Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Pluskylang Great Film overall

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Senteur As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

russeljennings Robert Zemeckis's Contact is based on Carl Sagan's famous novel by the same name and it is one hell of a film. Rightly called the thinking man's science fiction this movie contains many awe inspiring scenes. The opening shot which pans back into space, quietly humbling us by reminding our insignificance, the transmission and receiving of the signal, the machine and teleportation of Jodie Foster in it to meet the "makers", this film is filled with such scenes and joining them together is a fantastic story with an excellent pacing. Contact polarized critics but this is a very good film and features some great performances by Jodie Foster, Mathew Mcconaughey and others.

tifa_mog I loved this film. I really did. But the idea is just as naïve as the protagonist, Ellie, all the scientists working on it and Palmer, the sexy masculine plot device that has no purpose outside spiritual one-liners and giving Ellie the feels. Finally, there's the audience itself, praiusing the movie for its message that faith is just as valuable in pursuit of Truth as empirical evidence in scientific study.Well, Mr. Hadden had you all fooled.Ellie has been especially selected, monitoiredmonitoired by mister Hadden who referred to her as a "worthy investment" - she is someone who is deeply traumatized as a result of losing her parents, and lonely. Her interest in contact with other worlds was encouraged by her father and her real dream was the chance of being able to contact her mother whom she's never known. Next step is atheism, which first arises after the death of her father. A priest trues to tell her that itit's God's mysterious plan, but she as a little girl blames herself for not being able to save him. Even before that she asked too many questions and was taken out of Sunday School for the same reason.So here we have a young woman passionate about science, but also someone who has never been able to let go of her father (this will be relevant later). She represents most of us sceptics/atheists - science by its nature cannot comfort the grieving any more than "God's plan" and it cannot fill the loneliness we feel as a self-aware species the way that bekief in the supernatural and aliens can. The search for ETs is essentially on the same level as the search for God/gods. It is based on the scientific hypothesis that there must be intelligent life somewhere out there, someone more advanced and wiser than we are, someone who could guide us. In the age of science we have turned away from sacred texts towards the stars and mathematics. Contact is really about a dying, bitter, wealthy engineer who was overwhelmed by the burden of guilt from "taking too much from the world." He orchestrated everything. It's strange to me how nobody else sees that. His own fear of death, the unknown and loneliness is what motivated him to do what he did. Ellie was already completely convinced there has to be intelligent life out there, just as any person of faith. She was no sceptic, which is a prerequisite to pursuit of Truth. This movie is a sad but important lesson about human fears and wishful thinking, and that we are unable to do without them. We can never know the Truth as long as we have these fatal flaws. Until then, take the blue pill, and keep dreaming the dream.

ModishPictures After reading Roger Ebert's "Great Movie" review of this and hearing from others that it was the new 2001: A Space Odyssey, I had very high expectations for this film. While Roger Ebert's review was very well-written and many of his points were accurate, the film was a let-down and does not at all achieve the greatness that many have claimed it has.It has an interesting concept to begin with. A young girl fascinated by communication gets to use her passion to pursue something beyond Earth. The first part of the film and the set up is interesting and adequate, but the film crumbles in on itself when Matthew McConaughey's character is introduced and the film becomes sloppy, boring, and dumb. His character is supposed to contrast ideologically with Jodie Foster's Ellie Arroway. Since this is a PG-rated film and can't not be cliche, they naturally have to fall in love for a short time despite an astounding lack of emotional connection and interest in their "relationship." His character comes back later on in a dumb, un-creative, and annoying way just to add conflict and "depth" to the story/characters -- even though it doesn't. The story has its high points and it has its low points. It does manage -- at times -- to match 2001: A Space Odyssey's visual effects and intriguing concepts, but then returns to the human world and reverses any smart themes or messages back into the dumb "faith vs. proof" argument. The way that this message is executed is poor and takes away from the greater story of space exploration and contact with other-worldly beings. Instead of extending the story and creating a new aspect of debate and discussion, the film is distinctly divided between its religious/scientific message and its 2001-like grandness of space. Perhaps if this film went for a less realistic approach and focused more on the smart themes of space exploration while also exploring the psyche of its main character, it could have been considered a classic more on par with 2001: A Space Odyssey. In the end, I can't recommend this film because it ends up pandering to younger audiences by dumbing-down its themes and topics that alienates (pun intended) audiences in search of a smarter, more mature film. 2/5 stars.

Bot_feeder I tend to be fairly oblivious to plot holes but I sense a ton of them in this movie. One example, unrealistic "resume breadth" - people taking on an unrealistic assortment of jobs such as the same person in an executive position at one point and working as a technician at another. That being said, the story was intriguing and the acting was good. I think the imdb rating of 7.4 is right on, but found it up to 8 because it's hard not to fall for this movies charm.