The Arrival / The Arrival 2 | 
| Actors: Phyllis Applegate, Jorge Becerril, Catalina Botello, Ellen Bradley, Alan Coates
Studio: Live / Artisan
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.98
Buy Used: $1.70
You Save: $13.28 (89%)
New (8) Used (26) from $1.70
Rating:  31 reviews
Sales Rank: 55946
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dvd, Full Screen, Letterboxed, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Picture Format: Array
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 210 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
ISBN: 0784012822
UPC: 012236076100
EAN: 9780784012826
ASIN: 0784012822
Theatrical Release Date: November 6, 1998
Release Date: May 18, 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
| |
| Similar Items:
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 26 more reviews...
 One good movie and one bad movie. April 22, 2009
M. B Cole (Las Vegas, NV)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The Arrival:
Aliens, not hair spray, are the cause of Global Warming! (3.5 stars)
--
Zane Zaminsky (Charlie Sheen), an astronomer, is at work one day scanning the solar system with his co-worker and friend Calvin (Richard Schiff) when they come across an unidentified signal that is being sent to Earth, not from Earth. Excited that they might have come across extraterrestrial contact, they rush to their boss, who quickly fires Zane because they are 'downsizing' and cutting back employees. Baffled because he's considered one of the best in his field, begins to think something is just not right. So he creates his own scanner in his back yard garage, and comes across the same frequency again one night, but this time it's being sent from Earth, not from outer space. With a little research he finds out that the signal was sent from Mexico, and with that information, he quickly makes his way there to investigate. What he finds though is not quite what he was expecting. Now that paranoia from what's he's witnessed has set in, there is no one that he can trust. Alone, he must get enough evidence to expose the truth to what is going on, before it's to late for the human race.
The story of 'The Arrival' is what really drives this movie. The conspiracies, the paranoia, the subtle evil plan. When I saw this in theaters, I remember everything being just right. But now, some 12 years later, not everything is perfect like I remember. What really brings the movie down for me is the action scenes. Most of them just seem so corny. And the CG just isn't as good as say 'Independence Day' which was released around the same time. I wish the movie had been extremely more of a story driven drama than an action/sci-fi. Even Charlie Sheen was pretty good and believable as an astronomer. I loved when he just walked into a conference looking for his boss after he found out a lot of information going on. The man looked like he had been to hell and back.
In the end, if you can deal with some hokey action, then this is a definite watch if you like a good 'alien' story. I almost want to give it 4 stars, but just cant because of the goofy action scenes.
P.S. Right at the beginning of the movie you see a scene where maybe a football field size of grass was growing... at the North Pole. My friend said that that couldn't happen since the North Pole is nothing but water and ice. There is no actual soil there. Is this true? I'm to lazy to look it up.
----------------------
The Second Arrival (The Arrival 2):
The Conspiracy continues... sadly.
--
Jack Addison (Patrick Muldoon) receives a package one day from his dead step brother Zane Zaminsky. It contains everything Zane gathered on the alien conspiracy before his death. Also in the package is a request for Jack to meet up in a warehouse for a super secret meeting. Jack, who doesn't completely believe his brother, changes his mind at the meeting after they come across some alien technology. After they are attacked by aliens, Jack escapes with Bridget Riordan (Jane Sibbett), one of the few reporters who actually believed in Zane's story. With the alien technology in hand, Jack and Bridget begin to run for their lives while trying to continue Zane's wish, to reveal to the aliens evil plan to the human race before it's too late.
Wow. Talk about hard to get through. I can't believe I've now seen this movie twice. The first time I saw this I must have drowned everything I saw in this movie with a 24 pack of beer because if I had remembered how bad this was, there would've been no way I would've watched it again. I would've just lied on this review. The cg effects were horrendous. I mean horrendous. I think with 45 minutes of CG training, I could have produced 80% of the stuff they did in here. The CG back drops were so plain it was ridiculous. Speaking of ridiculous, I would love to had seen how thick this script was. I swear most of the movie was just our heroes running away from the villains. For example... the aliens drug Jack with what seems to be a syringe of Jack Daniels. Because when he falls out of the vehicle they were transporting him in, he just begins to stumble, quickly though, away. How the aliens couldn't catch up to him I'll never know. He just stumbles along through a train station and out to a train (guess you don't need money or a ticket to get on a train) while a big dumb alien runs after him. Jack somehow tricks the alien to get on the train. Jack then begins to stumble away again, right into another alien who holds up a syringe. Jack falls down into the rail tracks. Stumbles and falls into more train tracks. Then gets up on the other side and starts to stumble into the railway station again. Now the alien decides to get him, by walking of course. As she 'chases' him through the railway station and then outside it, Bridget pulls up in a car (how she knew where he was I'll never know that either) and then the Alien decides to start running. So so so stupid. The acting is bad, the story is bad, the action is bad, the cg is bad, the..the..um...uh...oh I know, the *insert anything you want here* is bad.
Just stay away. Stay very far away.
P.S. I've never liked Patrick Muldoon. Didn't like him in Starship Troopers either. Know why? Because he stole Kelly from Zack in Saved by the Bell. What a poop head!
 Arrival 1 is great... March 4, 2009
John Cunningham (Arcata, CA USA)
... #2 is passable. It has too many references to the first movie with no real contact, or payoff.
 Yes, we have been in denial about global warming long enough March 1, 2009
John Bonavia (Needham, MA USA)
How excited were we about global warming in 1996? I don't remember, but I don't think it was the - dare I say, "hot topic" - it is now. With that in mind, one can see "The Arrival," a tale of an Earth being overheated by greenhouse gases, as eerily prescient. Especially since this is being done by aliens who are literally "terraforming" the earth to suit their needs, and one of their many nasty secret tricks is to disable a climate-measurement satellite..and didn't we just see the news of a $250m climate-measuring satellite that failed at launch...I'm just saying...
But more seriously, it's a good sc-fi movie, Pretty good (weird) aliens, with their double-jointed knees and "Springheeled Jack" jumping power, and a nice set of plot twists about who are good guys and who are bad guys - well, not really "guys"...Dramatic effects with big radio telescopes and satellite dishes - and I didn't know that CGI had come so far in 1996, for the huge underground complex.
"The Second Arrival" is not so good...plot has holes in it, and as someone has pointed out, the "Montreal" they are supposedly shooting in doesn't look like the Montreal I used to live in. Even the police cars in the movie are just labeled "Police" - out where the nuclear plant is supposed to be, I'm sure the cops would have been "Surete du Quebec."
Perhaps knowing that the movie was lacking a certain je ne sais quoi, they threw in some full-frontal of the attractive Catherine Blythe quite early on - well, fine, but it does make one think, uh-oh, there's a reason they had to do this...
But if you get both on the one disk, it's still enjoyable to follow up The Arrival with its sequel. Makes an OK couch potato evening!
The Arrival and The Arrival II December 24, 2008
Mark T. Von Seggern (Denver, CO USA)
I Liked the Arrival because it starred Charlie Sheen as the main character Zane Zaminsky. He was a Radio Astronomer in this case listening to outer space for any life signs. The first time he was at work and the bosses where trying to make it out to be a false alarm. So he started to do some work at home out of an apartment above his garage. He encountered the signal again and tried to find someone to listen to him. Things started to get heated and come to find out his situation was not only the heated situation. The space aliens where trying to heat up the atmosphere so they could inhabit the earth. Well, from his garage he ended up going to Central America to fine that these aligns had built some kind of building that ended up housing their facilities and atmosphere heater. Well, by the end of the move he was able to get the aliens to put there plans on hold. In Arrival II Zane Zaminsky had moved to Alaska and was killed And there was limited to no info on how he was killed. So Zane had some Mailers made up to be sent out in case of his death. I really was not much in to Arrival II but there was one guy Jack Addison who was a Computer Programmer who was never really into his work. So Jack picked up where Zane left off and was able to send the Aliens Packing. I didn't care for the second one because there was too much action and it was not done with Charlie Sheen.
All Time Best!!!! October 15, 2008
Matthew Wisner (Seneca, SC)
This is by far my all time favorite Sci-Fi movie because it plays on every element of a good film: Action, drama, mystery, horror, and even some comedy. I dare you to find a better story that was put together in a better way.
|
|
|
