Shallow people have too much money

Rating: Null/10 (17 November 2001)

Right around the time this movie came out, I became aware of something that turned me off to movies in general. The problem was not, and is not, that Hollywood thinks we're all stupid. The problem is that parents are giving their very young kids way too much cash on the weekends to get out of their hair for the afternoon. They've created a powerful demographic segment, in the form of their pre-teen offspring who are downtown stuffing twenty-dollar bills into theater cash boxes.
And deciding what next year's movies are going to look like.
Well, the culmination of this bizarre experiment has to be ID4. The most telling review you could really gather about this, is that everyone who feels the need to "defend" the film from the obvious criticism, uses the same two lines. One, movies are supposed to be entertaining and not realistic; two, the special effects were awesome.
I go to the movies to be entertained, instead of being reminded of reality, just as much as the next guy. But a certain amount of "Coyote and Roadrunner" physics, just ruins it for folks like me. Sorry. The President in a jet is really pushing the envelope. Yeah, yeah I know he was a Persian Gulf vet and they had an explanation for all this. But why was it necessary? Couldn't you make an even better movie, having the Prez on the ground, biting his fingernails with guilt over sending men half his age to certain death? That's made some good movies; it just takes some effort on the part of the writers, directors and actors. Maybe they figured the "Living Legend Captain Kirk" avenue was just easier here. Unfortunately, that leaves them pontificating for two hours about how we're all in the same boat, and we'd better kick alien ass together; and then having one guy do everything. Essentially, they seriously contradicted themselves.
But yeah, I know nine-year-olds don't care about that, and my money isn't worth as much as theirs.
All this may seem like nit-picking, but it interferes with the focal point of the movie. This is a movie built to make you feel good after the closing credits have started to roll, and maybe more than a bit patriotic. When inside your head, you're going back over all the questionable plot points and wondering just what kind of a pig-in-a-poke they just sold you, one interferes too much with the other. So the purpose of the movie is, in itself, a bit of a contradiction. If you want to get in a patriotic mood on the 4th of July, my advice is to read up on the story how our nation was built. Skip this, unless you just want to watch things blow up and go boom.
** out of ****, 4/10.