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Mark Bubien reviews
Five Star Collection
20th Century Fox
- Cert: PG-13
- Cat.no: 2000045
- Running time: 153 minutes
- Year: 1996
- Pressing: 2000
- Region(s): 1, NTSC
- Chapters: 54 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Surround
- Languages: English, French
- Subtitles: English for the hearing impaired, Spanish
- Widescreen: 2.35:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: 2 * DVD 9
- Price: $24.99
- Extras :
DISC ONE: Theatrical and Director’s Cuts, Scene index, Commentary with Director and Producer, Commentary with Special Effects Supervisors.DISC TWO: “Creating Reality” documentary on the making of ID4, “ID4 Invasion” alien invasion fake documentary (featurette), “HBO First Look: Independence Day” featurette hosted by Jeff Goldblum, Original biplane ending sequence, Storyboard, original artwork, production stills, Original Theatrical Trailer, Teaser Trailer, DVD-ROM enhanced.
Director:
- Roland Emmerich
Cast:
- Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Mary McDonnell, Judd Hirsch, Margaret Colin, Randy Quaid
Writer:
- Dean Devlin, Roland Emmerich
I originally caught ID4 on opening day during the July 4th weekend of 1996. This was the hot ticket of the summer – I hit the box office at 11am, and they were sold out until the 10pm show! But when the film rolled that night, I’ll tell you the audience was jazzed. We screamed, cat-called, and generally cheered our way through the whole shebang. Probably the most fun theater experience I ever had (and proof positive that theaters are not a dying medium)!
My second viewing of ID4, on VHS sadly, was a tad more sedate. Even more sadly, I realized something: the movie was pretty lame. We’ve got cookie-cutter characters – Jeff Goldblum as a brainy scientist, go figure. And how about canned (read stolen) plot? There ain’t an original idea in the film, with the basic storyline lifted (uncredited) from HG Welles’ War of the Worlds, and effects copying everything from Star Wars, to Alien, to Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Top that with more bravado than three Arnie flicks, and you’ve got yourself a bust (without the wild audience, that is).
The ID4:Five Star Collection DVD marked my third, and most reluctant, viewing. But it went much better than expected. Chalk that up to a strong dose of “willful suspension of disbelief” (read “throwing brain out window”). Great image and sound quality – gotta love that 5.1 mix – don’t hurt none either. And, much as I hate to say it, I ended up kinda liking the darned thing!
Then there’s the extras. Everything but the kitchen sink. And I bet if they could’ve MPEG compressed that, they would’ve thrown it on too! I doubt the commentary will win any awards – Emmerich and Devlin are somewhat interesting and revealing, but I’ll be damned if I can figure how two guys can leave such long lapses of silence. And the featurettes, well, what can I say? They must’ve included them to prove that there really are things worse than the movie itself!
The big win, though, is the documentary (the real one) on the second disc. They pretty much spell out how everything was created, and in great detail. Leave no stone unturned, no question unanswered, in showing how it’s done. Very impressive! Something I will probably watch again and again.
Add to that the original “Biplane Ending,” storyboards, artwork, stills, and even another commentary, and we have ourselves one great DVD (well, two DVDs actually)! ID4 is so good on disc, it really begs the question: what could Fox have done to make the DVD better? Leave it to me to compile ten – count ’em – ten possibilities!
The Top-10 Ways to Make the ID4:Five Star Collection DVD Even Better
- 10. Instead of stealing bits and pieces from twenty good movies, pick only one and and steal the whole darn thing.
9. Include a rowdy theater audience – and enough beer to keep them that way – with the DVD.
8. Free up extra space for even more of those great special features by eliminate that 2 hour waste of time known as “the movie.”
7. Instead of allowing users to select a Director’s Cut, allow them to select which Presidential Administration gets blown up with the White House.
6. Promise that all future Hollywood movies are marketed like ID4: with teasers, instead of spelling-out the whole plot from beginning to end.
5. Remove that embarrassing musical number performed in Jabba the Hutt’s Den.
4. Allow the people who use the same computer that destroyed the aliens and saved the day (the Macintosh) to actually play the stupid DVD-ROM Games!
3. When the Production Designer talks about being completely original with effects design, do NOT cut to the shot of his alien mock-up which looks exactly like the creature from Alien.
2. Cut that idiotic scene with Randy Quaid saving the day in a Biplane, and replace it with him saving the day in a (only slightly-less idiotic, but far less embarrassing) F/A-18 Figther Jet. (Who says no one listens to me?)
1. After the aliens finish with the White House, have them go after the producer, writer and director.
And before you send the aliens after me too, let me say again that the ID4:Five Star Collection DVD kicks butt. It’s surely worth every penny, and while the movie itself ain’t art or anything even close, I have to say I can easily recommend this disc to both fans and non-fans (ahem) alike.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL Check out Mark’s homepage: www.storybytes.com.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.