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Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Contact (1997)



Synopsis: Obsessed female scientist (Jodie Foster) searches for intelligent life in the heavens and doesn’t find much of it on Earth.

Blurb From the VHS Jacket: “A message from deep space. Who will be the first to go? A journey to the heart of the universe.”

What Did I Learn?: Wealthy foundations love to give money to scientists who appear to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

You Might Like This Movie If: You enjoy watching Jodie Foster struggle to maintain her composure as she interacts with various lunatics and as one short-sighted fool after another attempts to either defund, or assume authority over her project.

Really?: I had a little trouble believing that Foster’s character, who specializes in tracking deep-space waves (keep in mind that scientists tend to specialize into fairly specific niches) would have a whole lot to do with either decoding the alien message or building the mysterious machine, but she’s everywhere.

Rating:  Contact is slow-moving, and Foster has ZERO on-screen chemistry with Matthew McConaughey as a religious dude who’s sceptical of technology. Still, it’s an intelligent sci-fi flick that tackles some heavy ideas. (Interestingly, the ‘villain’ figure switches mid-way from Tom Skerritt to yes – this blog’s favourite unlikeable guy, James Woods). 7/10 stars.


2 comments:

  1. I always liked Contact just because it actually had some sort of story instead of relying exclusively on 'splosions n'shit. 7/10 is a fair rating.

    Waiting for a Richard Simmons 'sweating to the oldies' review.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I want Eli to review Conan the Barbarian (1982)

    ReplyDelete

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