Extremely Overrated! Its horrible!

Rating: Null/10 (3 November 1999)

WARNING: SPOILERS!(Including ending).
I don't understand why some people think this movie is so great. It stinks! Much of the movie is video or soundbytes; pictures of Brian Gumbel interviewing Foster or Jay Leno cracking jokes. It's like the producers are screaming at us "Look, we got all these real life media personalities and celebrities to star in our movie, and we could manipulate the president's voice to make it look like he's in on it too!" All this is supposed to substitute for a strong plot and good writing. And then there is the scene where Foster is before the committee to decide who gets to go meet the aliens, and McConaughey asks her if she considers herself religious, knowing quite well that she is an atheist. Later, McConaughey confides in her that he really asked the question to get her rejected from being shot into space because he is in love with her. Well, really, Matt, did you think there was anybody who hadn't guessed that? I mean come on, its really obvious!
The climax of the movie is when Foster meets the aliens face to face, but even this is disappointing. She goes all that way, and after so much anticipation, boom, she meets an alien resembling her father. This is what they came up with for the big moment? The alien tells us things like "You are capable of such beauty and such horror", the same dribble that has come out of dozens of science fiction movies and programs. This movie is quite simply bad, overrated, and not very original. Oh, and James Wood plays a jerk. Like I haven't seen that before.