.

 

[michael]

the dvd's alternate ending is friggin' hilarious.

 

[DarthMom]

dude, i fucking lOVE this movie... i don't understand how some people can't just let their brain shut off and enjoy a movie for what it is....stupid mind numbing fun.


this is a movie that separates the terms "movie" and "film"

:D

 

[keiths31]

It is what it is. An America-is-great movie, with a few other countries thrown in. I've only seen it once and once was more than enough.

 

[wArEhOuSePuNk]

- the fact that alien computers are Macintosh-compatible

Lmao.

 

[Belisarius]

I have a kind of love-hate relationship with ID4.

What I hate:
--Loopholes that make you either want to pinch yourself, or to smash the screen. These would take many pages...

--Its insistence on the Lone Hero; for instance, of all the millions of techies listening to the signals, Golblum's character is the only one who notices a crucial detail.

--The fact that it's so glaringly obvious that every desert scene is filmed in the same location.

--Flubs that only nerds would get, like pronouncing each letter in "SETI" instead of saying "set-ee", or the fact that scientists don't actually "listen" for signals at all, but have programs that sort through the data.

--A lot of potential depth is intentionally glossed over; for instance, there's no sign in El Toro among any of the pilots that their friends and families have just been obliterated by aliens. The most extraordinary event in the history of humanity, and all we get are macho, Top Gun quips. Whatever.

However, there are things I love about it:
--Its humor, and it *is* funny, intentionally or otherwise.

--Its unapologetic badness, its balls-to-the-wall cheese. This movie revels in being lowbrow through and through, and I respect that. If Roland and Emmerich tried to pass themselves off as the Bergmans of SF, I'd hate it, but with this, you get the feeling they said one day, "Let's make a huge, crazy, stupid sci-fi movie so ridiculous that you can't help but like it." In that, I think they succeeded.

On balance, I like it *because* it's bad.

 

[Infinite Jest]

@Michael: care to explain the alt. ending?
@atlas (try saying that aloud): what-the-hell were you doing watching Mortal Combat - again?

The thing that really ruined it for me was the whole 'let's play this for laughs and have Will Smith throwing around quips like he's still the Fresh Prince, even though it's the end of the fucking world'. (I can handle hokey stuff like the Mac-compatible alien hardware and the miracle translation devices, but the one thing I hate about big Hollywood films is the way EVERYTHING has to be reduced to this stupid level of 'macho Top Gun quips' as Bel said. No matter when and where the movie is set, no matter how serious the supposed situation, everyone wisecracks. (cf Lord of the Rings).

 

[Banquo]

can we get a poll up in here? %)

 

[dbailey11]

This movie is not worth a poll.

 

[alasdairm]

^ i disagree

rate this movie

alasdair