Independence Day (ID4)

Starring Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum

The unthinkable has happened yet again on the silver screen - ALIENS ARE ATTACKING EARTH! Not to fear - Rapper turned actor Will Smith is here to save the day and look good doing it. This fighter pilot has a devotion to his country that is second only to his devotion to his girlfriend. When the alien spacecraft settle in above the earth's major cities, everyone hopes that this is a friendly visit. It's not until IT wizard, Jeff Goldblum discovers the aliens' encrypted countdown that the president, Bill Pullman, is persuaded that maybe the neighbors from outer space might want to say more than, "Hello." Now, the only question remaining is, "Can we survive?"

Sometimes it's hard to separate how good a movie is from how much I enjoy it. This is one of those movies where I like it so much that I have no objectivity about the quality of the film. I saw the movie four days in a row when it first hit theaters in 1996, and have seen it at least a dozen times since then. We watched the special edition this last time, and it doesn't add much of anything. This is the movie that made me fall in love with both Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum. Every time I see it I jump during the "alien autopsy" scene. And no matter who I watch it with, we end up quoting some of the lines through the movie and long after. (Examples: "I coulda been at a BARBECUE!" "Enough about the fat lady. You're obsessed with the fat lady!" "Los Angelenos are asked not to fire their weapons at the alien spacecraft as it may spark an interstellar war.") A ton of fun even ten years after its release!