It coulda been a contender.
Independence Day (1996)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:54
Fresh:33
Rotten:21
Average Rating:6.3/10
Consensus: The plot is thin and so is character development, but as a thrilling, spectacle-filled summer movie, Independence Day delivers.
Runtime: 2 hrs 33 mins
Genre: Science-Fiction/Fantasy
US Box Office: $0
Synopsis: With a $71 million budget and mind-blowing special effects, INDEPENDENCE DAY is a grand, high-tech throwback to such films of the 1950s as THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL and WAR OF THE WORLDS. Here,... With a $71 million budget and mind-blowing special effects, INDEPENDENCE DAY is a grand, high-tech throwback to such films of the 1950s as THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL and WAR OF THE WORLDS. Here, aliens, in numerous gargantuan spaceships, arrive without warning and hover over the world's most important cities, creating global panic. The nasty visitors use death rays to blow New York, Washington D.C, and Los Angeles to smithereens. A handful of plucky Americans, including the Clinton-esque President (Bill Pullman), a gung-ho fighter pilot (Will Smith) and a computer geek named David (Jeff Goldblum), attempt to devise a strategy against the invaders. On July 4th, their risky plan is put into effect, as dozens of fighter pilots (including the President) wage an assault on the spaceships. However, their success (and the fate of the world) depends on David, who is attempting to disarm the aliens's mothership. [More]
Starring: Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, Margaret Colin
Starring: Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, Margaret Colin, Judd Hirsch, Randy Quaid, Vivica A. Fox, Mary McDonnell, James Rebhorn, Harvey Fierstein, Robert Loggia, Harry Connick, James Duval
Director: Roland Emmerich
Director: Roland Emmerich
Screenwriter: Dean Devlin, Roland Emmerich
Composer: David Arnold
Producer: Dean Devlin, Roland Emmerich, Ute Emmerich, William Fay, Lincoln D. Hiatt, Peter Winther
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Reviews for Independence Day
Director Roland Emmerich has a knack for belaboring a point, explaining everything to us in dialogue and visuals often and repeatedly and over and over.
Independence Day backs up the commonly-heard claim that movie success often has little to do with a good story and compelling characters and everything to do with big stars, big production values and good timing.
Unfortunately, and perhaps not unexpectedly, it doesn't live up to the hype.
Switch your brain down and enjoy it. And take along a barf bag for those excruciating American patriotic scenes.
Big, dumb, glossy blockbuster designed for mass appeal is massively appalling.
No one who wants to see this movie needs me to recommend it to them, but if anyone wants to know, I say stay home and rent one of those other movies on video.
As for the human characters, they give merely adequate back-seat support to the special effects that drive this big-budget thriller.
A gasping, bloated roller-coaster ride that veers from scenes of truly awesome destruction to stretches of numbingly bad melodrama and back again.
Does the hype monster ID4 live up to its massive buildup? In a word, no.
Maybe the moviemakers' mission was to boldly go where everyone in Hollywood has gone before: the bank.
Independence Day is Hollywood's poster child for the design-by-committee blockbuster.
Forget government conspiracies about aliens -- what about the entertainment media's conspiracy to persuade America that this movie doesn't suck?
The aliens, when we finally see them, are a serious disappointment; couldn't they think of anything more interesting than octopus men?
Latest News for Independence Day
November 16, 2009:
Emmerich Talks Independence Day Sequels ![]()
All these years later, Roland Emmerich is thinking about returning to "Independence Day" -- and not with just one sequel, either. How does "ID4-Ever" sound to you? More...
November 02, 2009:
12 Facts About 2012
Did the Mayans really predict, all those centuries ago, that Earth would be visited by planetary apocalypse three years from now? It's open to interpretation -- Roland Emmerich... More...
March 03, 2009:
Five Favourite Films with Bill Pullman
Few can forget Bill Pullman's rousing speech as the US president in Independence Day, but it's only one of a long string of vast and diverse roles that have seen him cast as... More...
March 06, 2008:
Box Office Guru Preview: Ancient Action Arrives Again
For its third chart-topper of the year, Warner Bros. is going back in time with its ancient adventure 10,000 BC which aims to revitalize a box office on the verge of extinction. More...
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