Drinker's Guilty Pleasures - Independence Day

ah guilty pleasures we all have them movies that we know are objectively kind of dumb or dated or cheesy as [ __ ] but through some magical combination of style bravado or sheer emotional manipulation they're able to short-circuit the thinking part of our brains and make us just say [ __ ] it this is awesome and i don't care and one of the prime examples of this has got to be independence day the 1996 mega blockbuster that launched will smith's movie career prompted everyone to invest in anti-virus software and got pretty much the entire world to cheer for america and since this particular time of year in early july has no particular significance i figured now was as good a time as any to talk about it the premise isn't exactly complex aliens arrive at earth in massive spaceships that take up position over the world's largest cities and god damn talk about visual spectacle i know this kind of stuff's been done a million times over the years but back in 1996 this was pretty incredible anyway nobody's quite sure how to deal with this situation least of all president whitmore the unpopular leader of america who's struggling under the weight of his new responsibility but he used to be a fighter pilot in the gulf war before he got into politics keep that one in mind because it will be important later anyway one man who does know what's up is jeff goldblum who i'm just going to refer to as jeff goldblum in this review because he's basically just playing jeff goldblum and it's awesome anyway he figures out that the aliens are sending a hidden signal that's interfering with global communications but it's also counting down to something something big using his ex-wife who's now a senior white house staffer he gets inside just in time to warn the president well lucky that the one guy on the planet who knows what's about to happen also used to be married to one of the few people on earth who can grant him an audience with the president anyway he's able to convince whitmore that a big attack's coming so he and the senior staff were able to get the [ __ ] out of there just before this happens again i'd like to point out that seeing famous landmarks getting blown apart in spectacular fashion is something that we're all kind of used to these days but this was the film that did it first and i've got to say it did it pretty [ __ ] well clearly humanity needs to strike back at these alien [ __ ] so they send in will smith and the rest of his top gun mates to blow the [ __ ] out of them unfortunately it doesn't go too well the alien ships have got some kind of shields protecting them and no human weapons can penetrate it missiles bombs even nukes fail to make a dent in them the only slight cause for optimism is when will smith manages to down one of the alien fighters and capture its pilot welcome to earth [ __ ] nice ones son but then they bring the alien to area 51 so that data from star trek can interrogate it and it all goes a bit wrong and everyone gets killed things are looking pretty grim for the humans but then at last jeff goldblum comes up with the most 90s of 90s solutions i gave her virus computer virus there's just something incredibly charming about movies from back then when home computers and the internet and hacking were really starting to take off and hollywood was desperately rushing to jam it into every movie they can think of now we just kind of use this stuff to shout at people on social media anyway the plan is to take a captured enemy fighter and use will smith to fly up to the mother ship in orbit where jeff goldblum will upload a computer virus that will disable their shields and allow the humans to fight them on equal terms i mean really if you're gonna infect them with a virus that can do anything you want can't you just tell them to self-destruct or something nah who cares so everyone's getting ready to kick some ass and naturally whitmore's leading the attack because he used to be a fighter pilot i told you that one would come in handy he also finds time to deliver the greatest [ __ ] speech in the whole history of the human race today we celebrate our independence day yes usa usa usa sorry i lost my train of thought there so yeah will smith and jeff goldblum are able to infiltrate the mother ship and plant the virus but oh no they're stuck and they can't escape meanwhile the human pilots start firing missiles at the alien ship that's headed towards area 51 but oh no it doesn't work but then the president's like nah it'll be fine because i'm america [ __ ] and this time it does work and i kid you not my entire cinema lost its collective mind in this scene this movie absolutely knows how to play with your emotions like a pro and god damn you can't help but respect it now the virus might have leveled the playing field but the humans are still massively outnumbered and they don't have enough firepower to stop the alien ship which settles over area 51 and prepares to deploy its giant laser thing hmm this all seems oddly familiar the only chance is to blow it up before it fires but everyone's out of ammo now until this drunken [ __ ] shows up like an absolute boss and rams his [ __ ] jet right into it then will smith and jeff goldblum prepare to commit suicide by nuke but the impact jars them loose and they're able to fly out of there and jeff gets to do his jurassic park thing and then they make it out just as a giant space door closes and then the nuke goes off and blows up the alien mother ship and everyone has an epic reunion seen in the desert and god damn jeff swaggers more than me after two bottles of drain cleaner what a [ __ ] epic thrilling gloriously over the top slab of sheer hollywood spectacle this movie is independence day is the kind of film you absolutely cannot fail to like yeah it's big and dumb and emotionally manipulative but it absolutely doesn't care and as a result neither do i and if nothing else you've got to respect the sheer balls to the wall patriotic masculine bravado on display here i mean where else are you gonna see the president of the [ __ ] united states leading an army of fighter jets to destroy a city-sized alien spaceship before it can wipe out humanity where else can you watch will smith punching an alien right in the face before lighting up a cigar to celebrate where else are you going to see a [ __ ] dog out running a thermonuclear explosion that wipes out an entire city nowhere that's where the casting is sheer perfection for a movie like this will smith was hot off the success of fresh prince when he did this movie and his charisma and likability is off the scale here you can absolutely see how he went on to become an a-lister after this film the chemistry between him and jeff goldblum is great fun to watch and it's a real shame they didn't get more screen time together and as for bill pullman as the president damn i'd vote for him if i got the chance the funny thing about this movie is that as much as i've called it dumb the plot actually does hold together surprisingly well the more i think about it the film very quickly and efficiently establishes the threat posed by the aliens making it clear that they're basically unstoppable no matter what the humans throw at them they just keep coming and it's only by fighting smarter rather than harder that they finally gain the advantage as implausible as it may be in reality the final battle is actually built on an understandable sequence of events that make sense in context it's all laid out beforehand so you know exactly what each group is trying to achieve and why and because the movie actually takes its time to set up likeable characters with understandable motivations and arcs it's easy to get invested in their struggles will smith starts out as a reluctant stepfather concerned that his personal life is holding back his career in the military but gradually he comes to appreciate his son and girlfriend and accept them for who they are hey there's nothing wrong with being a stripper when you look like this just ask tatiana he even gets to fulfill his dream of flying in space that was denied to him at the start of the movie whitmore starts out as a weak indecisive kind of leader unsure of himself in his new position of power but through the film's various disasters and adversities his core of strength and authority gradually reasserts himself until he becomes an absolute kick-ass fighter jeff goldblum is able to repair his relationship with his father and reconcile with his ex-wife by finally realizing his potential and putting his own life on the line damn even the drunk guy gets to redeem himself in the eyes of his family sacrificing himself to save them and everyone else all of this stuff the likeable characters the strong cast the epic visuals the gung-ho patriotism the grand emotional payoffs it all adds up to a movie that's absolutely perfect at what it does a film that leaves you feeling thrilled and not beat when the end credits roll the kind of movie that you somehow always end up watching when it happens to be on tv and usually feel better for having done it independence day isn't just a guilty pleasure for me it's a genuine pleasure and i'd happily recommend it to anyone who just wants to kick the [ __ ] back and enjoy themselves for a couple of hours i know i did anyway that's all i've got for today go away now

Channel: The Critical Drinker

Views: 463,896

Keywords: Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum, aliens, alien invasion, white house, Bill Pullman, President Whitmore, Steve Hiller, review

Id: REaFrUdldLA

Length: 8min 55sec (535 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 05 2021