Bizarrely Bad

Rating: Null/10 (15 April 2001)

Have you ever wondered why SF movies always seem to feature the same elements, warp drive spaceships that make WOOSH sounds in vacuum, laser guns, nuclear grenades, super fast computers that take 2 seconds to fill a screen with graphics a C64 could handle, the Russian female scientist in a tight fitting t-shirt who at one point discovers that she is only a woman after all and needs some sexual healing from her American colleague, slime - filled aliens who look like oversized cockroaches, swirling galaxies, astronaut uniforms that have more flags and labels on them than a formula 1 racing overall, etc.? It is because, even though that stuff is naff and repetitive, it is somehow enjoyable to watch. "Contact", on the other hand, desperately tries to be intelligent and different ("hey, our spaceships don't even move"), only to arrive at an even greater level of naffness. Funny that so many reviewers on IMDB seem to have enjoyed this movie. All it did to me was to see Star Wars instead or read a good philosophy book.