3 Good Things, 1 Bad Thing about... Independence Day

Rating: 7/10 (9 October 2008)

ONE GOOD THING: The sheer "popcorn movie" spectacle of Roland Emmerich's Independence Day makes it highly watchable. The film is one of the first of its era that embraces modern special effects to "remake" old movies, which couldn't be made better at the time. Although similar (or derivative) of it's predecessors, it fills the screen with an ensemble cast and delivers disaster scenes you couldn't walk away from if you tried (dog out-running an explosion excluded).
ANOTHER GOOD THING: The sheer panic/confusion/indifference felt by the different characters is an interesting bit of character study. Some people welcome the aliens with open arms, while others pack the freeways to escape major cities, and still others are sitting at strip clubs regardless of what's going on.
EVEN ANOTHER GOOD THING: The famous destruction scenes of the national and international monuments culminating in the explosion of the White House are quite possibly the finest of their kind.
ONE BAD THING: The wooden performances elicited by Emmerich (10,000 BC) are all quickly overshadowed by the inclusion of the Randy Quaid character. Why in the world is "Uncle Eddie" (National Lampoon's Vacation films) in this movie fighting aliens? He is heavy handed in his delivery and should of had his character cut out during initial re-writes. Without Quaid (and Harvey Fierstein's over-the-top comic relief supplied for the Jeff Goldblum character) this movie immediately improves its rating by 2 stars.
OVERALL GRADE: C+
OTHER MOVIES WITH SPECTACULAR DESTRUCTION SEQUENCES: The Day After Tomorrow (2004), Twister (1996), Poseidon (2006), The Poseidon Adventure (1972), The Towering Inferno (1974), Cloverfield (2008).