In association with

Contact (Special Edition) [1997]
from Warner Home Video
starring Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey, Jena Malone, David Morse, Geoffrey Blake
directed by Robert Zemeckis

Features:

• Digital Sound
• Dolby
• PAL
• Subtitled

Editorial Review:

The opening and closing moments of Robert (Forrest Gump) Zemeckis's Contact astonish viewers with the sort of breathtaking conceptual imagery one hardly ever sees in movies these day--each is an expression of the heroine's lifelong quest (both spiritual and scientific) to explore the meaning of human existence through contact with extraterrestrial life. The movie begins by soaring far out into space, then returns dizzyingly to earth until all the stars in the heavens condense into the sparkle in one little girl's eye. It ends with that same girl as an adult (Jodie Foster)--her search having taken her to places beyond her imagination--turning her gaze inward and seeing the universe in a handful of sand. Contact traces the journey between those two visual epiphanies. Based on Carl Sagan's novel, Contact is exceptionally thoughtful and provocative for a big-budget Hollywood science fiction picture, with elements that recall everything from 2001 to The Right Stuff. Foster's solid performance (and some really incredible alien hardware) keep viewers interested, even when the story skips and meanders, or when the halo around the golden locks of rising-star-of-a-different-kind Matthew McConaughey (as the pure-Hollywood-hokum love interest)reaches Milky Way-level wattage. Ambitious, ambiguous, pretentious, unpredictable--Contact is all of these things and more. Much of it remains open to speculation and interpretation but whatever conclusions one eventually draws, Contactdeserves recognition as a rare piece of big-budget studio film making on a personal scale. --Jim Emerson

Customer Reviews:

• Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0

• Left feeling cheated.
  My brother warned me not to watch this film, so to annoy him I watched it with him. Overall it's well made with good acting and enjoyable. Theres a point in all films like this, that you start trying to guess whats going on. I started throwing suggestions at my brother with everyone came the reply "no it's not as good as that". This carried on untill the end when I could not believe what I saw. This film builds and builds only to ultimately dissapoint. I've warned you about the ending. If your at all... more info

• An open up your life type of film
  I saw this in the cinema once, and thought it was ok. Then a second time and thought it quite good. Then on DVD and thought , yes, this is the one. Its a type of movie where if you already have either a sci fi and/or astronomy interest, it draws you in, and makes you believe your own life can be better. Many clever scenes attach themselves to you and with a mixture of excellent actors and direction, it becomes totally believable that should this occurrence ever actually happen, it might just play out like... more info

• Good film marred by juvenile argument
  I had fond memories of seeing this film years ago when it first came out, but I guess I have matured a lot in the intervening time. My most recent viewing left me with a slightly bad taste in my mouth.
  Taken as a whole, the film isn't too bad. It might be slow going in parts, but it progresses at an acceptable pace, and is especially interesting from the point of the machines construction. The special effects are pretty good given that it is 10 years old now, and I thought the alien contact scene was... more info

• Profound
  It's pleasing to see so many people with such great affection for this film. It has, after all, everything a mainstream move should have: brains, beauty, and a little bit of stardust.
  The transcendentally brilliant Jodie Foster puts in a great performance as Ellie Arroway, a wide-eyed little girl in a woman's body. After the death of her father (David Morse), Ellie becomes a star-gazer, convinced there can be no God. It's a simple, convincing, and rather moving set up, always propelling the story, even... more info

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