INDEPENDENCE DAY : SPECIAL EDITION
Rated PG-13 for intense action and some language
Starring Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, Mary McDonnell and Judd Hirsch

CineSight Rating ** 1/2

What if we all woke up one day to discover the planet surrounded by giant alien spaceships? That's the premise of this 1996 blockbuster which is big on action and effects, but small on logic, credibility and character development.

After the alien ships begin systematically pulvarizing earth's major cities, U.S. president Whitmore (Pullman) heads up a desperate mission to repel the other-worldly attackers. He's aided by Capt. Stephen Hiller (Smith), a wise-cracking pilot who dreams of becoming an astronaut, and David Levinson (Goldblum), a TV station whiz-kid who comes up with the improbable solution to the intergalactic pest problem.

DVD Features * 2-Disc Set * Widescreen Format Theatrical Release * Extended Widescreen Special Edition * 2 Audio Commentaries * 3 Behind-the-Scenes Featurettes * Original Biplane Ending Sequence * Theatrical Trailers & TV Spots * Storyboards, Artwork & Production Stills * Additional DVD-ROM Features * Languages: English, French * Subtitles: English, Spanish

CineSight Comments, Trivia & Bloopers

Don't get me wrong; I don't hate INDEPENDENCE DAY. In fact, the alien attack and the resulting battle scenes are some of the most intense, pulse-pounding seqiences ever filmed. Visually, this is a full-throttle rollercoaster of a ride. But I suspect that filmmakers Dean Devlin and Roland Emerich (STARGATE, GODZILLA) got so wrapped up in these big sequences that they overlooked a few minor details - like a credible plot and some believable characters for us to care about. Indeed, the only character I found mildly interesting was Levinson's crabby father (Hirsch).

All its flaws aside, INDEPENDENCE DAY remains a spectacular popcorn movie, full of speed and fireballs that continually engulf the screen. If you're planning an evening of entertainment that doesn't tax your brain, this is a perfect fit. I must confess I was a little disappointed with the additional features of this 'special edition'. They didn't seem to add that much to the movie and the three documentary featurettes cover much of the same ground.

* A bus crashes through a billboard advertising STARGATE, Devlin and Emerich's previous film.
* A movie theater is destroyed showing a 'coming soon' ad for INDEPENDENCE DAY.

INDEPENDENCE DAY contains numerous factual and continuitiy errors. Here are just a few:

* The commemorative plaques on the moon should be attached to the leg of the lunar lander, not placed on the lunar surface.
* As the spaceship descends over Washington DC, the various locations shown indicate the ship is arriving from several different directions at once.
* The wall of flame engulfing the tunnel miraculously misses two palm trees at the tunnel's mouth.
* The radar map in the command bunker shows Area 51 near Death Valley when in fact they are nowhere near each other.
* The president's patriotic speech to the pilots is so rousing that even his tie changes color!
* The British RAF has no F-16 fighters.