Contact

[Griffin]

Contact (1997)

Director: Robert Zemeckis
Writers: Carl Sagan (novel), Carl Sagan (story)
Stars: Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey and Tom Skerritt

Plot summary: Dr. Ellie Arroway, after years of searching, finds conclusive radio proof of intelligent aliens, who send plans for a mysterious machine.

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http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118884/

Surprised no thread for this movie. I have finally re-watched it after 15 years. Excellent film.

 

[AzStevenCal]

Surprised no thread for this movie. I have finally re-watched it after 15 years. Excellent film.

It was one of the earlier films released to DVD and I remember thinking how great it looked in that format. I've re-watched it a few times and I think it holds up well.

Steve

 

[Gaddabout]

I loved this movie when it came out. Now I think of it as overly maudlin. I don't remember the book falling into that trap.

 

[devilalum]

I loved this movie when it came out. Now I think of it as overly maudlin. I don't remember the book falling into that trap.

Check out the big brain on Gad.

 

[Cardinals.Ken]

I loved this movie when it came out. Now I think of it as overly maudlin. I don't remember the book falling into that trap.

Sammy Maudlin?

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[AzStevenCal]

Check out the big brain on Gad.

The 4th guy in that scene, hiding in the bathroom, is an Arquette. He plays the Boy George look-alike in Wedding Singer. I can't think of a connection with Contact to justify this post, I just wanted to show off my medium sized brain.

Steve

 

[DeAnna]

Contact is one of my all-time favorite movies. I watch it every time it's on TV.

 

[DeAnna]

I loved this movie when it came out. Now I think of it as overly maudlin. I don't remember the book falling into that trap.

LoL, I had to look up 'maudlin' since I've never heard anyone use it.

maud·lin/ˈmôdlin/

Adjective:Self-pityingly or tearfully sentimental, often through drunkenness.

 

[UncleChris]

Re-watched this movie and still really like it right up until the end, when I ended up throwing a shoe at the TV (ok... not really, but I DID feel like it). The couple o' things that didn't sit right with me were

1. They put a chair in the machine when none was on the specs, saying that it wouldn't make any difference. How the hell would they know that? They didn't even know what the machine did, much less how a chair would affect it. Dumb.

2. The extraterrestial, posing as humanoid (which he was not) and her father, was WAAAAYYYYYY overdone. "You have your mother's hands." Really???? I could have bought it if he had merely appeared as her father, but by basically becoming her father, I found my eyes going into "rolling" mode.

3. While she's going through the wormhole, and her "ghost head" appears and says stuff, came of as just stupid.

4. In the hearings at the very end, when they said all you would need to make this all happen is a satellite is simply BS. Radio telescopes are very accurate in location of source, so you would need a number of satellites, essentially one for each radio telescope, all simulcasting (to the nanosecond) the same message. Rubbish! Similarly, these same satellites would have to have been invisibly launched and invisible in orbit. Double rubbish!
5. And, of course, the odds of the first TV signal making it out of the ionosphere are extremely small, but at least there was a very small chance of it happening.

I complain about these because the film was made with a definite "reality feel" to it, and they clearly went outside that bubble as listed above.

I still liked the film, and the Einstein-Rosen Bridge effects were outstanding. 4 out of 5 stars for me.

 

[puckhead]

Re-watched this movie and still really like it right up until the end, when I ended up throwing a shoe at the TV (ok... not really, but I DID feel like it). The couple o' things that didn't sit right with me were

1. They put a chair in the machine when none was on the specs, saying that it wouldn't make any difference. How the hell would they know that? They didn't even know what the machine did, much less how a chair would affect it. Dumb.

2. The extraterrestial, posing as humanoid (which he was not) and her father, was WAAAAYYYYYY overdone. "You have your mother's hands." Really???? I could have bought it if he had merely appeared as her father, but by basically becoming her father, I found my eyes going into "rolling" mode.

3. While she's going through the wormhole, and her "ghost head" appears and says stuff, came of as just stupid.

4. In the hearings at the very end, when they said all you would need to make this all happen is a satellite is simply BS. Radio telescopes are very accurate in location of source, so you would need a number of satellites, essentially one for each radio telescope, all simulcasting (to the nanosecond) the same message. Rubbish! Similarly, these same satellites would have to have been invisibly launched and invisible in orbit. Double rubbish!
5. And, of course, the odds of the first TV signal making it out of the ionosphere are extremely small, but at least there was a very small chance of it happening.

I complain about these because the film was made with a definite "reality feel" to it, and they clearly went outside that bubble as listed above.

I still liked the film, and the Einstein-Rosen Bridge effects were outstanding. 4 out of 5 stars for me.

6. The "romance" between Foster and McConaughey.

 

[BigRedRage]

I always talk about the black kids knees going backwards before he runs away in the movie and no one knows what I am talking about.

 

[Chaplin]

I always talk about the black kids knees going backwards before he runs away in the movie and no one knows what I am talking about.

That's because that's from a totally different movie...

 

[puckhead]

That's because that's from a totally different movie...

The Arrival?

 

[Chaplin]

The Arrival?

Yep

 

[UncleChris]

6. The "romance" between Foster and McConaughey.

Thanks. You're so right. She should have pimp-slapped him for what he did to her.

 

[BigRedRage]

That's because that's from a totally different movie...

maybe thats it

 

[UncleChris]

Just watched this movie again today and yep, I still give it a 4 out of 5 stars. Overall it's an entertaining, thought provoking movie with a realistic feel to it. It's one of Foster's better performances.

However, in addition to the other things I mentioned previously, there was one more thing that I had a problem with.

When the preacher asks her "are you a spiritual person" and immediately subsequent, "Do you believe in god," she gets into a fumbling discussion with the selection board that blows her chances. I sat there thinking, if only she had answered thus: "Do I believe in god? Which god are you talking about? Mohammed? The god of the new testament? The god of the old testament? Shiva? Buddah, Odin? Further, if you can come to an agreement as to which one is the 'true' god, which of course you can't, is it your realistic expectation that if I meet an alien than I am supposed to preach some sort of gospel to them? Really? With all due respect, panel members, that question is simply a nonsequitur."

 

[Bert]

Just watched this movie again today and yep, I still give it a 4 out of 5 stars. Overall it's an entertaining, thought provoking movie with a realistic feel to it. It's one of Foster's better performances.

However, in addition to the other things I mentioned previously, there was one more thing that I had a problem with.

When the preacher asks her "are you a spiritual person" and immediately subsequent, "Do you believe in god," she gets into a fumbling discussion with the selection board that blows her chances. I sat there thinking, if only she had answered thus: "Do I believe in god? Which god are you talking about? Mohammed? The god of the new testament? The god of the old testament? Shiva? Buddah, Odin? Further, if you can come to an agreement as to which one is the 'true' god, which of course you can't, is it your realistic expectation that if I meet an alien than I am supposed to preach some sort of gospel to them? Really? With all due respect, panel members, that question is simply a nonsequitur."

That would have been worse than her answer. It's one thing to be an athiest in those peoples eyes, but now she would be a heathen! Throwing words and facts into a conversation that has no place for them! SHUNNNNNN!!!!!

 

[UncleChris]

That would have been worse than her answer. It's one thing to be an athiest in those peoples eyes, but now she would be a heathen! Throwing words and facts into a conversation that has no place for them! SHUNNNNNN!!!!!

Ya got a point there.... ya got a point.....

 

[AZCrazy]

1997 was really a pretty great year for very well done, underappreciated movies. Titanic and Men in Black ruled the box office, but there were a lot of real gems like Contact, Amistad, LA Confidential, Good Will Hunting, and As Good As It Gets to make it a very fun year at the cinema.

 

[UncleChris]

1997 was really a pretty great year for very well done, underappreciated movies. Titanic and Men in Black ruled the box office, but there were a lot of real gems like Contact, Amistad, LA Confidential, Good Will Hunting, and As Good As It Gets to make it a very fun year at the cinema.

 

[Bert]

1997 was really a pretty great year for very well done, underappreciated movies. Titanic and Men in Black ruled the box office, but there were a lot of real gems like Contact, Amistad, LA Confidential, Good Will Hunting, and As Good As It Gets to make it a very fun year at the cinema.

And 98 and 99

Huge string of classics. All the ones you mentioned followed by:

Fight club
American Beauty
The Sixth Sense
Saving Private Ryan
The big lebowski
Dark city
Fear and loathing in Las Vegas
The matrix
The Insider
American Pie
The green mile
Eyes wide shut
The iron giant

On and on more and more great movies.

Even the Blair witch project which say what you want about that movie but it single handedly changed the horror genre, and gave us the shaky first person camera boom, which I dont particularly enjoy, but the pseudo reality genre was born and it's still going strong. Got to respect the influence.

It's as close to a "golden age of films" as there has been In my lifetime.

 

[Covert Rain]

I really like this movie and always have. It was a little long and dragged a bit which I blame on not editing certain scenes but overall one of my favorite sci-fi movies. I wish the Blu Ray transfer was a bit better. The scene where she is on the beach exposes some errors in the green screen scene which is distracting. Unfortunately, I think the film was under appreciated so I don't expect them to go back and fix the FX glitches exposed by HD transfer.

 

[UncleChris]

Caught this again on Dish the other night and found yet another error. When the ball dropped through the machine, they said they were only out of contact with it for a fraction of a second. Ok... I can buy that as her transport time through the Einstein-Rosen bridge would theoretically be timeless by Earth standards... BUT, what about the time she spent with the alien? That was in real time and lasted a couple of minutes, which would equate to a couple of minutes in Earth time. There was no indication that her time with the alien was all in her head.

Anyway... still a 4 out of 5 movie.

 

[Shaggy]

Caught this again on Dish the other night and found yet another error. When the ball dropped through the machine, they said they were only out of contact with it for a fraction of a second. Ok... I can buy that as her transport time through the Einstein-Rosen bridge would theoretically be timeless by Earth standards... BUT, what about the time she spent with the alien? That was in real time and lasted a couple of minutes, which would equate to a couple of minutes in Earth time. There was no indication that her time with the alien was all in her head.

Anyway... still a 4 out of 5 movie.

The time with the Alien still could have been milliseconds on Earth. So if she was with the Alien that looked like her Dad for 5 mins, it could still be considered 1 millisecond here on Earth. Time could be different in different worlds. Didn't you see Interstellar?