Battlefield Earth | 
| Director: Roger Christian
Actors: John Travolta, Forest Whitaker, Barry Pepper, Kim Coates, Sabine Karsenti
Studio: Warner Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.98
Buy Used: $1.39
You Save: $13.59 (91%)
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Rating:  449 reviews
Sales Rank: 19972
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dvd, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Subtitled)
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 118 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.6 x 0.5
MPN: D18566D
ISBN: 0790750996
UPC: 085391856627
EAN: 9780790750996
ASIN: B00003CXIV
Theatrical Release Date: 2000
Release Date: January 16, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
When Battlefield Earth was released in May 2000, this inept sci-fi epic qualified as an instant camp classic, prompting Daily Variety to call it "the Showgirls of sci-fi shoot-'em-ups." Other reviews were united in their derision, and toy stores were left with truckloads of Battlefield Earth action figures that nobody wanted. As the film's star and coproducer, John Travolta must have felt an urge to enlist in the witness protection program. Recklessly adapted from the novel by sci-fi author and Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard and set in the year 3000, the film is no worse than many cheesy sci-fi flicks, but the sight of Travolta as a burly, dreadlocked alien from the planet Psychlo provokes unintentional laughter from first frame to final credits. As Terl, the Psychlo security chief who conquers Earth and hatches a secret scheme to steal all the gold from Fort Knox (which sits conveniently in wide-open vaults), Travolta hams it up as if he knows he's in a camp-fest. (In a cameo as a long-tongued Psychlo seductress, Travolta's wife, Kelly Preston, only adds to the absurdity.) Barry Pepper (the praying sharpshooter from Saving Private Ryan) tries his best to convey charisma as Jonnie, the human slave who leads an uprising against Terl's tyranny, but he's adrift in a foolish plot that makes even smart humans look stupid. The decrepit look of a dreary future is convincingly established (the ruins of Washington D.C. recall Logan's Run on a grander scale), but in the wake of its ludicrous climax, the best that Battlefield Earth can hope for is a Dune-like fate: it might improve in a longer director's cut--but that's wishful thinking. --Jeff Shannon
Product Description
In the year 3000 john travolta leads the alien captors of earth against human freedom fighters struggling to take back the planet in this explosive eye-popping science-fiction extravaganza. Special features: storyboard montage: 2 threatrical trailers and 2 tv spots: and much more. Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 05/10/2005 Starring: John Travolta Forest Whitaker Run time: 117 minutes Rating: Pg13 Director: Roger Christian
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| Customer Reviews: Read 444 more reviews...
 It really is that awful. 4% June 20, 2009
Duckman (Drifting in the Cosmic Sea)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
I heard about this movie when it came out nine years ago and haven't seen it until last week. I remember seeing stuff about it when it was released and everyone rightfully said "You don't want to see that, it's one of the worst movies of all time." I saw this last Friday and I wasn't expecting this to be any good at all, I saw it because this has so much notoriety surrounding it, I just had to see how loathsome it was with my own eyes. Trust me, every bad thing you heard about Battlefield Earth is 100% true.
I won't judge the movie on religious matters, I'll judge it strictly on a cinematic level. Basically, the plot is that an invading alien race called the Psychlos (really creative names) have conquered Earth and the humans, who are living caveman-like lives, are fighting back.
I'll get the one good quality out of the way. I do believe that Barry Pepper really did put effort into his role, despite the fact that everyone else phoned in their performances, so I have to give him some credit there. Everything else is terrible, and I'll categorize every bad quality neatly.
BAD ACTING:
Minus the performance of Barry Pepper as human resistance leader Jonnie Goodboy Tyler, everyone else put NO effort into their roles. I felt like John Travolta as Terl knew that this movie would be the rightful whipping boy of movie critics and audiences alike and gave out one of the most laughable performances in a big budget movie. He's supposed to be the head of security on Earth and supposed to be really smart and evil, he's neither. He makes the stock villains in the 60's Batman TV show look like Dr. Weir in Event Horizon in comparison. If Terl is supposed to be really smart, how is he so stupid as to allow a handful of "man animals" learn to use Psychlo technology (which would screw him and his race over) and doesn't even know what humans eat? He even finds this out by putting a few "man animals" in a little hunt to find and eat rats for crying out loud!!
PLOT HOLES:
Oh man, there's numerous plot holes bigger than the Grand Canyon throughout this cinematic mess. For one, Terl explains to Jonnie that the Psychlos defeated all of the armies on Earth in nine minutes circa 2000 but towards the end of the movie, a handful of cavemen with horribly outdated weaponry defeat the invading Psychlos and destroy their home planet. You mean to tell me that the most advanced fighting forces from powerful nations like America, Russia, China, and the UK got their butts handed to them by the Psychlos but a few cavemen were able to destroy practically the entire Psychlo race with really inferior weapons? Also, note that 1000 years prior to the movie's setting that the Psychlos almost certainly had weapons and vehicles that were technologically inferior to the ones in the current setting so that makes it even more implausible that Jonnie and his comrades were able to beat the Psychlos. Also, the destroyed cities are in really good condition despite laying there abandoned for 1000 years. Books in the library are merely dusty and isn't it really convenient how the Harrier jets, machine guns, and bombs are in perfect working condition at Fort Hood and waiting for Jonnie and his men to be used? There's even electricity in Ft. Hood!! Wouldn't you think that after 1000 years the light bulbs and computers that were still left on after it was abandoned would burn out after about a week? My favorite part has to be where Jonnie devises a plan to steal a bunch of gold bars from Fort Knox and I can't get over how the gold is just waiting there for Jonnie and his crew to be taken. Wouldn't you think people would have looted Ft. Knox after it was abandoned and way before the movie's setting? The only thing more nonsensical than this is Elfen Lied.
BAD CAMERA WORK:
Practically every shot in this movie is at an angle. Didn't Roger Christian complete film class 101? Angled shots in movies are effective only when used in moderation. I swear, I saw probably one, maybe two shots in this movie that weren't angled.
BAD COSTUME DESIGN:
I'm not really that picky when it comes to how costumes look in movies, but the Psychlo costumes are absolutely atrocious!! The platform boots are so obvious that it kills any suspension of disbelief that you might have that the Psychlos look relatively legitimate in a fictional world. Besides the stupid platform boots, they look like pathetic humanoid Wookies.
STATUS AS A "CAMPY" MOVIE:
Some people have called this a camp-classic, I can't disagree with them more. "Camp" status only applies to low budget works like Plan 9 from Outer Space and the original La Blue Girl hentai because of obvious production shortcomings and the whole "so bad it's good" vibe prevailing throughout the whole thing. Battlefield Earth is just "so bad it's bad" because this wasn't low budget, this had a multi-million dollar and it was a BOMB!!
Best to never see this joke of a movie, kids.
Worst film ever May 28, 2009
AM (GA USA)
This movie definitely deserves the title: Worst Sci-fi movie ever created. It had terrible acting by an A-List actor(John Travolta), over a billion plot holes, and weird camera angles. If they(the movie studio) had recast the whole movie, got rid of the tilted camera angles, hired a different director, hired a new script writer, and basically changed everything about the movie Battlefield Earth could probably not be called The Worst Sci-fi film ever.
Abysmal in every sense of the word March 17, 2009
kori1701 (Seattle, WA)
For this movie, I would KILL to be able to score NO STARS!!
I don't know who came up with the notion that this movie was **supposed to be funny!** but this simply isn't true.
First of all, it would have been advertised as a "crazy camp movie," secondly, it would not have been so obscenely overplayed by the star, John Travolta, whom, I remind you, gentle reader, has followed Scientology, and was a card-carrying, toga-wearing, purge-your-past-lifes-sins-by-being-hooked-up-to-two-aluminum-cans-connected-to-a-volt-meter follower of L. Ron Hubbard himself, until his death in 1986.
To say that this movie is even abysmal is an insult to abysmality. It's not funny, it's stupid, ridiculous and tries WAY too hard to impart the demented ravings of a self-proclaimed demi-god.
wow, I can't believe a movie can be this horrible February 25, 2009
Benjamin M. Cady
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
To quote my good friend's uncle "Battlefield Earth was crap" I don't need to say much more about this god-awful movie except that it's perfect for a laugh if you are down.
book good, movie BAD February 20, 2009
Y. Rhoton (Memphis, Tn United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Anyone who has read the book just knows there would be no way to make a movie of it. So why try? The book was the first science fiction I ever read and I loved every single far out minute of it. So read people, and forget this movie even exists. This link is making me give it at least one star--I didn't want to give it any.
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