Frustrating and unfulfilling

Rating: 5/10 (7 January 1999)

I have seen Contact twice -- once in the theater, and once on cable last night. The elapsed year has not been kind to the film. What I was willing to overlook then (in the name of "enjoying the ride") seems far more grating on a second viewing.
This film has huge potential (even if derivative of too many older films to name). It falls short except in certain well-done areas, such as the opening and Ellie's journey. The damage is done by convenient pacing and slick Hollywoodisms that were tired when Spielberg invented them twenty years ago.
Very few films can get away with Zemeckis' brand of manipulative self-importance. Contact takes itself far too seriously to overlook its embarrassingly blatant shortcomings (Forrest Gump got away with them more successfully). Spoofs like Austin Powers get plenty of slack from me. Not this film.
One funny note -- Palmer Joss' never-ending sudden appearances out of nowhere, all over the planet at a moment's notice, reminded me of someone, but it took awhile to place him...Dungeonmaster, from the old Dungeons & Dragons cartoon (1983). Hilarious.