20th Century Independence Day [Blu-ray] One of the biggest box office hits of all time delivers the ultimate encounter when mysterious and powerful aliens launch an all-out invasion against the human race. Thespectacle begins when massive spaceships appear in Earth's skies. But wonder turns to terror as theships blast destructive beams of fire down on cities all over the planet. Now the world's only hopelies with a determinded band of survivors unitingfor one last strike against the invaders - beforeit's the end of all mankind.

In Independence Day, a scientist played by Jeff Goldblum once actually had a fistfight with a man (Bill Pullman) who is now president of the United States. That same president, late in the film, personally flies a jet fighter to deliver a payload of missiles against an attack by extraterrestrials. Independence Day is the kind of movie so giddy with its own outrageousness that one doesn't even blink at such howlers in the plot. Directed by Roland Emmerich, Independence Day is a pastiche of conventions from flying-saucer movies from the 1940s and 1950s, replete with icky monsters and bizarre coincidences that create convenient shortcuts in the story. (Such as the way the girlfriend of one of the film's heroes--played by Will Smith--just happens to run across the president's injured wife, who are then both rescued by Smith's character who somehow runs across them in alien-ravaged Los Angeles County.) The movie is just sheer fun, aided by a cast that knows how to balance the retro requirements of the genre with a more contemporary feel. --Tom Keogh

Idependence Day is more or less pure brainless entertainment, and that's all it's meant to be. It does this very well, with fast pacing, lots of explosions and interpersonal drama. The effects have held up a lot better than I'd have thought they would as well. It isn't a movie to watch for social commentary or anything like that: pop it in, grab some beer and pizza and enjoy.

The Blu Ray version of the movie is *very* impressive. They added a little bit of extraneous footage but nothing damaging (I think it was probably just a few minutes total anyway), and the picture quality was above and beyond what I'd expect. This particular movie helps show how nice hi def can be on a big screen, better than most. There are details I just never could have made out on DVD. I didn't think the audio was as impressive as the visual, but it was still certainly decent. They obviously cleaned up the source material before pressing to Blu Ray. There aren't a whole lot of extras, but this isn't the sort of movie to really benefit from those anyway IMO.

No wonder this movie is so popular. It combines state-of-the-art CGI explosions with jingoistic nonsense and modern PC stereotypes. The kids get their explosions, the conservatives get their war on, and the liberals get their modern stereotypes and everyone goes home happy.

Ah conservatives, gird your loins, men, because they are coming, whoever "they" are. Sometimes a "real American" has to fight to save the world from smelly aliens. Being the best country in the world is such a drag because everyone else is so incompentent, jealous and ungrateful. Fortress America because everyone is else is dangerous and/or stupid.

Ah liberals, so easily pleased. A hip black dude who happens to be intelligent and successful teams up with a money and power distaining cool Jewish nerd to save the world. The movie even has a non-minority sidekick who dies heroically halfway through the movie. What a givaway. Isn't it cool that the First Lady and a black stripper have a special moment. How open-minded and modern of her...the black stripper, I mean. We should all feel sorry for alcoholics but, admit it, they're fun to watch. Little old Jewish men who say the word "mensch" in the White House and drive ten miles an hour are adorable. The nice, caring gay guy gets zapped while trying to drive to his mom's house. Man, that Manhattan traffic is just killer.

The President is a selfish jerk who should leave the fighting to the professionals. I liked the explosions.

This is a great film until you get to the part where Will Smith punches the alien and says "Welcome to Earth". And then the wheels come off big style. Lots to like in this film, V-Style giant dustbin lid flying saucers, lots of action, but the gung-ho lameness of the "USA, USA" patriotism is the sort of stuff that has the 5 and three quarter billion people in the world who are not American covering their eyes with embarrassment. It is somehow fitting that the climax to the film involves Randy Quaid flying up the bottom of one of the giant binlids..still, as a man, we need a fix of explosions and aliens and jets and stuff like that, and there is plenty of that going on. And just in case you think I'm a big meany, I quite liked Battlefield Earth apart from the hideously lame end (and insult to all Harrier Jump-Jet Pilots everywhere), and "War of the Worlds" which also had a totally lame end, although I'm sure a positive impact on real-estate prices in downtown Boston (handy for the shops and alien proof!). I'm sure that if an ill tempered alien race had the technology to send a fleet of giant binlids interstellar distances, they could crush us like ants without even taking their alien sausage sandwiches out of their mouths.

Mind you, if they did arrive, I expect that the Number One quisling collaborator in their alien conquest would be Tom Cruise. Why, he is probably talking to them already, by e-mail. Why does this tinfoil hat make my head itch?

The scenario (if any) is so predictable, the clichés so evident, it's hard not to fall asleep.

This DVD would not play, it appeared to be blank. The replacement DVD did not play either.