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Contact (1997)
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Reviews Counted:53
Fresh:35
Rotten:18
Average Rating:6.7/10
Runtime: 2 hrs 33 mins
Genre: Science-Fiction/Fantasy
US Box Office: $0
Synopsis: Devoted astronomer Dr. Ellie Arroway undertakes an emotional and spiritual journey after receiving the message she's waited for all her life--a mysterious signal beamed in from alien beings, who... Devoted astronomer Dr. Ellie Arroway undertakes an emotional and spiritual journey after receiving the message she's waited for all her life--a mysterious signal beamed in from alien beings, who pass along instructions for building and piloting a craft that will presumably survive the passage from Earth to their home. While struggling to fund her mission, Arroway also struggles with her feelings about the nature of things, particularly after meeting a charismatic New Age believer who questions her disbelief in God. A deliberately-paced, meditative adaptation of the eponymous novel by Ann Druyan and "pop" astronomer Carl Sagan, who died during production. [More]
Starring: Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey, James Woods, John Hurt
Starring: Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey, James Woods, John Hurt, Tom Skerritt, Angela Bassett, Rob Lowe, William Fichtner, Geoffrey Blake, Jena Malone, Sami Chester, Timothy McNeil, Laura Elena Surillo, Henry Strozier, Michael Chaban, Max Martini, Larry King, Thomas Garner, Conroy Chino, Dan Gifford, Vance Valencia
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Composer: Alan Silvestri
Producer: Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan, Joan Bradshaw, Lynda Obst
Story: Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan
Screenwriter: James V. Hart, Michael Goldenberg
Producer: Robert Zemeckis, Steve Starkey
Reviews for Contact
The film balances characterisation with the adventure of space discovery, and harnesses advanced filmmaking techniques for the best possible result in entertainment with meaning.
No wonder the astronomer's philosophy of contact boils down to this: Don't call me, I'll call you.
With all the science and technology, Zemeckis and the writers made room for spiritual debates (some of them painfully slight), political commentary, and a strangely tepid and inert romance...
When Contact finally comes alive, it leaves you frightened and thrilled and emotionally overwrought, as only a child can be. The rest is pandering.
Features heavy-handed exposition, repetitive, maudlin flashbacks, uneven performances and endless sermonising.
Foster's voyage is an astronomical letdown, largely because Zemeckis' ideas of heaven and earth don't extend beyond what can be envisioned as a celluloid event.
By hating the two-dimensional villain ... the audience feels they have found 'the bad guy' and aren't challenged to consider the flimsiness in Arroway's or Josse's perspectives.
The story doesn't always do justice to the mind-bending visual opening of Robert Zemeckis' movie, which features Jodie Foster as an annoyingly intense scientist.
A rare find -- a science-fiction film more interested in ideas than scary critters.
You've got some great moments and an intriguing, haunting last act, but most of the movie isn't very exceptional.
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