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Independence Day (Five Star Collection) DVD : Absolutely huge for a short while in the late-90's, this 'War of the Worlds'-esque sci-fi opus gave the world an exploding Empire State building, Bill Pullman as a fighter-jock president, and a second Jeff Goldblum action figure (to go with the noticeably less-muscular 'Jurassic Park' version). It was a watershed in CGI and model effects technology, and whilst the same director / producer team went on to scupper their reputation with 'Godzilla' (an awful, empty film that made a huge amount of money), the unsequelised 'ID4' still seems much as it did in 1995. It was and remains utterly, utterly brainless, but huge fun, and now it's out on DVD. It hasn't dated too badly - whilst the exploding buildings and rushing crowds seem obviously faked, the surprisingly-sparce dogfighting footage still looks top-notch, and the alien vessels still seem extremely impressive. The acting is unimportant, and the fact that, after the initial attack, not much happens for the middle hour notwithstanding, it's old-school mass-entertainment of a type not seen since the mid-70's disaster movie genre.
There's a fantastic amount of extra bits on this DVD, and along with 'The Matrix' this is a model of how to do this kind of thing - there's an alternative ending, one which makes you glad that they ditched it, some extra 'special edition' sequences, two 'Making of' documentaries, an amusing 'Blair Witch' / Orson Welles-esque fake news documentary on the alien menace, and some interesting commentaries. Furthermore, as it is split over two discs, the picture and sound quality is superb.
(Spotlight Review)
Independence Day (Five Star Collection) (1996)-DVD!
