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Contact

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Contact (1997)

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Reviews Counted:53

Fresh:35

Rotten:18

Average Rating:6.7/10

Runtime: 2 hrs 33 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]

Reviews for Contact

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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 >> >|
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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

Less sci-fi blockbuster, more spiritual thinkpiece, this is a Close Encounters Of The Third Kind for the X-Files generation.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
01/01/00
Neil Jeffries
Neil Jeffries
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

...one of the best pure science-fiction films since 2001.

Full Review Source: DVDTown.com | comment Comment
10/06/09
John J. Puccio
John J. Puccio
DVDTown.com

No wonder the astronomer's philosophy of contact boils down to this: Don't call me, I'll call you.

Full Review Source: City Pages, Minneapolis/St. Paul | comment Comment
08/20/09
Rob Nelson
Rob Nelson
City Pages, Minneapolis/St. Paul
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
03/26/09
Todd McCarthy
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
Sean Axmaker
Turner Classic Movies Online

Magical, captivating entertainment.

Full Review Source: TheMovieReport.com | comment Comment
10/13/07
Michael Dequina
Michael Dequina
TheMovieReport.com
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
Rita Kempley
Washington Post

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
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
Maitland McDonagh
TV Guide's Movie Guide

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
Thomas Delapa
Boulder Weekly

It is a good sci-fi yarn.

Full Review Source: Reeling Reviews | comment Comment
04/09/05
Robin Clifford
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Philip Martin
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 >> >|
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