This week, Siskel and Ebert review Bill Pullman and Will Smith facing an alien invasion in
Independence Day.
John Travolta's close encounter with a mysterious force turns him into a phenomenon.
Plus another look at the biggest hits of Summer 96.
Aliens evade the skies above Earth and they're not here on a friendly visit in Independence
Day.
These are movies we'll be reviewing this week on Siskel and Ebert along with John Travolta's
new movie and also a look at how they do special effects in the movies and also a look back
at some of the big hits of the summer so far.
I'm Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times.
And I'm Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune.
Our first film is Independence Day and here's a movie that keeps promising excitement and
keeps promising and promising.
What it really is about is explosions, real and threatened as giant alien spaceships circle
the globe and target major cities including our nation's capital where Bill Pullman plays
sort of a weak chief executive.
And what happens if they do become hostile?
Then God help us.
How bad is it for America?
A general played by veteran actor Robert Loja lays out the situation in a classic disaster
film speech.
They know exactly where and how to hit us and our forces, we're down to 15 percent.
If you calculate the time it takes to destroy a city and move on, we're looking at the worldwide
destruction of every major city in the next 36 hours for being exterminated.
Like most disaster films, Independence Day spends a lot of time, too much time trotting
out an assortment of would-be colorful supporting characters, blacks, Jews, gays, a drunk.
Here a computer expert, Jeff Goldblum and his dad, played by Judd Hirsch, meet with
the President in a scene that's pure cornball.
Let's say that you want to coordinate with spaceships on different sides of the earth.
I couldn't send a direct signal, right?
You're talking about minus sight.
Yeah, that's right, exactly.
The curve of the earth prevents it.
You need satellites to relay that signal in order to reach each ship.
Well, I found a signal hidden inside our own satellite system.
They're using our own satellites against us.
One of the payoffs at Independence Day involves a high-level cover-up.
Government scientists have been secretly studying alien spacecraft and corpses for years.
We know tons about them, but the neatest stuff, the neatest stuff has only happened in the
last few days.
See, we can't duplicate their type of power so we've never been able to experiment.
But since these guys started showing up, all the little gizmos inside turned on.
The first act of Independence Day is really exciting with the arrival of the spaceships.
In the second act, the first few explosions are exciting too, but then the story has to
juggle all of those goofy characters and the big finale is just plain underwhelming.
I think the script of Independence Day needed another run through the typewriter to make
this film truly satisfying as a whole.
A mixed review, but thumbs down from me.
Same kind of thumbs down from me too because there were a couple of shots at the beginning
of the film that were kind of awe-inspiring.
And then it just turns into, frankly, an old-fashioned 1950s style of flying saucers from outer space
movie and the saucers essentially aren't very exciting.
The aliens are not very well realized.
They don't really move except for one hand.
They're not really there in any sense except to represent a threat.
Exactly, and that's the problem.
We've always said in action pictures it's the villains and here we don't get to really
know them.
We don't know anything special about them.
What about the whole complicated deal?
We interrupt this program for a weather alert from the 7 Doppler Max weather station.
Good afternoon.
We have our third tornado warning of the afternoon.
This one until 4.30 this afternoon for southwestern Washington and northeast Lincoln County.
The reason is a possible tornado five miles northwest of Shaw, which would be primarily
this area in the red.
It's almost in the center of your screen.
If you're in that area, please take cover.
Spotters have identified a tornado in that area.
Even though it is sparsely populated and largely agricultural land, we want you to know that
there is a potential tornado in that wall cloud as it moves to the northeast at about
10 miles an hour.
Again, southwestern Washington and northeast Lincoln County is a tornado warning until
4.30 this afternoon.
This has been a special weather alert from the 7 Doppler Max weather station.
Stay tuned to 7 News for further updates.
We now return to our program in progress.
Well, I'm sure that audiences suspected that some of them probably weren't real, but a
lion was so convincing that I was amazed to discover that it was a complete product of
special effects.
Other footage in the film covers George Lucas's preparations for a 25th anniversary re-release
of the Star Wars trilogy and reveals how models of spacecraft are made to seem so real.
The most sensational footage in special effects is a special sequence of the opening of Star
Wars remastered for the giant sized Omnimax and IMAX screens.
Special effects is an interesting movie and I like the behind the scenes stuff, but with
the exception of the Star Wars footage, I was not quite sure why they needed the Omnimax
process in order to make it, since it's basically a standard documentary that would be just
as interesting, although not as big, on a regular screen.
I had a problem with it, too, that some of it was okay as far as it went, but if there's
going to be something called special effects and it's going to be played in movie theaters,
it's got to be a whole lot better than this, meaning showing us more stuff, getting more
detailed.
We saw a couple of movies that have commercial reasons, you know, for Independence Day, that
we're willing to cooperate with these filmmakers, okay, and I felt that I was seeing that stuff.
Let's go back and trace a little bit more of the history of special effects.
They do show us some very old stuff that is wonderful to look at, but I think that you
and I know the kind of things that could be included in a movie called Special Effects.
You can explain it a little more completely, yes.
Okay.
Coming up next, John Travolta plays a character who's been described as Forrest Gump with
a brain in Phenomenon.
George Malley, you learned the Portuguese language in 20 minutes?
Not all of it.
Many sports cars pack a great deal of power.
Unfortunately, they don't leave much room to pack anything else.
Presenting the Nissan 200SX, a sports car with 140 horsepower engine up front and a
big honking trunk in back.
The Nissan 200SX, the sports car for today's world.
Got any Tylenol, Joe?
When did you touch the Tylenol?
When my doctor told me some pain relievers could irritate my stomach.
Really?
Pain relievers?
Yeah, my doctor said that aspirin and even ibuprofen can sometimes irritate your stomach.
Oh, no kidding.
But Tylenol doesn't, and it works great.
To avoid the chance of stomach irritation, Tylenol is the pain reliever recommended most
by doctors.
How's your stomach?
Stuffed.
Oh.
Tylenol, the pain reliever hospitals use most.
I depend on Vagisil Cream to stop it instantly.
And for a painful, burning itch, I get Maximum Strength Vagisil for even stronger relief.
There's Vagisil Cream and Maximum Strength.
Now add a layer of odor and wetness protection to panties, liners, and pads with Vagisil
Powder.
It helps protect delicate skin with an emollient these don't have.
As it absorbs wetness, stops odor.
Vagisil Powder.
Every day.
Come on, honey.
Come on.
That's my big boy.
Good.
There you go.
Now come on.
Come on.
Mommy's gonna put you in your high chair and fix you some fryers, cookies, and cream.
Whoa!
It's more than ice cream.
It's drier.
Betty saw UFO.
She saw one.
I didn't say that.
You saw one?
Well, I didn't say what I saw.
What did it look like?
John Travolta is struck by an energy force that looks like a lightning bolt from an alien
spacecraft and suddenly he becomes truly gifted, the smartest guy in his small town in the
movie Phenomenon, a gentle parable about how we often place limits on others as well as
ourselves.
Travolta's character named George Malley admits to the town's Dr. Robert Duvall that he's
totally confused by his newfound intelligence and curiosity.
I understand right away.
Concentrate.
And books.
I can't stop feeding myself.
I read two, two, three books a day.
How smart is George Malley?
A government researcher tests him.
Name as many mammals as you can in 60 seconds.
Ready?
Go.
Hmm.
60 seconds.
Well, how would you like that?
How about alphabetical?
Ardmark, baboon, caribou, dolphin, eel, hippos, fox, gorilla, hyena, ibex, jackal, kangaroo,
lion, marmoset, Newfoundland, ocelot, panda, rat, sloth, tiger, unicorn, varmint, whale,
yak, zebra.
Some of the people in the town seem threatened, maybe even resentful of George's intelligence
and the doctor lets him have it, establishing the main serious theme of the movie.
And you people have to tear him down so you can sleep better tonight?
So you can prove that the world is flat and sleep better tonight?
Am I right?
There is a love interest in the film and here's where I think phenomenon comes up a little
short.
Kira Sedgwick plays a divorced mother of two, she's bitter and she rejects George's advances.
But there isn't much chemistry between the two actors.
Ah, emergency road service, ma'am.
Truck can't breathe and your eggles too fast.
I'm sorry.
Gotta go.
Where?
You're not leaving town, are you?
Nope.
San Francisco for the day.
Oh, I used to live there.
Ask me directions and where are you going?
As a matter of fact, ask me anything at all.
You could even ask me to come along, show you the sights, the hazards, what do you think?
I think you're idle too fast.
He is absolutely winning in this film and what recommends the movie is his easy going
charm, his scenes with Robert Duvall and a very effective concluding bar scene in the
picture where we realize just how much the simple guy has meant to us and to his friends.
A mixed review but thumbs up from me on phenomenon.
I liked it too, Gene.
And I like Kira Sedgwick.
I felt they did have a chemistry and of course it's based upon the fact that he first has
to win her over because she doesn't want to have anything more to do with guys and he
has to kind of let her know that he can be trusted.
But apart from that, the main line of the movie is fascinating as it shows how this
guy becomes more and more intelligent and the people in his town are threatened and
he's confused and the wisdom of Robert Duvall in a very, very fine performance is what holds
this all together.
And it is in that scene that we saw in the bar.
In fact, it is the two bar scenes in the movie that make you recognize you've been with
someone throughout the character that you really do like.
Yeah.
When we come back, a return look at summer comedies starring Eddie Murphy and Jim Carrey.
One worked and one didn't.
Why?
Hi I'm Jake Jabb.
Right now, you'll find Independence Day sale savings on furniture for any room in the house.
Your old sofa lost its edge, here's a sharp one.
Need to expand your home office?
We've got office space, time to fix up the kids' room, there are beds, desks, study centers
and story systems here.
No place for the new TV, we've got a few hundred of these and these in stock.
Everything for your house is on sale right now at American Furniture Warehouse.
The heat is on and for most of us, it's just a little bit uncomfortable.
But for some people, it's dangerous, especially the very old and the very young.
That's why Seven News is starting the Seven Fan Club and we need your help.
Please donate a new fan, like this one, and help someone stay cool this summer.
You can drop your fan off here at the Seven News building at Sixth and Spear.
If you need a fan, call 831-6916.
Help needy Coloradans beat the heat.
Donate to the Seven Fan Club.
Hey, it's a cool idea.
Some athletes are born great and some athletes are forced integrals by 50,000 screaming maniacs
who are not going to take no for an answer.
I know how you're feeling right now.
Stop it, stop it.
Don't do that.
I'm here for you.
Don't do that.
You're going to get me killed out of here.
Jim Carrey plays the cable guy who is responsible for getting his new friend thrown in.