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Contact

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Contact (1997)

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65 %
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Reviews Counted: 51

Fresh: 33

Rotten:18

Average Rating: 6.7/10

Runtime: 2 hrs 30 mins

Genre: Science-Fiction/Fantasy

Synopsis: Devoted astronomer Dr. Ellie Arroway undertakes an emotional and spiritual journey after receiving the message she's waited for all her life--a mysterious signal beamed in from alien beings, who... Devoted astronomer Dr. Ellie Arroway undertakes an emotional and spiritual journey after receiving the message she's waited for all her life--a mysterious signal beamed in from alien beings, who pass along instructions for building and piloting a craft that will presumably survive the passage from Earth to their home. While struggling to fund her mission, Arroway also struggles with her feelings about the nature of things, particularly after meeting a charismatic New Age believer who questions her disbelief in God. A deliberately-paced, meditative adaptation of the eponymous novel by Ann Druyan and "pop" astronomer Carl Sagan, who died during production. [More]

Starring: Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey, James Woods, John Hurt

Starring: Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey, James Woods, John Hurt, Tom Skerritt, Angela Bassett, Rob Lowe, William Fichtner, Geoffrey Blake, Jena Malone, Sami Chester, Timothy McNeil, Laura Elena Surillo, Henry Strozier, Michael Chaban, Max Martini, Larry King, Thomas Garner, Conroy Chino, Dan Gifford, Vance Valencia

Director: Robert Zemeckis

Director: Robert Zemeckis
Composer: Alan Silvestri
Producer: Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan, Joan Bradshaw, Lynda Obst
Story: Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan
Screenwriter: James V. Hart, Michael Goldenberg
Producer: Robert Zemeckis, Steve Starkey

[See More Credits]

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Release:

Jun 30, 1998

No Details Exist
 
 

Reviews for Contact

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1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
03/26/09
Todd McCarthy
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

With all the science and technology, Zemeckis and the writers made room for spiritual debates (some of them painfully slight), political commentary, and a strangely tepid and inert romance...

Full Review Source: Turner Classic Movies Online | comment Comment
01/17/08
Sean Axmaker
Turner Classic Movies Online

Magical, captivating entertainment.

Full Review Source: Mr. Brown's Movies | comment Comment
10/13/07
Michael Dequina
Mr. Brown's Movies
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
06/09/07
Washington Post
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Contact takes forever to lift off.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
06/08/07
Rita Kempley
Washington Post
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

When Contact finally comes alive, it leaves you frightened and thrilled and emotionally overwrought, as only a child can be. The rest is pandering.

Full Review Source: Slate | comment Comment
06/08/07
Sarah Kerr
Slate

The result is a film far too cold-blooded for summer audiences.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
06/08/07
Maitland McDonagh
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Features heavy-handed exposition, repetitive, maudlin flashbacks, uneven performances and endless sermonising.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
06/24/06
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Foster's voyage is an astronomical letdown, largely because Zemeckis' ideas of heaven and earth don't extend beyond what can be envisioned as a celluloid event.

Full Review Source: Boulder Weekly | comment Comment
11/04/05
Thomas Delapa
Boulder Weekly

It is a good sci-fi yarn.

Full Review Source: Reeling Reviews | comment Comment
04/09/05
Robin Clifford
Reeling Reviews

By hating the two-dimensional villain ... the audience feels they have found 'the bad guy' and aren't challenged to consider the flimsiness in Arroway's or Josse's perspectives.

Full Review Source: Looking Closer | comment Comment
12/06/04
Jeffrey Overstreet
Looking Closer

The story doesn't always do justice to the mind-bending visual opening of Robert Zemeckis' movie, which features Jodie Foster as an annoyingly intense scientist.

Full Review Source: Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY) | comment Comment
06/28/04
Judith Egerton
Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY)

Gran, gran película, una de esas que merecería más páginas...

Full Review Source: Cinenganos | comment Comment
01/12/04
Alex Ramirez
Cinenganos

Even the computer generated graphics are a bad fit.

Full Review Source: Palo Alto Weekly | comment Comment
05/14/03
Jeanne Aufmuth
Palo Alto Weekly

A rare find -- a science-fiction film more interested in ideas than scary critters.

Full Review Source: Cincinnati Enquirer | comment Comment
10/15/02
Margaret A. McGurk
Cincinnati Enquirer

You've got some great moments and an intriguing, haunting last act, but most of the movie isn't very exceptional.

Full Review Source: Montreal Film Journal | comment Comment
09/10/02
Kevin N. Laforest
Montreal Film Journal

...credit the makers of Contact... with making precisely the kind of movie that we imagine [Carl] Sagan would have wanted made.

Full Review Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette | comment Comment
08/07/02
Philip Martin
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

The build-up of the film is exceptionally well written, as ``Contact'' gives us two attractive adults who actually discuss issues and concepts instead of trading coy double entendres.

Full Review Source: Kalamazoo Gazette | comment Comment
06/23/02
James Sanford
Kalamazoo Gazette

When it tries to personify the struggle between skepticism and faith in the relationship between Ellie and her theologian boyfriend, it becomes flat and obvious.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | comment Comment
06/18/02
Mick LaSalle
San Francisco Chronicle
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Contact, which aims for awe, ends up with piffle.

Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | comment Comment
04/12/02
Liam Lacey
Globe and Mail
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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