War of the Worlds

Post by **Josh** » July 5th, 2005, 12:47 pm

ShyViolet wrote:I still like Bill Pullman's speech at the end, however, "We will not go quietly into the night...we're going to live on. Today is our independence day!"

There's an interesting piece of trivia about that speech.
Taken from IMDB (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116629/trivia): "The final sentence of the President's speech was not in the original script and was added at the last minute for dramatic effect in an effort to convince 20th Century Fox not to avoid a legal battle to earn the right to name the film Independence Day."

Post by **Macaluso** » July 5th, 2005, 1:12 pm

Independence Day had Jeff Goldblum, will smith, aliens, and some old jewish guy.

That movie was awesone >:[

GeorgeC · Post by **GeorgeC** » July 5th, 2005, 1:52 pm

I didn't really like WoTW, either. It's not the worst film in the world, but I have no desire to ever see it again in my life any more than I want to see The Aviator again, either.

If I want to be depressed at something hopeless and illogical, I would have watched Live 8 this weekend...

Instead, I took the Gift Certificate Pass I had -- which was EXPIRING July 4th by the way! -- and went to see WoTW on my parent's (Mom's) pass.

The film didn't let up until the last 10 or so minutes... It had a moment in it that I swear was stolen from The Empire Strikes Back... Tom Cruise is NOT my favorite actor... Dakota Fanning is surprisingly good but we'll see whether she ages into a freak like Haley Joel Osmont or Macaulay Culkin or becomes a good-looking young woman... And the film had one of the most contrived Hollywood happy endings I've seen in a while.

I have absolutely nothing against happy endings WHEN THEY'RE APPROPRIATE AND MAKE SENSE IN THE SCHEME OF THE MOVIE. I just couldn't believe you-know-who could have survived or that you-know-who's ex-and-new-****** were unscathed, too. And yeah, it makes absolutely no sense that a man trying to save his kids somehow always ended up taking them in the direction of the aliens!

Sure, I think ID4 is popcorn junk and an inferior remake of 1953's War of the Worlds which I WILL buy on DVD when it comes out in the 2-disc set later this year, but it's a much easier film for more people to take than something like WoTW which heads you over the head with 9/11 imagery and less-than-subtle messages about fighting the hopeless fight. (I, for one, am for survival. You SURVIVE first, THEN you figure out HOW to WIN the hopeless battle.)

I got to movies to basically escape from reality and sad stories like WoTW. Not gonna sit through something like this again any time soon. I was pretty shell-shocked by the end of the film. It just doesn't let up.

Post by **ShyViolet** » July 5th, 2005, 2:17 pm

some old jewish guy.

That was Judd Hirsch. He's been in a lot of films, and he played Russell Crowe's professor in A Beautiful Mind.

Post by **Macaluso** » July 5th, 2005, 2:26 pm

ShyViolet wrote:
some old jewish guy.
That was Judd Hirsch. He's been in a lot of films, and he played Russell Crowe's professor in A Beautiful Mind.

And he's awesome :3

Post by **James** » July 5th, 2005, 2:29 pm

Since this movie has only been out for about a week or two, let's remember to use the spoiler tags. Anything that might be a spoiler for those who might want to see it soon should be surrounded by using the HIDE tags.

Post by **Ben** » July 5th, 2005, 2:39 pm

James - did you see my post above?

Wanna tell me all about it, huh?

BTW, for those who do want to bash this: how come the aliens were unaffected when they FIRST came down??

Post by **ShyViolet** » July 5th, 2005, 3:56 pm

One thing I hated about ID4 was the HEAVY stereotypes--cocky black guy, Jewish nerd, annoying Jewish dad, single black mom, whiny gay guy, drunken red neck, etc, etc....Did they HAVE to have that many raging charicatures??

Plus the DIALOUGE:

*upon seeing the devastation*

Little boy: "What happened, mommy?
Mom: "I don't know, baby." UGH, isn't it obvious the aliens bombed everything to hell??

Plus why in the world did it take the Jeff Goldblum character the entire film to figure out the whole computer virus thing? Also, if their technology was "far more advanced" than ours, how could a man-made tech virus affect them?

The worst mistake: Killing off Data (the mad scientist) --he was like the only fun character in the whole film. I did like Jeff Goldblum tho, IMO he should have been the lead, not the UNBELIEVABLY DULL character Bill Pullman plays. (Bill Pullman's pretty cool, just his character was totally under-written.)

Post by **Macaluso** » July 5th, 2005, 4:01 pm

pffft. Jeff Goldblum MADE that movie.

I liked that movie despite some of the really stupid bits (The whole room inside the tunnel and dog jumping in thing. come on.)

Post by **ShyViolet** » July 5th, 2005, 4:14 pm

pffft. Jeff Goldblum MADE that movie.

Totally. Will Smith injected some energy as well, but he basically played the exact same character in Men InBlack and Wild, Wild West.

Jeff Goldblum's hilarious in this movie, though,

How many times can this man say "And, uh...."

Post by **Macaluso** » July 5th, 2005, 5:07 pm

ShyViolet wrote:
pffft. Jeff Goldblum MADE that movie.
Totally. Will Smith injected some energy as well, but he basically played the exact same character in Men InBlack and Wild, Wild West.

Jeff Goldblum's hilarious in this movie, though, How many times can this man say "And, uh...."

Yeah but that's how he is in all his movies. I can't imagine jeff goldblum NOT sounding like that.

Post by **ShyViolet** » July 5th, 2005, 5:41 pm

Yeah but that's how he is in all his movies. I can't imagine jeff goldblum NOT sounding like that.

I like him.

He's just funny sometimes.

BTW the Fly will be coming out on DVD soon (widescreen and everything) with missing scenes! The scenes are described if you look up the film on IMBD. (trivia) I looooooove that movie even though it's quite disturbing. NO ONE could do that role but him.

BTW they are re-making The Fly and in this one he'll be able to, uh, fly.
Blaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!!

(trivia note: the footage used when Martin Brundle watches his dad on the video in Fly II was actually a missing scene from Fly I)

Post by **Macaluso** » July 5th, 2005, 9:55 pm

I've never seen the Fly

Post by **Ben** » July 6th, 2005, 9:12 am

ShyViolet wrote:Why in the world did it take the Jeff Goldblum character the entire film to figure out the whole computer virus thing? Also, if their technology was "far more advanced" than ours, how could a man-made tech virus affect them?

I'm just glad that they were using Mac compatible software!

Post by **ShyViolet** » July 7th, 2005, 10:34 am

I've never seen the Fly

You gotta see that Mac. Just don't eat a big lunch beforehand.

It's interesting how Goldblum can play similar characters but still make the unique and interesting. He does a very similar version of David Levinson (ID4) in Jurassic Park (Ian Malcom) but he has a lot of flair, style and wit which added a lot to basically a very simple story (albeit masterfully executed). Without him I think ID4 would have been sunk.

But not even Jeff Goldblum could save The Lost World....what was Spielberg thinking?? That film had very few worthwhile scenes, all of which I can count on one hand....(opening scene, the compys, the T-Rex trailer thing, the Raptor Hunt.) The last scene with the T-Rex stalking LA was the laziest and most self-indulgent sequence I've ever seen in recent cinema.

Actually the whole father-daughter-bonding-survival theme kind of reminds me of WOTW. Hope that's better than the other "World" movie.