Id4

Seeing this at the age of 14 convinced me that big scifi movies could suck. I love Will Smith but find this film to be a gross misrepresentation of War of the Worlds.

It's terrible, but I think it had the best marketing push for a film ever. Prior to the Matrix Reloaded, I don't think I was ever so hyped to see a movie.

Like I said, it's a shitty movie, but it's slightly better when you think of it as being in the same mold as the Towering Inferno and the Poseidon Adventure. Not much better, but a little.

Yeah, I remember hearing on the commentary, that that was Emmerich's and Devlin's intention, to make it like the 70's disaster flicks, as opposed to an outright sci-fi flick. I'll go against the grain and say that I liked it then, and I still like it now. Plus any scene between Jeff Goldblum and Judd Hirsch is great.

QFT. The first teaser trailer got me so pumped. I would actually watch that E! show Coming Attractions or whatever it was called just to see the trailer. I tried to convince myself I loved it, but that film has not aged well at all. Everything after the initial attack is just bad.

This movie must have had a huge effect on people ten years younger than me. Any adult who saw it in 1996 knew it was just another disposable summer blockbuster. But it must have left a lasting impression on kids because this board is littered with ID4 threads that either A) Carry a nostalgic love or B) Explore the stunning revelation that it might actually suck.

I like it. But last time it was on TV my dad was watching it with me and during it he said "This is really bad."

I'll defend it. I really enjoy this film. I watch it every Independence Day. Sure it has some bad dialogue and HUGE, ridiculous plot holes but I think its a really fun popcorn movie.

But I am a Goldblum apologist so maybe that is part of why I enjoy the film so much.

This piece of retarded jingoistic mega-shit has no business being mentioned in even the same ballpark as Poseidon, let alone the same sentence.

..but then most disaster films don't in my humble

I was 12 when i saw it, and it was the biggest thing ever.

I can't stand it today.

Yep, I remember this being one of the first movies I was insanely pumped to see. The marketing had me hooked and I was confident it would be the greatest thing ever. And the first time I saw it I thought it was.

I haven't been able to sit through it for quite some time.

Independence Day is awful, but two things justify its existence to me:

1. After Pullman gives his awful "We're fighting for our rights... TO LIVE!" speech, there's one guy who gives him the most hilarious, over-the-top salute ever committed to screen. Every time I see that scene, I laugh once at that ridiculous speech, and then again at that salute. It's the perfect punctuation to that scene, it's like an exclamation point to Pullman's awfulness.

2. After ten minutes of death and destruction, the movie chooses to end its apocalyptic second act with a dog! Outrunning a fireball! By jumping over cars! Now that is fucking awesome, I don't care what anyone says.

I like it, but boy do the seams show now. And it perfectly encapsulates the problems with most of the Devlin/Emmerich films -- they know how to build up like nobody's business, but once the shit hits the fan, they have no idea what to do. Stargate falls apart once they actually get to the other planet after a nice mysterious build-up, ID4 is absolutely on rails until "July 3rd" flashes on the screen and we have to wade through the Second Act from Hell, and even Godzilla does a nice job building up to Godzilla's first appearance (and even the beginning of his attack on NYC) before it turns into empty rainy spectacle. Hell, I'll even say the nonsensical Day After Tomorrow (albeit without Devlin) at least had a decent build-up to the disaster, shoddy science notwithstanding. D&E are great idea men, but they can't sustain the enthusiasm of their initial premise.

BOOMER!

Those are the two main highlights for me as well. I do seriously, and unironically, love David Arnold's score, though. It's fantastic.

That theme he wrote that kicks off the closing credits is just magic. We all walked out of the theater ready to join the Air Force.

Bullseye. All that said, I still enjoy the film as the cheeseball big budget B-movie it is. I've got Spielberg's War of the Worlds when I want a legit alien invasion story.

A few things unequivocally work for me, though that haven't been mentioned:

1. Smith and Goldblum's chemistry in the alien craft.

2. "Yeah....she's asleep."

3. Judd Hirsch.

4. The alien autopsy. I know it's coming, and yet the suit bursting open scares the crap out of me every time.

One of the most brilliant marketing campaigns ever produced. That is the only bona fide ounce of quality this film has going for it. That and lots of Americans die.

EVERYONE wanted to see this in the summer of 1996. And when they had, the realisation that it was shit took about 6 months to sink in. Which is why today, some people still find it a shock to realise that it really is a bad, bad film. However, as a B-movie, it is exactly as it should be. The trouble is we came to expect it to be dramatic and exciting, when in reality its just overblown and silly. Its good for a few laughs, both intentional and not.

As for Roland Emmerich, yeah, he's never managed to pull off a third act. He's great at setting up and then letting down.

Hate this movie. Roland Emmerich is the Bert I. Gordon of our generation.

That was one of my first film scores I owned, and it was on cassette. I think I got it through one of those BMG Music ten for the price of one dealies. Played the shit out of it. Just like with Godzilla, Arnold's score holds up better than the film they were written for.

Isn't this the movie that made Nick ask, in his review of The Day After Tomorrow, "Why didn't they just upload a virus to the storm?" If so, that's good enough for me.

Loggia: "Is that glass bulletproof?"

Caveman secret service agent: "NO SIR"

Whoa whoa, this is Adam Baldwin you're talking about here. Let's have some respect.

Like I said, caveman!

He's progressing, though. In 10,000 B.C., he lets the sucking begin from the very first minute.

Haters, haters, haters! "Welcome to ERF!" I say to you all.

While everyone has valid arguments on how craptastic this movie is, let me remind you of a few things below. Of course most of my arguments for ID4 love are the exact reasons many people think it blows, but oh well, I still like it.

1. This cast is epic. Goldblum, Smith, McDonnell, Fierstein, Spiner, Pullman, Hirsch, Connick Jr., Quaid, Baldwin and Loggia. Let those last three names sink in. I don't know about you, but any movie with Quaid, Baldwin and Loggia MUST be good. There is so, so much cheesy overacting in this film and I love it all.
2. The effects still hold up pretty well (with the main exception being the atrocious dog jumping past the fire scene).
3. I'm a sucker for alien spaceships vs. Air Force fighters.
4. Whitmore's speech is so bad and cheesy it is fantastic.
5. Who doesn't want to see aliens blow the shit out of New York, LA and D.C.? And watching the alien-lovers get zapped on the roof of the LA buidling is glorious.
6. I tear up just thinking of Quaid sacrificing himself at the end. Sniff, here I go again...
7. Just the concept that crop-dusters, Presidents and every other random survivor around can fly and fight aliens in fighter jets is so ridiculous, I love it.
8. The alien effects and the scenes in Area 51 are pretty creepy and still the strongest part of the film.

I've got CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND when I want a legit Steven Spielberg movie about aliens. When I want to watch Tom Cruise fisting a giant space anus, well, yeah, there's no substitute for WAR OF THE WORLDS. But it's not often I want to see that, and by "not often" I mean "never". Mixing Cruise and Spielberg is like mixing ammonia and Clorox. Both are fine when used appropriately and kept far away from one another. Combine them and you get lethal, toxic fumes that will take your ass out.

I'd even say ID4 is the better movie, and I don't even like it (much). At least it has the sense to embrace its own stupidity. WAR OF THE WORLDS is painfully unaware of how dumb it actually is. ID4 knows its limitations.

Got to give props to the Die Hard dog.

Agreed. We all went to see it- fuck Twister or Mission:Impossible, this was the movie to go see in the summer of 1996. Come to think of it, what a shitty summer for movies. Except for Kingpin. And The Arrival.

I'm sad to say that I saw Twister in the theater ... twice. And that after ID4 I walked out being like "America, Fuck Yeah!" and was excited to see the Godzilla remake because of it (that one didn't work out so well though).

You know, I'd much rather sit down and watch Twister again than ID4. It's more aware it's a dumb disaster movie than ID4 is.

Hey now, any summer in which THE ROCK and ERASER come out 2 weeks apart is A-OK in my book.

Oh and let's not all pretend we weren't laughing our asses off at THE NUTTY PROFESSOR when it first came out. C'mon, that scene at the dinner table. You all know you were laughing then.

In no way is TWISTER better than INDEPENDENCE DAY. Complete waste of Gertz.

Fuckin' A!


Of course.


Complete waste is right. We could have had more "She did not marry your penis." stories.

Well, I don't know if it happened in other non-US countries as well, but the first time I saw this I remember my friends and I talking on our way out of the theater about how cool it'd be to replace the Pullman character with our extremely charismatic president at the time... in a non-ironic way.

And no, the aforementioned Summer of 96 wasn't that bad. Apart from The Rock and Eraser (and Mission: Impossible - fuck you, haters), remember we also got to enjoy the excellences of cold fusion, the pairing of Piper & Dodge and the girls from the Eager Beaver.

I gotta say, there was a lot of erect nipples going on in Twister between Gertz and Hunt.

It's still sort of fun. No way in the world would it make a "favorite movies" list from me, but I won't deny that I had a really fun time watching this one when I was younger. Nowadays, it's obviously not as good, but the music helps out a lot. I too think it's a great score.

I fell into its publicity trap pretty quickly. Outside of already-known franchises, I think that was the only time I ever bought into the hype for a movie growing up. Thankfully, it delivered what I wanted as a 12-year-old.

Plus, I always thought it was cool to see Brent Spiner in something that wasn't Star Trek-related.

Bob is right. For a lot of people my age, it's basically our Goonies. (Along with the words to "Part of Your World," I guarantee that the Whitmore speech is encoded on the DNA of many, many twentysomethings.) We can admit that it's not a good movie, but at least in my case, it (and Jurassic Park) hit at just the right time in my early adolescence that I can't completely hate it. When I was sick recently, I caught the post-destruction half on cable and wound up watching until the end.

Judd Hirsch is so very Jewish, and so very awesome, in this. "John Lennon said that. Smart man. Shot in the back. Very sad."

I hated Judd Hirsch in this. So over the top that Jackie Mason cringed. He, Harvey Fierstein, Harry Connick Jr. and Randy Quaid were all having a Stereotype-Off in that film.

As for the summer of 1996, I must admit I really enjoyed The Phantom as well.

-"Who are you?"
-"Xander Drax. X-A-N-D-E-R D-R-A-X. Begins with an X, ends with an X".

Thank god that had Treat Williams in it.