Ok so this review may be a little tardy, but rating Independence Day on the rebound seems particularly apt since so much of the movie is recycled and rehashed from other sources. A contemporary review of Star Wars described that movie as 'a subliminal history of movies'. ID4 is no Star Wars, though Emmerich did once say Jedi was the template for the pacing of the movie. Star Wars utilized the syntactic and semantic elements of many genres, yet Emmmerich and Devlin restrict themselves to Sci-Fi, specifically 1950s Hollywood Sci-Fi. One could consider the film as a subliminal history of Hollywood B Sci-Fis, but that would credit Emmerich and Devlin with a level of sublety they patently lack (a conviction bourne out by the fact they have been unable to repeat the success of ID4 with the series of semi remakes like 10,000 BC that have ensued). Everything here is smash your head against the wall liminal, even down to the obligatory shot of someone watching an old genre picture on tv that gets shoe horned into every 'knowing' piece of Hollywood output since the seventies-in this case it's The Day the Earth Stood Still, it's like watching a clockwork mechanism inexorably winding down to self-satisfied stasis: Em and Dev cynically ticking boxes narratively and visually on their way to opening weekend cigars and blow-jobs.
Ok, I know shouldn't let myself get riled by Will Smith pictures from the mid-nineties. It's just not cool. But then neither is staying up until 4am watching Will Smith pictures then blogging about them the next day. It's just that Smith had a potential as an actor that perhaps only once since Six Degrees of Separation has he shown any intention of fulfilling: the movie Ali. And what is he doing now? Remaking Charleton Heston B-Sci-Fis (I am Legend), and badly at that. There was a time when Smith looked like he could become the new Sidney Poitier, talented, angry, respected. Now his idea of being cast against type is as a superhero, but get this-this superhero drinks! Smith is perhaps the ultimate in self-satisfied Hollywood dull now, without the crazy Oprah appearances, getting loaded with Vince Vaughn headlines of his peers he doesn't even get enough stick over his dalliance with Scientology. I just can't watch an episode of The Fresh Prince without the words 'WHAT A SHAME' flashing in front of my eyes. Other people have started Save Britney/Lohan campaigns, maybe I should start a Save Will Smith campaign. I don't think just taking down his agent would work. On the strength of his recent appearance on the Colbert Report he's too far gone and is need of drastic remedial attention to rid him of his leading man dependency. He'll do anything as long as he is in the lead role. I call it Wild Wild West syndrome. We/he need(s) an intervention people.
Right I'm off to register getwillsmithandstevecarellinaremakeofseenoevilhearnoevil.com
Ok, I know shouldn't let myself get riled by Will Smith pictures from the mid-nineties. It's just not cool. But then neither is staying up until 4am watching Will Smith pictures then blogging about them the next day. It's just that Smith had a potential as an actor that perhaps only once since Six Degrees of Separation has he shown any intention of fulfilling: the movie Ali. And what is he doing now? Remaking Charleton Heston B-Sci-Fis (I am Legend), and badly at that. There was a time when Smith looked like he could become the new Sidney Poitier, talented, angry, respected. Now his idea of being cast against type is as a superhero, but get this-this superhero drinks! Smith is perhaps the ultimate in self-satisfied Hollywood dull now, without the crazy Oprah appearances, getting loaded with Vince Vaughn headlines of his peers he doesn't even get enough stick over his dalliance with Scientology. I just can't watch an episode of The Fresh Prince without the words 'WHAT A SHAME' flashing in front of my eyes. Other people have started Save Britney/Lohan campaigns, maybe I should start a Save Will Smith campaign. I don't think just taking down his agent would work. On the strength of his recent appearance on the Colbert Report he's too far gone and is need of drastic remedial attention to rid him of his leading man dependency. He'll do anything as long as he is in the lead role. I call it Wild Wild West syndrome. We/he need(s) an intervention people.
Right I'm off to register getwillsmithandstevecarellinaremakeofseenoevilhearnoevil.com
Alex B.
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