Barnes & Noble

Independence Day's grand-scale invasion of theaters marked it one of the biggest summer blockbusters of the 1990s. The story is simple enough: Aliens show up over the Fourth of July weekend and without reason blow up most of the world. It's up to the heroic survivors -- stern-faced president Bill Pullman, amiable Army pilot Will Smith, and plucky software programmer Jeff Goldblum among them -- to save the planet. Independence Day is a lot of things: patriotic battle cry; special effects extravaganza; really, really scary and loud. Though the film is not particularly dramatic or thought provoking, director Roland Emmerich (The Patriot) makes an entertaining ride out of fabulous effects, particularly the horrifyingly fiery obliteration of cities worldwide. Smith is fresh once again with a terrific alien-whuppin' swagger, and though Pullman's rousing Fourth of July speech before the climactic battle is not on the literary level of Henry V's St. Crispin's Day speech, it is equally motivational. A loud throwback to alien paranoia of the H. G. Wells classic War of the Worlds, ID4 more than found itself a place in sci-fi/action history, it attacked and took over. Pete Segall

All Movie Guide

A group of intrepid humans attempts to save the Earth from vicious extraterrestrials in the extremely popular science-fiction adventure Independence Day. Borrowing liberally from War of the Worlds, Aliens, and every sci-fi invasion film in between, director Roland Emmerich and producer and co-writer Dean Devlin present a visually slick, fast-paced adventure filled with expensive special effects and large-scale action sequences. The story begins with the approach of a series of massive spaceships, which many on Earth greet with open arms, looking forward to the first contact with alien life. Unfortunately, these extraterrestrials have not come in peace, and they unleash powerful weapons that destroy most of the world's major cities. Thrown into chaos, the survivors struggle to band together and put up a last-ditch resistance in order to save the human race. As this is a Hollywood film, this effort is led by a group of scrappy Americans, including a computer genius who had foreseen the alien's evil intent (Jeff Goldblum), a hot-shot jet pilot (Will Smith), and the President of the United States (Bill Pullman). While some critics objected to the film's lack of originality and lapses in logic, the combination of grand visual spectacle and crowd-pleasing storytelling proved irresistible to audiences, resulting in an international smash hit. Judd Blaise

Product Details

• UPC: 024543036708
• Source: 20TH CENTURY FOX
• Region Code: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Cinemascope (2.35:1)
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: THX-Supervised Mastering, Dolby Digital Surround, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
• Language: English, Français
• Subtitles: English, Español
• Time: 2:33:00
• Sales Rank: 21,271

This DVD is also available as part of a box set:

• Sci Fi Pack
• I, Robot / Independence Day
• World Destruction Box Set
• Men of Action
• Ultimate Sci-Fi Collection (20pc) / (Box)