Based on the 1985 novel by Carl Sagan, CONTACT is a 'must see' movie for everybody. It is the E.T. of the nineties in the sense that it makes you wish that you were there...being the first one to make 'contact'. It forces you to ponder the "What would I say?" question and makes you think about the bigger question; ARE WE ALONE? like the answer so often repeated in the movie "If not, it'd be an awful waste of space". At almost two and a half hours, CONTACT is a little too long (they could have cut out the 30 minutes from the tenth through the fortieth minutes and nobody would have known the wiser) except those of us who have read the book (which, in typical hollywood fashion, is very different from the movie). The opening sequence starts with a view of the Florida coast from space and gradually zooms out for several hundred thousand light years , out of the Milky Way and on through the EAGLE NEBULA presumably to the edge of the known universe. Going all that distance in a matter of a few seconds is truly mind boggling to watch. It gives you a wonderfully bone chilling perspective of just how small we are and how far away all those stars in the night sky really are. It was a stroke of current genius for the editors to use that pic of the EAGLE NEBULA in the opening sequence too, being one of the more famous pics taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, I felt that it added a touch of believability to the film. However, I couldn't help but feel that the movie was dragging on, that is until Jodie Foster's character 'SPARKS' hears the first signal from VEGA. From this point on, with your hair standing erect on the back of your neck, CONTACT is non stop. (it just took too long to get there). I think we've all wondered, at one time or another, how the world would react to the proof of extra-terrestrial intelligence and this movie provides an excellent perspective on that in fact, the 'circus scene' outside of the VERY LARGE ARRAY in New Mexico could easily be archival footage from the recent Roswell reunion. Although the acting is good, it is hardly ACADEMY AWARD winning material in fact, I will be surprised if the movie gets any nominations outside of the special effects and cinematography categories. Towards the end of the movie, I found myself still trying to figure out why Mathew Mc-whatshisname was in the movie at all. His character was very weak and mostly irrelevant. I've come to the conclusion that this was a typical hollywood sex-appeal maneuver and nothing more. Tom Skerrit on the other hand did some great acting and portrayed a perfect back-stabbing, spotlight stealing S.O.B. I found myself cheering when he was killed off and by a religous freak/Gary Busey look-a-like nonetheless. I think my biggest disappointment with CONTACT was when Jodie Foster finally met 'THEM' being a big budget hollywood movie, they could have done just about anything with this scene and yet I really felt cheated by the meeting. I don't know what I was expecting but it's just that I was expecting something...anything!! BIG EYED, SKINNY, LONG LEGGED GREYS or even a slobbering JABBA THE HUT type alien. I don't want to give it away so I won't say what it was if you want to know, you'll have to go see it. But make no mistake CONTACT IS A GREAT MOVIE!! I would highly reccomend that everyone go see it or at least rent it when the video comes out. My little disappointments with CONTACT stem mainly from my overzealous expectations to have some of those profound questions answered and one thing this film is short on is answers. However, one thing this movie does do is it forces you to think and to ask many questions about mans role in this universe and I say this to all of you who think that your jobs and positions and roles are very important in the grand scheme of things... watch the opening sequence with earnest and then try to convince yourself that you are significant. I guess I should give this film a rating so on a scale of one to ten I say eight.
SCALE 10)hasn't been made yet 9)haven't seen one yet 8)E.T, Cocoon, Contact, M.I.B, Alien 7)First Contact, The Arrival, Fifth Dimmension 6)Close Encounters of the Third Kind 5)or less, not even worth mentioning
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