Good exploding starships, super space-fighter dogfights . . . no, this isn't a certain George Lucas film from 1977 that I'm describing.
Exhilaration abounds, that of victory at cost.
The old comic Jew is the best part. He's the father of the Jeff Goldblum character (this seems to be about the last major movie of Goldblum's career), who plays a sort of Daniel Jackson ('Stargate') role, nervous and awkward but valuable (in this case, saves-the-world valuable.)
Will Smith is of course the second best part of this movie: Air Force fighter ace with attitude (and the ability to survive two desperately dangerous clashes with the enemy.) Best acting of the whole movie, by far, is the way he rants and raves out of his parachute at the end of the first dogfight - This is the way one behaves when one's side is beaten and one has about lost the battle oneself but refuses, somewhat insanely, to see it that way!
The movie begins ominously: Bill Pullman is President of the United States, and the world is in really good shape (that's enough to make anyone scared, eh?). . . Then the Big Dumb Objects arrive . . . so buy the movie already! and if you're sensitive, just skip the parts without Will Smith in them, and you'll get your money's worth.
- Read the book reviewed in this web page:
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