Contact (DVD)

Andromaeda Strain. Silent Running. If seeing the names of those two great but slow-moving science fiction movies has you yawning, don't bother with Contact. For those of us who like our sci-fi to be thought provoking as much as we like them filled with action, read on. (Admittedly Contact isn't quite as slow as either of the above classics, but it's a lot slower than your average Hollywood sci-fi flick!) The film starts with an admittedly over-long and silent intro skimming through space (after a short burst of TV transmission at the start with the picture panning away from earth). The significance of this is made clear later in the film. ...  Read the complete review

This 1997 Warner Brothers sci-fi picture was based on the novel by Carl Sagan, and for all science fiction, alien hunting fans, this movie is must. The Movie starts with a young Ellie Arroway (Jody Foster) who spends her time on a short-wave radio trying to communicate with others as far as she can discover them. Unfortunately her mother has already died, and her farther also dies whilst she is a young girl. The movie jumps forward for us to see Ellie as a grown woman who has dedicated her life to science and the search for life beyond our own world. And with the fight for finance grants, together with a reputation of being an ET hunter, Ellie wins her ...  Read the complete review

Intelligently adapted from Carl Sagan’s Pulitzer Prise winning novel, Contact is science fiction for grown-ups. The antitheses of films such as Independence and Mars Attacks, the film highlights the obsession of those involved in the SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) Project as they trawl the skies in search of conclusive proof that we truly are not alone. Sagan was actually one of the founding member’s of the SETI Project and so the move from book to film maintains all of the facts concerning its operation. Contact really comes into its own when proof is discovered and a worldwide selection process is initiated to pick one ...  Read the complete review

If you like your sci-fi thoughtful, with a real point to it...perhaps even inspiring, then Contact is probably for you. If you have little time for anything other than death-rays, robots, and aliens and then this might not be your kind of movie, but I'd still suggest that you give it the benefit of the doubt. Based on the novel by cosmology guru (the late) Carl Sagan, Contact boasts a storyline and plot development that benefits both from scientific rigour and philosophical integrity. With a cast led by Jodie Foster and Mathew McConaughey, supported by James Woods, Tom Skerrit, John Hurt and Angela Basset, you know you are in for top of the range acting. ...  Read the complete review

This film is like no other Sci-Fi movie seen before, it has different ideas than the usual Sci-Fi movies, such as it is actually based in our time period, and is a film about an inspired scientist who has always dreamed of contacting something outside Earth. Jodie Foster has lead roll, as the inspired scientist who never gives up hope, and never gives up trying. Her acting in this was fantastic, as it usually is. On paper, this film wouldn't look to impressive, but the outcome is suprising. A different, and unpredictable film, a genuine good film. ...  Read the complete review