Matt Greene
I don't care if Antonioni or Bergman is your favorite director, or how many Criterion Collection films you own, or if you're college dissertation was on the intricacies inherent in the auteur theory. Bill Pullman's speech is rousing, inspiring, well-written, incredibly delivered and simply awesome...you know it and I know it.
bheadher
I went to see this in the big screen, and it was pretty good...except, when I thought about it some, I realized that all the comedians were competing for the best one liners through much of the movie. That detracted from the overall experience for me personally...The story line is right out of the classic "aliens come to take over the Earth" theme, but with considerable panache this time. It seems the entire alien race lives on this humongous star ship, and even have smaller attack "shuttles" that are still 15 miles in diameter...All the actors are household names in their own right, but in this case putting them all in the same movie, each one trying to out do the other was a letdown really...Otherwise, the acting is presentable, the CGI rather well done, and it was an enjoyable experience overall...
Stephen Bird
One of the first modern blockbusters, Independence day is a landmark achievement in film-making and made mega-money at the box office. A perfect story and a well told narrative to celebrate the Independence of America, as well as tackling the situation of an alien invasion head on; the formula of the story is a mixture of spectacular action and the human psyche, instead of mindless in-your-face grandeur, Independence Day opts for a more humane approach, adding tension and heightened emotion to the score. Unlike a whole load of other sci-fi films, in this film the physical appearance of the actual aliens is purposely limited, what they look like isn't important..., they limit this to a couple of scenes most famously in Area 51 where the alien attacks the doctor in the lab. In all honesty I believe this film to be Will Smith's finest, I see the man as a limited actor who hasn't got the greatest set of skills, but in Independence Day the guy was near perfect, embracing his role as Captain Steven Hiller with gusto and possesses an air of confidence unrivalled by any of his other film roles. The supporting cast most notably Jeff Goldblum's David pulled their weight with enthusiasm, each of them had a required sense of urgency about them, choreographing their characters so they fit handsomely into the bigger story. The premise seemed a little bit outrageous, this wouldn't happen in real life, if aliens did invade then the situation would be tackled very differently than how it is in the film, hence the story was tarted up for the big screen, overly elaborate in every department, this isn't a problem though because it's a fictional film and in every fictional film, there are deep exaggerations bordering onto the far-fetched. The recent sequel of Independence Day doesn't hold a candle to the original, the sequel does everything it shouldn't, resists no temptation and appears to be glorified and therefore terrible, not so with the original, this film has clear boundaries and doesn't dare to cross them once, twenty years apart? The equivalent of a million years in Hollywood, and can't you just tell the difference in quality between the two films.One of those films you can watch again and again and never get tired of, that's the mark of a top quality film..., one of the finest films of the 90's you'd be hard pressed to miss it.
