The president of America personally saving the world from evil outsiders? Roland Emmerich’s horribly paranoid sci-fi yarn has never been more relevant (“Welcome to Earth,” dribbles Will Smith’s muscled patriot as he KOs an ET. “Yee-haw,” go the morons in the stars-and-bars bumbags). It’s still crap, though: vacuous, big-buck moviemaking with nothing to offer beyond some neat explosions.
DVD Extras:
This Special Edition package comes with added crap, too: as well as the theatrical cut we get an extended version, eight additional minutes telling us more than we want to know about the children of Randy Quaid’s character.
Disc one packs a chatty commentary by Emmerich and a duller second by the FX bods. Disc two, meanwhile, presents a decent Making Of, a silly mockumentary, a fluffy HBO special and a daft alternate ending.
