ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Friday, July 5, 1996                   TAG: 9607050038
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 1    EDITION: METRO 
                                             TYPE: MOVIE REVIEW 
SOURCE: MIKE MAYO CORRESPONDENT 

AN UNRESTRAINED CROWDPLEASER

For a big-budget summer blockbuster, restraint is not a virtue, and nothing about "Independence Day" is restrained.

It's loud, childish, old-fashioned, by turns imaginative and imitative, and huge fun as cinematic popcorn. While the special effects are impressively staged, they're really nothing new. These are variations on the same space cruisers and agile aerial fighters that we saw in the "Star Wars" films.

The alien attack sequences, where cities and famous landmarks are zapped by the invaders, are more impressive. Those appeal to that part of us that's awed by destruction on a vast scale.

For the basic plot, writer, producer and co-director Dean Devlin borrows freely from earlier versions, most obviously "War of the Worlds" and "Buck Rogers" with a nod to "The Day the Earth Stood Still." But the film takes its structure from a World War II adventure, with characters from different socio-economic backgrounds banding together against a common enemy.

Do you think humans are going to let a bunch of aliens who look like the insides of raw shellfish take over the planet without a fight?

As the mountains of advertising and hype have promised, the film opens with an alien mothership heading toward Earth. Massive disc-shaped vessels then appear and hover above major cities. What is their purpose?

Fighter pilot-turned-President Whitmore (Bill Pullman) can't be sure. Gen. Grey (Robert Loggia) at "Space Command - the Pentagon" is no help. Out in California, Russell (Randy Quaid), a drunken crop-duster and alien-abductee, knows they're up to no good. When TV technical whiz David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum) discovers something ominous in the aliens' signals, he takes his grumpy old dad (Judd Hirsch) to Washington where his estranged wife (Margaret Colin) is a presidential advisor.

Meanwhile, Marine fighter jock Steve Hiller (Will Smith) assures his stripper girlfriend Jasmine (Vivica Fox) that everything's OK, but maybe she and her son ought to leave LA and stay at his base.

All of that is established before the first death ray is fired. Once the shooting starts, co-director Roland Emmerich ("Stargate") keeps the various lines of action perking right along, taking regular breaks for big emotional moments. In that regard, the film is particularly shameless. It doesn't just pluck at heartstrings; it goes after them with a sledgehammer.

The manipulation is blatant, transparent and on a par with the rest of this unrestrained crowdpleaser.

"Independence Day"

***

A Twentieth Century Fox release playing at Salem Valley 8 and Valley View Mall 6. 140 min. Rated PG-13 for violence, a little strong language.

LENGTH: Medium:   58 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  The White House becomes a target for aliens in 
          "Independence Day": An appeal to that part of us that's awed by 
          destruction on a vast scale. color.