The Fourth

Just another poor knock off trying to capitalize on another movies' success and failing miserably. Interesting because it looked like they could have done so much better. First, they should have saved their money and tried to come up with an actual idea of their own. I know that's rare, especially in the entertainment community. Sad really, it seemed that few of the actors were actually good. Yet the team behind the camera, including the director, the effects people, and the script writers, IN GENERAL were MUCH less capable (there were a few signs of better than worse, but not often). Its almost like they didn't want to fully committing to the final product. In a few places, and a few people, took this real serious and worked hard to be as good as possible. But in other areas .. IMPORTANT areas ... they seemed to have simply scrimped too much. Or maybe they really are that bad at their jobs?

INDEPENDENCE DAYSASTER is another cheapie sci fi movie that comes to us courtesy of the SyFy Channel. It was made in Canada, which comes as no surprise, and rather than being a straight rip-off of INDEPENDENCE DAY (leave that to The Asylum), this is instead a generic alien invasion movie about Earth being invaded by flying ships and weird spinning metal saucers. Oh, and some stuff comes out of the ground too, after lying dormant for many years. It's a fast-paced bit of film-making for sure, but that doesn't make it any good, just perhaps not quite as bad as some I've seen. The cast of uninteresting characters are led by an actor from FINAL DESTINATION 3 and another actor from AN American WEREWOLF IN Paris. Some pedigree. There's a multitude of CGI effects here and they're not as bad as some I've seen, although hardly the stuff of greatness.

First of all, lets get this out of the way. Yes, totally unbelievable. (Asides from the fact that I have believed in aliens from outer space, since I was a young kid, long story.) That said, I really enjoyed this movie. It had the crazy bad guy, wanting power; the heroic nice looking, nice guy; the self-sacrificing nice and very smart woman. Plus, a bunch of teen geniuses, all gathered in a rural area, in the middle of nowhere, in hick town USA. (Well, I guess they had nothing better to do than become hackers.) Fireworks of more than one kind on the Fourth of July (obviously). I've been a fan of lousy SyFy movies, but this one made my list without the lousy part. And all that niceness did NOT make me want to vomit. If you want a fun movie, and you are willing to pretend that this is believable, I recommend this movie.

As a long time fan of disaster movies, even the not so great ones, I wasn't sure what to expect from this one.I thought it was probably a take-off of Will Smith's famous Independence Day. I just bought this copy today and have already watched it twice. It of course, does not compare to the original nor do I think it is supposed to. I actually kind of like it. The actors do a pretty good job. I was never bored and never thought about turning it off. So, that says a lot to me. If you are entertained, then the movie has served its purpose. I was, so it did. I hope you give it a real chance and appreciate it for what it is meant to be.

It's early afternoon on the Fourth of July. You've already grilled out and ate lunch with the family. While you were going in and out of the house, you watched the one movie that is an absolute must for the holiday. Everyone knows "Independence Day" is required viewing on this great patriotic day of celebration. What do you do after the credits roll on Roland Emmerich's blockbuster gem? Anchor Bay and SyFy Channel answer that nagging question with their release of "Independence Daysaster." An alien invasion strikes the Earth from above and below on the birthday of the United States. The President (Tom Everett Scott) is on his way to his hometown festivities when his helicopter is knocked out of the sky by one of the intergalactic enemy's ships. After meeting up with his son and a group of survivors, he must lead them to safety and discover a way to stop the imminent destruction of the entire planet. "Independence Daysaster" is a combination of every alien invasion film you've ever seen. They come from the sky and under the Earth just like in "War of the Worlds." We discover their goal is to wipe out humanity and terraforming the planet like in "The Arrival." I think the description above makes it obvious how it compares to "Independence Day." If you're wondering if there's anything original about the film at all, I give you a resounding "no." The good thing about "Independence Daysaster" is that it's clean fun for the whole family. There's no over-the-top gore or bloodshed. People get smashed and sucked up, but there are never any graphic mutilations or decapitations seen on screen. It's just old-fashioned PG-rated disaster movie mayhem and relatively inoffensive as far as language is concerned. The cast of "Independence Daysaster" is made up of familiar TV stars and supporting actors. Tom Everett Scott is present from "That Thing You Do" and "An American Werewolf in Paris." Andrea Brooks of "Supernatural" plays a teenager in love with physics. "Pretty Little Liars" villain Ryan Merriman gets to embrace the good as a heroic fireman. Notice I didn't use the descriptive word "good" before "clean fun" or "old-fashioned?" That's because I wouldn't consider this flick to be necessarily good either as an actual feature film or a "so-bad-it's- good" B-movie. It takes itself way too seriously to be lampooned and isn't engaging enough to hold your attention past the casual look up every minute or so while flipping through Facebook on your cell phone. However, "Independence Daysaster" can provide some light entertainment if you're looking for something to help pass the time between lunch and dinner or before heading out to watch fireworks.

Turned on and first sceen I saw was a helicopter taking off in front of a backdrop of the White House. Story line must have been written by a child. I don't understand why Canada has such terrible movies. Not all are terrible but this one takes the cake.

Don't bother watching even one minute of this trash. It is a horrid attempt at sci-fi, using the lowest-calibre actors, a bad script, abysmal cinematography... even the music is bad and inappropriate (and far too loud). To put the movie out using this title is criminal, imho. Any association with the classic "Independence Day" is thoroughly lamentable. The producers should be ashamed of themselves. The hand-held camera technique is shown here at its worst, much like home movies of the 50s and 60s. Thank goodness I didn't pay to watch this crud: the movie was on TV Christmas Eve.