No, you’re thinking of microsoft, the TRUE face of evil in the computer industry…
One of the first unwritten rules for screenplay writers is Don’t Kill the Dog. (Exception: Ol’ Yeller or something similar where that’s the whole point) DesertRoomie is always muttering “Don’t hurt the puppy,” during the dog-in-danger scenes to which I reply, “They never kill the dog.” 99+% of the time, I’m right.
I always enjoyed P.J. O’Roarke’s pocket synopsis of the movie: “Aliens come to Earth and destroy Washington. Then they get hostile.”
DD
I loved the fact that if it is Day in America… well hell, it’s daytime all over the world!!
I like how they never thought of using B-1 and B-52G bombers with stand-off cruise missiles, or at least exocet-like ship-killers on the big disc ships.
As we recently learned in another thread, this scene now makes perfect sense: They were being protected by the Puppygod.
Say what you will, but this movie DID inspire the SNL sketch where Pullman’s character runs for reelection against, and debates, Bob Dole…
I got a soft spot for any movie that gives us such a memorable line as “Welcome to Earth, bitch.”
The Bill Pullman rouding speech is completely hilarious.
I think the funniest cheese ball scene, however, is when Randy Quaid’s kid is outside the war room as Quaid sacrifices his life for those on the ground. It takes a lot of damn gall to write the shit this movie’s got.
Despite the goofiness of this movie, I will always have a soft spot for it because of the original theatrical teaser. The ships arrive over our cities, we look up…cut to the release date. No real clue given as to whether these ships would be hostile or not. A teaser that teased! It didn’t give away the plot! All too rare.
One other thing to add – the famous shot from the second round of trailers, where the White House gets vaporized by an attack from the air. At the time, it was an illicit thrill to imagine it could happen.
Looking back now, post-9/11, I find myself nostalgic for a world in which that was a tiny thrill, instead of an image that brings up strong memories. It doesn’t make me “upset” to see it…it makes me feel all-grown-up, but not in a good way.
Sailboat
It means that it’s a comic book movie–i.e. it’s about as intellectually demanding as a comic book–and you should either accept it at that level or leave it alone. The Star Wars, Matrix and Terminator series are examples of comic book movies. It seems to me that most action flicks are comic book movies these days.
I can sympathize with the complaints here, but to my mind it’s rather like complaining about the physics of a Superman comic. Why bother? What’s the point?
Snappy. Has a real ring to it.
My family and I have a soft spot for Bill Pullman so we absolutely cracked up when he declared “I belong in the sky!” The tween boys piled in around us (we must have seen it opening day) wondered how we could laugh at such a Serious Moment.
Apple’s been working on Rosetta longer than we thought.
It is amusing that in the movies, that there is a truly universal connection scheme that lets a Mac talk connect to an alien computer and doesn’t even need any adapter plugs. Or are the aliens using unsecured WiFi with open SSID?
My bigger issue…
Where was the rest of the Military? You mean to tell me that our entire naval fleet, our ground to air defenses and all taht are just cardboard cutouts? We’ve only got a couple hundred planes to work with in the face of this enemy?
Granted, not much of that would’ve made much difference, but still, would’ve been nice to see a couple of destroyers, etc… launch everything they had when the shields went down.
I like it like I like Twister… fun and good effects, but don’t pay too much attention to the details.
Worse than that… it was a parallel printer port… the bane of computer security folks everywhere.
ID4 and the Terminator movies are not even remotely in the same category of dumbness. ID4 is idiotic, doesn’t take itself seriously, and has multiple gigantic plot holes any one of which renders the entire movie basically pointless, and which taken together make it beyond parody. The terminator movies are generally very smart and cohesive, with an occasional minor plot hole, and with actual ideas and things to say.
Don’t blame me: I voted for Kodos.
Odd, our July 4th tradition is to watch 1776.
To each his own.
I don’t dislike ID4 very much – I haven’t seen it in years, but I recall it as a fun, goofy, mindless movie with nifty dogfight scenes.
Now, Emmerich and Devlin’s next movie, the Sony-branded remake of Godzilla, that I hate…
Or better yet, ripple fire of ICBMs from an Ohio class Fleet Ballistic Missle submarine. Then, a long range shot of several MERVs air-bursting over an alien craft.
It’s stupid and I love it. I watch it if there’s nothing else on. But I still drives me crazy that Nimzicki didn’t tell anybody about Area 51 when the ships first turned up. Or when they started blowing up cities. Or even after he and the President were forced into the air.
And how the hell does Will Smith get through all that superior armour and knock the alien out? But it’s worth it just to hear him shout "I coulda been at a barbeque!