Contact [Blu-ray]
Starring: Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaugheyStudio: Warner
MPAA Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Widescreen
Running Time: 153 minutes
DVD Release: October 6th 2009
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DVD Review
The opening and closing moments of Robert (Forrest Gump) Zemeckis's Contact astonish viewers with the sort of breathtaking conceptual imagery one hardly ever sees in movies these day--each is an expression of the heroine's lifelong quest (both spiritual and scientific) to explore the meaning of human existence through contact with extraterrestrial life. The movie begins by soaring far out into space, then returns dizzyingly to earth until all the stars in the heavens condense into the sparkle in one little girl's eye. It ends with that same girl as an adult (Jodie Foster)--her search having taken her to places beyond her imagination--turning her gaze inward and seeing the universe in a handful of sand. Contact traces the journey between those two visual epiphanies. Based on Carl Sagan's novel, Contact is exceptionally thoughtful and provocative for a big-budget Hollywood science fiction picture, with elements that recall everything from 2001 to The Right Stuff. Foster's solid performance (and some really incredible alien hardware) keep viewers interested, even when the story skips and meanders, or when the halo around the golden locks of rising-star-of-a-different-kind Matthew McConaughey (as the pure-Hollywood-hokum love interest) reaches Milky Way-level wattage. Ambitious, ambiguous, pretentious, unpredictable--Contact is all of these things and more. Much of it remains open to speculation and interpretation, but whatever conclusions one eventually draws, Contact deserves recognition as a rare piece of big-budget studio filmmaking on a personal scale. --Jim Emerson
User Reviews
Sciences sometimes needs faith? - Rating: 5/5
Not really, but let us get to the review. Contact is based on one of the best sci-fi novels in history, written by Carl Sagan. It seems he had some input also, which is great, because I feel it helped keep the story on track. With such great actors as Jodie Foster, James Wood, John Hurt, and Tom Skerritt, Angela Bassett, and Matthew McConaughey it is really hard to find a fault with the caste. Tons of extras and commentary tracks, the only complaint I have is the same one I had when watching it in the movie theater. And that is it is a tad too long. Just a tad, maybe ten minutes more than it needed to be.
Outside of that it is a great movie and viewers of all ages should be able to enjoy it. It really has a realistic feel to it and allows us to have a hint of what would happen if we did make First Contact.
Contact (1997)-Great film like this one comes along rarely! - Rating: 5/5
I rate Contact (1997) a five star film which featured wonderful Jodie Foster. This movie played fine 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 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 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 apparantly a registered athiest! 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 statement that Ellie made about her lack of belief in god. There is insufficient evidence for a scientist to prove either case.
Chillingly good sci-fi - Rating: 5/5
I'd only dimly heard of this movie until my husband convinced me to watch it. It's my kind of sci-fi -- very restrained, and very plausible, really. It's the kind of sci fi that doesn't remove you from the real world -- and I mean that in a good way.
The only thing I disliked about the movie was the scene where the two main characters were shoe-horned into the most tired and unenlightening discussion on science and religion ever -- the old "We don't need God anymore, we've got science" vs. "Isn't it nicer to believe that there is a God?" arguments. It didn't suit the characters (who seemed too intelligent to be making these arguments), and it didn't add anything to the story.
CONTACT - PROFOUND and Stunning Movie with Jody Foster and Matthew McConaughey - Rating: 5/5
Now that I'm a LITTLE wiser, have come to realize this movie is absolutely profound.
Written by Carl Sagan, the great physicist of "billions and billions" fame, it is not only intelligent, but phenomenally so.
Reason? He addresses questions and issues within the movie that we don't realize are so important until we've been around a while and analyze our world's technological evolution.
ESPECIALLY our technological capacity and the implications and repurcussions.
Of course I could rave on about Jody Foster and Matthew McConaughey (never spell that right - sorry!)
Jody is totally lovable, likable, sympathetic and compelling. She is 100% convincing as a brilliant, uni-linearly focussed and isolated scientist. Her determination in the movie serves as model inspiration on how to succeed in the business world. She just won't give up.
Matthew is at his most magnetic. As he and Jody meet in a tropical cabana, you can feel the heat of his charm pop right through the screen. There's probably not a woman in the world who could have resisted in responding to him... except the wonderful character portrayed by Jody Foster.
It adds the perfect romantic tension.
Coupled with the extraordinary scenery, the absolutely soaring and magnificent musical score, CONTACT is one of the best movies ever made.
But, folks may not notice at first. So many thought-inspiring little things slip by, unnoticed. So, it's one of those movies that's gets better and better as we get older and wiser. The more we watch, the better it gets.
As a kid, we may have enjoyed it immensely. As an adult, it becomes a movie of great import and impact if you give yourself a chance to examine the science and forethought that went into the writing and making of this movie.
I wasn't quite sure about Carl Sagan, didn't know of him very well. But, now I can see he was one of those special geniuses who know so much more than one might have surmised. One of the world's truly great thinkers.
He wrote popular novels - perhaps that may have diminished his reputation as a world's great thinker type of scientist and pushed him into seeming just another populistic author. He was also a television star with his own documentary.
Now I would like to see them... and have an opportunity to read his books.
In a separate review, I hope to address the final question posed within the latter parts of this movie. But here, I don't want to insert any spoilers.
The best way to watch this movie is from a clean start, and then watch again and again to get the full purported meanings.
6 out of 5 stars
Other recommended EXTRAORDINARY movies:
Bladerunner - Pinnacle of SCIFI movies
Saving Private Ryan - Great, great war Movie
A.I. - classic WORK OF ART for all time
Contact - SCIFI at it's very best
Phantom of the Opera - Haunting Perfection
Sweet Justice... - Rating: 4/5
AH-WE ARE IN A DEPRESSION-NO MATTER HOW THEY SUGAR COAT IT-AND IT MAY GET WORSE-sales of ALL discs are dropping fast-so naturally WARNER pulls a trick that should have some heads rolling: a new exclusive BR transfer of CONTACT-since this probably has been in preprodution for 6 months to a year-not only are they going to sell QUITE a few less BR discs than they had hopes for-but the hundreds of thousands (millions?) of S-DVDs they could have sold-or more --idiots -after all there are still 50-100 million S-DVD players out there and-maybe 5 million BR if that (guess)
I expect sales of BR will come to a grinding halt and then drop-the difference-with 50-odd million S DVD players out there-dropping sales still leave enough revenue to be hugely profitable: padding with no capital expenditure-the stampers have paid for themselves by now-PURE PROFIT.
A drop in revenue from the relatively few BR players means the format will take quite a hit-they are still being sold below cost to get the format moving on top of that=remember how DVDs were practically being given away back in 1997/98?
Same here with BR
And WHV just kissed millions in S-DVD profits goodbye-IN THIS ECONOMY!
Mindboggling
-HEADS WILL ROLL AT WHV
I have to smile
