Funny funny funny

Rating: Null/10 (5 February 2001)

I almost got thrown out of the cinema for laughing at this movie.
I don't think I was SUPPOSED to be laughing uproariously for the first 25 minutes of the movie, but it was just so silly!
Let's look at this for a few seconds, and mayhap you will understand.
There's this very large alien ship "A quarter the mass of our Moon" according to one scientist.
It then arrives in orbit around our wee blue rock and proceeds to dispatch loads of smaller ships (about the size of New York City) to destroy the major population-centres on Earth.
After releasing the Death-ray which levels the world's largest cities with one shot, the U.S Air Force send (*gasp*) Will Smith and his squadron of F-18s up at them.
Not only do the Sidewinder missiles completely fail to bring down this flying megalith (remember, it's bigger than some countries!!), but everyone is surprised .... nay, shocked! when the missiles fail to even HIT the damn' thing!
Who would have thunk that a species with the technology to build a ship of such awe-inspiring size, fill it with billions of genocidal aliens, and catapult it across the Galaxy would never have heard of force-fields ?!?!?!?!?!?!?
So .... that kind of sets the tone for the entire movie.
It does have it's high-points however.
Bill Pullman and Mary McDonnell appear to have been born for their roles in this movie, and the Will Smith/Jeff Goldblum double-act was well worth watching a few dozen times.
Randy Quaid was the man to whom this movie belonged, however. Few people can make you howl with laughter and choke with tears in the same scene.
A lot of schmaltz seemed to have been added in for no apparent reason, Bill Pullman quoting Dylan Thomas for example, yet I think that maybe even Thomas would have been moved to want to destroy the Alien Scum after listening to 'Mr President' talking to Humankind.
One has to remember that when this movie was made, America was in political turmoil and needed to "feel-good" about itsself, and this movie delivered the goods.
From the young president with the beautiful wife (who wasn't messing around with the help) to the howlingly funny Will Smith beating up on "his" alien in the desert, this movie will continue to make people laugh for years to come.
The real low points, though, were the capricious use of the dog and the children.
Otherwise a fun movie.