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Amazon.co.uk 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, Contactdeserves recognition as a rare piece of big-budget studio film making on a personal scale. --Jim Emerson
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Language in Dolby Digital 5.1: English
Subtitles: English/Arabic/English for the hearing impaired
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55 of 58 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Rare treat - intellingent sci-fi!,
By
This review is from: Contact (Special Edition) [1997] [DVD] (DVD)
To anyone who thinks that science fiction is about action-packed escapism, with ray guns and scary monsters, as all those who have jumped on the Star Wars bandwagon in the last 25 years would have us believe, watch this film. Science fiction can be plausible, intelligent and - shock, horror - have things to say just like any other form of drama. I have a personal fondness for this film for that reason, and therefore am prepared to forgive its occasional lapse into schmaltz. It's refreshing to see something that gives us a credible glimpse into what our first contact with an alien intelligence might actually be like, and how we might react to it. Also this disc represents top value for a DVD:... here's what you get for your money: *No less than THREE full-length audio commentaries - one from Jodie Foster, one from the director and producer, and one from the Special Effects men. And these are genuine commentaries too, not cobbled together from interviews - they are with you as you watch the film, commenting on everything you see as you see it. Together they are a wonderful eye-opener into how a film like this is made. None of this is the cheap promo stuff that is thrown carelessly onto many discs; somebody cared enough about this film to make a real effort. all of this means you have to watch this film at least four times before you're exhausted all the disc has to offer. If you haven't seen the film, watch out for spoilers in the other reviews on this page.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Who needs action with lines like...,
By
This review is from: Contact (Special Edition) [1997] [DVD] (DVD)
I watched this film with caution, I knew there weren't any huge interplanetary space battles or fighting action of any sort ,and at to me that equaled boring. How wrong I was, like others before have said this film is beautifuly done, the opening sequence of the earth then pulling back through the solar system then the local star cluster then the galaxy and finally the universe itself really makes you realise how small our corner of the universe really is. Jodie Foster gives one of her best performances, her emotional reaction to seeing the beauty of the cosmos is truely touching. "No words, no words...they should have sent a poet...so beauiful...so beautiful....I had no idea, " brilliant stuff. The special effects are still top notch and although the film slows down a little there is plenty of action and plot twists to keep you entertained. This isn't a new film anymore but the price is remarkably low for a film of this standard.
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Something Very Different and Unique,
By Jay "The Amazon Reviewer" (Mauritius) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Contact (Special Edition) [1997] [DVD] (DVD)
Contact is something completely different. It's belongs to the the ever diminishing group of sci-fi with brains. Because of this. It's very understandable that it gets negative feedback from the friends of no-brainer sci-fi. Actually i find it quite funny how many people have criticized the ending of Contact, saying that they were disappointed when they didn't see how the aliens looked like. I think that was one of the least important things in this movie. Still, i would've been disappointed if there had been some green alien with tentacles or one of those little grey Roswell aliens. Instead, they made an excellent choice and didn't show us the aliens at all. Really good and brave decision. In my opinion, if you were disappointed when you didn't see aliens, you didn't really understand this movie.
The religion vs. science setting is really interesting and realistic. It's fits extremely well to modern day life and i have never seen it done better in any film. The best thing about it is that the film doesn't take sides. It just portrays both of them and leaves the decision to the viewer.
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