The promotional campaign for this movie was great with the posters showing a monstrous spacecraft looming in dark clouds over the New York skyline. The movie itself then turns out to be a schlocky space alien comedy with lame one liners from Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum, and a large cast of unfunny American archetypes. They should have made a serious horror film out of this with a different cast.
shareI like what you call unfunny American stereotypes you fool. I liked this movie. An 8/10.
shareThis movie is perfect the way it is. But I want to see that movie you talked about too. A proper grim and serious mass alien invasion movie.
shareAnd maybe with some science along with the fiction, something better than "hey, let's interface with the alien central computer system and upload a virus." I mean come on, even fans of this film have to admit that was incredibly dumb. I don't think they meant it entirely tongue-in-cheek either. I think they were trying to wow audiences with a clever solution to defeating the invaders.
sharehaha i don't know but it really is absurd. we were laughing about it even back then. if the film did have a serious tone, they never could have pulled that scene off. but i agree with you. i think the producers actually thought people are that stupid. but it was still aol days.
shareI think it was just the zeitgeist of the times. The 70s and 80s produced a great run of serious-minded sci-fi/horror films like The Andromeda Strain, The Thing (1982), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), Alien, etc. Moods and tastes change, so the 1990s brought what I consider a number of crapfests like Independence Day and Escape from LA, the latter of which goes to show that even one-time masters of horror fell prey to the shift. It's particularly ironic in John Carpenter's case, as his big budget studio career was tragically derailed by ET and the box office disappointment of The Thing. He probably figured, "Fuck it. If I can't beat 'em I'll join 'em."
shareEscape from LA is a misunderstood masterpiece. It's a total satire. It's not a real sequel. It's Carpenter making fun of Hollywood.
shareAt least it's better than the travesty of a sequel.
I liked this movie at the time but yes, in retrospect all these years later, it's a cliched and dated cheese fest. The cast isn't so much the problem as who the director is.
I still can't believe how bad the sequel was.
shareI can. A sequel to an averageish movie, made 20 years later by the same average director, who is well past his best by now, and without the likability that Will Smith brought to the screen. Destined to be rubbish.
shareSo utterly forgettable. The only thing I remember is some guy running around on a space station or something.
shareWill would have helped a lot. I think another studio is about to make the same mistake in doing a Men in Black sequel without him.
shareI loved it, even the goofy humor which I think was used to good effect in balancing the seriousness of the attacks.
shareYou were probably born in 96. I saw this movie 3 or 4 times in the theaters, packed theater every time.
shareI love seeing all the support for the film here in the comments.
It's a great film! Just about the perfect summer blockbuster. There's a reason it made so much money: It's a fucking crowd-pleaser.
A lot of people call it "stupid" and say it's a bad movie or whatever, but they don't know what they're talking about. Emmerich knew exactly what movie he was making here and he did a great job with it.