Starring:	Jodie Foster	150min
	Matthew McConaughey
	James Woods	1997
	John Hurt
	Tom Skerritt
	Angela Bassett
Screenplay:	James V Hart	Sci-fi
	& Michael Goldenberg
Director:	Robert Zemeckis	Colour

Region	1	Studio:	Warner Brothers
Format	Single Sided, Dual Layer	Subtitles	English
			English Closed Captions
Aspect ratio	2.35:1		French
			Spanish
Anamorphic	Yes
Soundtracks	Dolby Digital 5.1	Extra Features	3 commentaries
	French Dolby Digital 2.0		4 vis-fx breakdowns
			3 computer animation tests
Case type	Cardboard		2 Trailers
			Biographies
			Production notes

The DVD * * * * *		The Movie * * * * *
Now this really is the business. If ever there was an advert for DVD, plain and simple, Contact is it. The movie would be enough on its own - the picture transfer is impeccable with no artifacts, and the sound extraordinary with a dynamic range off the scale. The whole movie plays uninterrupted, with a well placed and almost instant layer change halfway through. Then there are stacks of freebies to wade through - if you're a movie obsessive, you'll be in hog heaven. Top of the list are the (count-'em) THREE commentaries, featuring just about everyone bar the key grip. Nice to switch to the Jodie Foster commentary - she freely admits to not caring very much about the effects, a refreshing and frankly more important perspective. But the 4 effects sequences are very interesting for the technically minded, with the 20 minute breakdown of the opening shot fascinating from an astronomical perspective as well as a movie-making one. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. But I still don't quite understand how Robert Zemeckis did that Steadicam shot up the stairs and into the medicine cupboard... I know this will sound like griping, but I have one silly complaint. The reson I loved this movie first time round is I hadn't a clue what was going to happen, having seen no trailers, reviews or clips. Yet the menu screen features a picture of Jodie Foster late on in the movie, rather giving away 80% of the plot. Okay if you've seen it, but... This is pretty much an essential purchase, and at around $19, bargain of the year. Contact your supplier now (a ha, ha...)		For a five star movie, there is a lot wrong with Contact. Some of its characters are unconvincing, it is occasioally too sickly sweet and even Jodie overdoes it once or twice. But compared to the plusses, these problems pale. Contact is a rare film whose breadth of imagination is off the scale. It contains ideas and images which stay with you for days and weeks after the closing credits and, even when it doesn't quite succeed, it at least is trying be about something. Enough plot to explain up to the title and no more - Foster is a driven astronomer, endlessly looking into the endless sky for signs of little green men. Her funding is taken away, and she moves base from Pueto Rico to New Mexico, on the way falling deeply in bed with a strapping ex-priest who has none other than Bill Clinton's spiritual ear. Awkward enough to ask about her feelings towards her deceased father, Jodie promptly drops him and heads off with her science partner to listen to radio static for several more years. And then one day - it happens. She hears a radio signal from another world. Simple as that. Like Close Encounters only even more so, this is a film routed in science fact and sound science theory, but spends much time debating the spiritual implications of all this. Yet as events unfold, so much is grounded in the world with which we know so intimately, it all seems highly believable. As hinted at earlier, the Foster/McCaunaghey relationship is less than convining, too shallow for a true bond to form. James Woods too, a government advisor, is given little to do. For the most part, the film only has room for one person - Jodie. Fortunately - for the most part - that is enough, bringing a winning combination of intellect, pain, vulnerability and, oh let's say it, damn fine looks to the screen. Scientists didn't look like her in my day... Men In Black - Contact's polar opposite - is a more rounded and stronger film on it's own terms. But there again, you'd forgotten you'd seen it before you'd finished your now watery Coke on the way out. Contact is a long film at 2 1/2 hours - but don't be surprised if the mental replays last longer than that.