MOVIE OF THE DAY: INDEPENDENCE DAY

This film is so obnoxiously braindead it's like the filmic equivilent of a hillbilly with three day old beer breath, an overbite and a confederate flag on his pickup yelling into your face and poking his finger into your chest for two hours about how great 'merica is.

 

I hate it with a passion that burns deep in my soul.

Except that the world is saved by a black and super-jew.

While the rest of the world sits around with its thumb up it's arse apparently.

I'm just saying, perhaps Armageddon is closer to what you're getting at.

Hey, if they wanna save the world, they gonna have to remake the movie themselves!

 

I saw this at the perfect age (the year before Face/Off rocked my world and opened me up to a bigger world of cinema) and I can still access that dumb kid that got caught up in the whole affair.  Caught it with some friends at a midnight showing on July 4th a couple of years ago and had a great time.  Biggest cheer of the night: Boomer's explosion-dodging skills.

 

David Arnold's score really makes this thing 'work.'

 

I still mock Randy Quaid's son's dumb Keanu voice.

 

"Daaaahd... wutter'yu doooin'?"

 

ADAM BALDWIN: "Your father was a brave man.  You should be very proud of him."

 

"I (tooootally) ahm!"

 

Patrick has a good point in that Armageddon is closer to your description of Independence Day.  Especially about the rest of the world sitting with its ass up its thumbs (whoops!  I'm gonna keep that error).  Independence Day at least shows you that each country is taking care of its own problems.  In Armageddon, they just wait for America to get things done.

 

Love Goldblum's cigar-puffing strut at the end of the movie.

This is my wife's favorite movie (her second is Point Break). As such I have seen it, many, many times and own several copies,  However I can't help but like this movie, as the review said it's pure popcorn.

 

Fun Fact, my normally sane wife quite often runs into the room with her hands making a fake gun calling "Is that Bullet Proof Glass?" To which I have to respond "No Sir!" and we proceed to try and rescue the long dead Brent Spiner.

 

It's the little things that make a good marriage.

One thing this movie had going for it was Margeret Colin in her drool worthy prime. Her 'CJ' character certainly appeared in several teenage fantasties of mine....

I love the snooty British pilots who've apparently been trapped in some kind of Middle Eastern timewarp since World War II.

Emmerich finds it easier to play up stereotypes, than to form solid characters.

He's kind of like Will Smith in that regard.

"I say! Those Yanks did it again! No use lollygagging around, off to our aeroplanes! For Queen and Country chaps! Huzzah!"

 Brent Spinter rocked the living fuck out of this movie.

 

Emmerich just knows, man... he knows how to take a lot of shitty shittiness and turn it into something bad, but great. What a weird superpower. STARGATE, ID, THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW, and especially 2012; no person as smart as me should like those truly terrible/great movies as much as I do.

My favouritest post ever. Mrs Pants and I often recite dialogue from True Romance, (she hates Independence Day you see).

 

I have always adored this film. It floored me when I saw it in the cinema (I think I was twelve) and that feelin hasn't left, even though it's flaws are now very apparent to my jaded, cynical 25 year old eyes.
 

jaded 25 year old?  Tosh I say, wait till you reach 30 my friend then you can be jaded.

 

I've lived in this fair country for all of my thirty-one years, and not once have I heard anyone pronounce the word "plan" as "plarrrn".
 

You're obviously not British. I bet you've never called anyone guv'nor either. You phony. You make the Queen mother spin in her grave.

True story: when me and a friend attended a cinema in Boston we were asked, by the USHER mind you, if most British guys were "fags", what the "deal" with the Queen was, and why we called each other "guv'nor". I almost choked on my Earl Grey.

Andrew, did your Monocle pop out?

I saw this on opening weekend at a midnight showing and loved the hell out of it.  I was pretty buzzed but not drunk enough where I didn't remember any part of the movie.

 

I watched it a few months later on VHS and was left wondering why the fuck I re-watched it..  I think this movie and Borat were the only movies I have ever seen where my enjoyment was COMPLETELY tied to seeing it with a large, receptive crowd.  

For the running ID4 Stuffy Brit exchange...

 

I thank this thread.  Jolly good.

I give this film an entire pass for the "Boomer!" sequence alone.   Such a perfect mixture of thrills, special effects, music and jaw-dropping stupidity. 

I loved this movie as a kid. I had a chance to watch it on tv a couple weeks ago, and it actually holds up pretty well! It's still a great action flick.

Used to like it just for the effects. Like half of everyone I saw it opening weekend, and own it on DVD. Now I pretty much loathe it.

 

But... I have to admit, no marketing campaign has EVER made me want to see a movie so bad in my life. 

Y'know what the difference between Independence Day and Armageddon is? Armageddon is moronic and jingoistic and kind of lovably entertaining whilst Independence Day is moronic, jingoistic and inert as fuck. I watched both films in a double bill about a month ago and Independence Day just drags, horribly. It's just a horribly shot film, filled with stilted acting and it's not even particularly fun. It's like two and a half hours of tedium. Armageddon is never not entertaining.

I don't buy that that at all Spike, both films are cut from exactly the same cloth. The are fun popcorn flicks.  In fact if anything Armageddon is the worst of the two offenders in terms of flag waving nonsense.

My biggest memory of Independence Day is seeing the trailers and getting so barred up I needed two extra pairs of underwear. Slow moving massive circular shadows being cast from the heavens get me all ready to jizz in my pants. Then I saw the film and it was like getting a hummer from a chick who uses her teeth while her pimp smacks me over the back of the head repeatedly with Bill Pullman's cock.

 

I love you Ken Savage but I think Spike nailed it pretty well by pinpointing the inertness of the thing. ID and Armageddon are cut from the same cloth but Bay is a far superior seamstress, so Armageddon is constructed in a far superior manner, so that it's ridiculously fun, entertaining cack. There's a silly joy in the dumbness. ID is just a stinking pile of cack. Just sitting there. Bereft of joy. Charmless. Stinking.

I also agree with Spike and I would add that I think the cast of Armageddon is much stronger. As much as I love Smith and Goldblum, the cast of Armageddon is having such a blast together and so clearly get how inherently silly of a movie they're starring in. It just makes for a much more entertaining film.

I don't like either film anymore but I dislike Armaggedon much more that ID4. The only part of Armaggedon that brought actual emotion from me was Will Patton. By the second time I watched this I was actively rooting for everyone else to die. Even the action, usually Bay's strong point, was subpar. He's incapable of creating tension so he had the sets randomly explode as a substitute. Jets vs. Flying Saucers kick Armaggedon's ass every day of the week.

I agree with Nooj, David Arnold's score is the real standout and, for me, makes the whole thing watchable.  This and Stargate are my favorite Arnold scores.