What’s Aged the Best?
Area 51 and UFOs; the alien drag; the sky-staring gag; the loaded cast; the 'better be good' official; 1990s effects; Nimziki; the first-to-know character; Goldblum-Smith improv; the title
In the discussion (11)
Approx. transcript time · 00:43:08Read transcript
- Area 51 and the UFOs aged wonderfully, now that 60 Minutes is doing UFO pieces.
- Will Smith dragging the concussed alien body is funny every time.
- The staring-at-the-sky awe gag used in the Austin Powers movies is clearly ripped off from this movie.
- The loaded cast includes Goldblum, Hirsch, Loggia, Pullman, Rebhorn, Randy Quaid, Margaret Colin, Vivica Fox, Harry Connick and Adam Baldwin along with Will Smith.
- Margaret Colin's career did not happen the way it should have; she was on Chicago Hope, which lost the medical-drama race to ER, and she is good here and in Unfaithful.
- The film perfected the aggrieved official who says "this better be good" after being woken up, such as a submarine captain whose job is to solve crises.
- 1990s special effects are listed again.
- Nimziki is a needed subtle villain for most of the movie, second-guessing Pullman and pushing to nuke Houston, compared to working in fantasy.
- The character who recognizes the danger before everyone else and has to explain it is a favorite trope; Paul Giamatti in San Andreas is the one time the explanation felt right. — Shea Serrano
- Goldblum and Smith are clearly improvising for the second half, which makes the heady spaceship-and-virus plot work.
- A great title for a movie released on Independence Day.