Post by Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe on Mar 29, 2011 0:37:49 GMT -6
"The Arrival"
I saw "The Arrival" for the first time recently...and dug it.
It starts out in a very "Contact' kinda way, with a signal heard and protocols followed to confirm the source. Then the antagonist makes his appearance and off we go into an alien storyline.
With the current crash & burn of Charlie Sheen, it made this viewing especially entertaining...and he did a good job really, as the radio astronomer who stumbles upon the alien plan.
Some other reviews:
"The Arrival is a little known science fiction thriller thatarrived in the early summer of 1996 a year that is much more wellknown for a little film called Independence Day. Both movies are about alien invasions, but are different in execution and style. As to where Independence Day is an action film about visuals and explosions, The Arrival focuses on paranoia, plausibility, and drawing the audience in with an intriguing and credible plot.
Zane Ziminski (Charlie Sheen) and his partner Calvin (Richard Schiff) are radio astronomers who have picked up a signal from outer space, just around a star called Wolf 336, which is 14.6 light years away from Earth. Arrival is writer David Twohy's directorial debut (his other work is Pitch Black, another great sci-fi thriller) and he does a very good job. He makes the plot quite intelligent and keeps the pace moving quickly with a riveting finale. The underlying paranoia is one of the aspects that fuels this movie along. X-Files fans should definitely enjoy this film and get a kick out of it."
"This movie was underrated when it was first released, and, as with all good, underrated movies, it has since become a cult favorite. Clever and imaginative, a lot was done on a limited budget to make it into a top notch sci-fi thriller. It has an intelligent and well reasoned story, and the special effects are imaginative.
Charlie Sheen, clean and sober, plays radio astronomer, Zane Zaminski, who picks up radio signals that are not earthly. When he takes a copy of the tape of these signals, which he believes to be indicative of intelligent, alien life, to his boss, chillingly played by Ron Silver, he is summarily fired from his job. Suddenly, all is not right with the world.
Smelling something real fishy, Zane sets up a home satellite and tries to zero in on the signal. He gets lucky, or unlucky, depending upon how one looks at it, and he picks up the same signal he previously had picked up. It crosses a signal given off by a Mexican radio station, which motivates him to go to Mexico and check it out.
While in Mexico, he meets a fellow scientist (Lindsay Crouse), who is there on her own investigation, as she has noted major atmospheric changes, which indicate that global warming is occurring at an alarming rate, almost as if there were a greenhouse effect. Unbeknownst to Zane at the time, her concerns are connected to his.
While at a power plant with her, he comes across a doppelganger for his former boss, which sets off alarms in his head. Returning undercover at night, he discovers that the entire plant is operated by aliens, and they are not here just to say hello. There, a series of events transpire to reveal to him an immense, alien plot. Yes, it's the old alien conspiracy story rearing its ugly head. Only this time, it is handled with surprising intelligence. Zane is now on a mission to convey what he knows to the world, but the aliens will stop at nothing to silence him. Will he make it? Watch the film and find out. If you love sci-fi films, you will not be disappointed".
"4 of 5 stars for the Charlie Sheen Sci-FI movie The Arrival. First contact with aliens? No, in this movie they are already here! I've seen this movie several times and always find it fun to watch. So, let's start with Charlie Sheen who plays a (non-comical) radio astronomer. Nice to see him playing a real character without the jokes and womanizing. He makes a discovery of a radio signal beaming from Mexico to a distant planet. "They" have been keeping an eye on him and get him fired from his job and banded from the telescope. Sheen uses a series of TV dishes in the neighborhood to create a radio telescope ganged array to resume his search for that signal. Eventually he travels to Mexico to look for the source of the signal. Let's just say he discovers several twin brothers for his old boss; hummm? Soon he begins to discover that not all of the towns people are human. "
Overall, seems like people enjoyed it. Don't know how I missed this until now. Netflix streaming is a gift from the gods.
It's an "ok" flick, but not in the same league as "Contact", but way superior to that crap of "Independence Day".
