Contact (Snap Case)
|
List Price: Our Price: $3.99 You Save: $10.99 (73%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $1.27 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Canada
Movie Reviews of Contact (Snap Case)
Movie Review: A Question of Faith
Summary: 5 Stars
Like all good science fiction, the futuristic setting is only glossy packaging to capture our interest while distancing us to the role of specator...the content is about our contemporary world and the issues within it. Based on the late Dr Carl Sagan's book by the same name, "Contact" is an eloquent exposition about the conflict of opinion regarding science and religion. No where is this more evident than in the range of reviews listed here and how the reviewers felt about the movie's message. This is a "deep" movie - meaning it will appeal to those who like to think about their movies, rather than just experience them. If you are hoping for a Heinlein "Starship Troops" action flick, forget it. There is some amazing eye-candy in form of the much touted Earth fly-away in the opening and the psychedelic trip to Vega, (an obvious nod to another "deep" sci-fi film by another accomplished sci-fi author), but on the whole, this is film that will keep you occupied well past its 150-minute run time.
Is there reality a conflict between Science and Religion? Or is one a form of the other? Can anyone really claim to be purely scientific or purely religious? Or perhaps these are mutually supporting methodologies where the human race decides what it knows and what it doesn't know, but believes. A review is not meant to answer these question, but viewing the film is certainly going to make you think about them.
Jodie Foster was perfectly cast in the role of Dr. Eleanor Arroway, an orphan turned scientist who is about as close to the purely-rational intellectual as a human can get. (Remember, Mr. Spock was only half human.) It was no doubt a risky move for a popular actress to play an atheist protagonist to an almost wholly religious audience, but Ms. Foster, noted for her integrity in choosing roles, delivers a performance that should have earned her an Oscar (or perhaps that was the price?)
In all a great movie that I'm pleased to have in my collection and one I'd unconditionally recommend for those deep-thinkers and lovers of hard science fiction.
Movie Review: A Question of Faith
Summary: 5 Stars
Like all good science fiction, the futuristic setting is only glossy packaging to capture our interest while distancing us to the role of specator...the content is about our contemporary world and the issues within it. Based on the late Dr Carl Sagan's book by the same name, "Contact" is an eloquent exposition about the conflict of opinion regarding science and religion. No where is this more evident than in the range of reviews listed here and how the reviewers felt about the movie's message. This is a "deep" movie - meaning it will appeal to those who like to think about their movies, rather than just experience them. If you are hoping for a Heinlein "Starship Troops" action flick, forget it. There is some amazing eye-candy in form of the much touted Earth fly-away in the opening and the psychedelic trip to Vega, (an obvious nod to another "deep" sci-fi film by another accomplished sci-fi author), but on the whole, this is film that will keep you occupied well past its 150-minute run time.
Is there reality a conflict between Science and Religion? Or is one a form of the other? Can anyone really claim to be purely scientific or purely religious? Or perhaps these are mutually supporting methodologies where the human race decides what it knows and what it doesn't know, but believes. A review is not meant to answer these question, but viewing the film is certainly going to make you think about them.
Jodie Foster was perfectly cast in the role of Dr. Eleanor Arroway, an orphan turned scientist who is about as close to the purely-rational intellectual as a human can get. (Remember, Mr. Spock was only half human.) It was no doubt a risky move for a popular actress to play an atheist protagonist to an almost wholly religious audience, but Ms. Foster, noted for her integrity in choosing roles, delivers a performance that should have earned her an Oscar (or perhaps that was the price?)
In all a great movie that I'm pleased to have in my collection and one I'd unconditionally recommend for those deep-thinkers and lovers of hard science fiction.
Movie Review: Contact (1997)-Great film like this one comes along rarely!
Summary: 5 Stars
I rate Contact (1997) a five star film which featured wonderful Jodie Foster. This movie played well on a conventional TV, but did not hold up well on a LCD 52" HDTV and upward compatible DVD player. If you really love this film the way I do, I would suggest definitely getting it in Blu Ray.
I can't say enough about what a fine job was done in making this film. Jodie Foster was able to perform in a totally synthetic environment while delivering (I think) one of her finest performances, delivering a breathless rapture suitable for the cosmic occasion presented. The computer graphics were the best and totally believable. Overall, the cast, direction, pacing, CGI were great and the special effects were meticulously done. The musical score and story were just great.
The film was dedicated to Carl Sagan who wrote the original book and helped with the screenplay and is a fine testimonial to the man.
I went to the single star reviews and found that this movie was rated as a stinker by a considerable number of people, some of which down rated it because of the compromises it made regarding the fact that Sagan was apparently a registered atheist! They appeared to be upset that this film made some kind of case for faith. It did not make a case for religion, however, and just implied that certain "human experiences" can never be proven to the satisfaction of a scientist.
The human condition of personal experience still exists, despite the condition described in the film as "the self reinforcing delusion". I started out in my early years as a strong faith based person, and now that I am a considerably older person find myself becoming more of an agnostic with time, despite the approach of mortality. I don't deny Hollywood the right to make a compromise between faith and evidence for marketing purposes, or whatever. I agree with the gist of the statement that Ellie made about her lack of belief in god. There is insufficient evidence for a scientist to prove either case.
Movie Review: Inspirational, Ingenious
Summary: 5 Stars
Every once in a while I dream about Contact and its intriguing ideas. It's been nearly three years since I've seen it. That is how good this movie can be, if you have a ready and open mind, and you are willing to challenge the controversial debate of religion vs. science technology, and the "intelligent" concept of intelligent life outside of Earth in the universe. The legendary Carl Sagan book only "inspires" the film's ideas, not give it the whole script like Grisham and Clancy films. The ideas and concepts are hard to explain fully in words, much like the equally powerful WW2 flicks Saving Private Ryan and Schindler's List. Jodie Foster delivers her best and most complex performance as an extremely intelligent woman obsessed with finding e.t.intelligence, and Matt McConaughey is great as an equally intelligent religious author. One of the ignored concepts is that science and religion can be together side-by-side, although they are completely opposite. This is shown in the relationship between Foster and McConaughey's characters (scientist & preacher). The special fx are surprisingly limited but effective and used in the most useful ways since Close Encounters and 2001, and the moment when the obsessed religious leader is seen in a camera is probably the most shocking, frightening moment I have ever seen in a Science Fiction movie. My legs were shaking and my mouth were wide open with awe at the same time during the space scene at the end, and the beach scene and its dialogue is thought-provoking, extremely challenging. Robert Zemeckis should be praised greatly for using his skill with visual images (Back to the Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?) and simple messages (Gump) to the best of his ability. Although this film had good domestic box office (not worldwide), I still feel Contact hasn't got the attention and praise it deserved. The critics responded knowingly, but the only a small audience "gets" the film's ideas and acknowledges them.Movie Review: A Credo for Our Age
Summary: 5 Stars
Form the majestic opening of silence to the meditative ending, this is a powerful portrait of human desire for knowledge. The intelligence of this film - especially compared to the garbage shown daily - is just stunning Jodie Foster has said about the heroine that it was the closest any character had gotten in representing her spirit. That is an outstanding compliment considering the main character is based on a real-life scientist and the movie shows her as skeptic, searcher and explorer. The movie and the book have been compared both favorably and unfavorably but that should not be the case. Both are excellent representations of their particular genre. The best one can say about their relationship is that the movie effectively captured the spirit of the book - if not exactly following the storyline.
CONTACT has been called science-fiction for "thinkers" and it is void of much of what is seen in current films of this type - no action-packed space shootouts, no morphing monsters, no aliens using ESP or advanced technology. No, it is instead a quiet demonstration, as the main character states, that we as a race are so small and so insignificant and so precious when viewed in the background of the Universe. It is continually surprising, the plot consistently logical, the characters always "in character". It is one of the best portrayals of scientists and their work with all the bickering, fighting, jealousy and in the end, awe upon discovering Nature's secrets.
Philosophically, it asks many questions. The book deals more forcefully with the role of superstition and religion as it relates to scientific ventures. Indeed, both the book and movie go to great lengths to explain that science does not demand blind obedience and is constantly challenged and tested in its assumptions and theorems. Whether or not one believes that other alien civilizations exist, this film makes one wish that it were true.
Added kudos to the cinemtography and music.