|
District 9 (Two-Disc Edition) |  | Director: Neill Blomkamp
Actors: Sharlto Copley, David James, Jason Cope, Nathalie Boltt, Sylvaine Strike
Studio: Sony Pictures
Category: DVD
List Price: $36.95
Buy New: $23.99
as of 9/10/2010 21:45 CDT details
You Save: $12.96 (35%)
New (41) from $12.96
Seller: Amazon.com
Rating:  503 reviews
Sales Rank: 11233
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Languages: English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), English (Original Language), Spanish (Dubbed)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Region: 99
Discs: 2
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Running Time: 112 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: 043396332348
UPC: 043396332348
EAN: 0043396332348
ASIN: B002SJIO54
Theatrical Release Date: 2009
Release Date: October 16, 2009
Shipping: Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
| | |
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Twenty years after the arrival of an alien ship over Johannesburg, South Africa, the creatures have been segregated from humanity and when one human d
Amazon.com
A provocative science fiction drama, District 9 boasts an original story that gets a little lost in blow-'em-up mayhem. Set in Johannesburg, South Africa, District 9 begins as a mock documentary about the imminent eviction of extraterrestrials from a pathetic shantytown (called District 9). The creatures, it turns out, have been on Earth for years, having arrived sickly and starving. Initially received by humans with compassion and care, the aliens are now mired in blighted conditions typical of long-term refugee camps unwanted by a hostile, host society. With the creatures' care contracted out to a for-profit corporation, the shantytown has become a violent slum. The aliens sift through massive piles of junk while their minders secretly research weapons technology that arrived on the visitors' spacecraft. Against this backdrop is a more personal story about a bureaucrat named Wikus (Sharlto Copley) who is accidentally exposed to a DNA-altering substance. As he begins metamorphosing into one of the creatures, Wikus goes on the run from scientists who want to harvest his evolving, new parts and aliens who see him as a threat. When he pairs up with an extraterrestrial secretly planning an escape from Earth, however, what should be a fascinating relationship story becomes a series of firefights and explosions. Nuance is lost to numbing violence, and the more interesting potential of the film is obscured. Yet, for a while District 9 is a powerful movie with a unique tale to tell. Seamless special effects alone are worth seeing: the (often brutal) exchanges between alien and human are breathtaking. --Tom Keogh
> District 9 downloadables (Click for pdf file)
|
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 25
 addle-headed September 9, 2010
Caraculiambro (La Mancha and environs)
I admit the final half hour or so of this was extremely good, but I hated it virtually from the first few minutes.
Several believability problems:
1. Housing the aliens wouldn't have been a hassle! For something like that, countries would be vying to host them -- for research purposes, if nothing else. The UN would probably have to maintain a waiting list.
1. How are you gonna fit 1.5 million creatures in that ship?
2. Civilizations in which when the leader dies, the masses are helpless and directionless are not civilizations that perfect interstellar travel.
3. The ship wouldn't have flown at the end! It had been there for like 20 years! Human engineers would have torn that thing apart by then!
4. Humans would have been able to activate the aliens' weapons by using their severed limbs.
So literally the movie is impossible to swallow. This leaves us with its allegorical meanings.
This, also, was repugnant. Not for a second could I buy the filmmakers' heavy-handed metaphor of the aliens as refugees. Are they trying to say the prejudice against aliens is analogous to the prejudice against immigrants in our own society? If so, they could have done a much better job showing how the fear of aliens might have some rational underpinnings. As it was, it was as if the humans' fear and hatred of the aliens was completely baseless. If we had been told that the aliens had had, say, some equivalent to Koran 47:3, then the movie wouldn't have struck me as so simplistically one-sided.
 District 9 - Review September 8, 2010
S. E. Rhoads (Meadville, PA USA)
District 9 is as close to a perfect sci-fi film as can be made. By that I mean that the film almost perfectly uses technology to help understand the human condition. Much hay has been made of the films easy comparisons to apartheid South Africa but I really think this is a disservice. The film has grander ambitions; what makes us human and what makes us monsters.
Part of the perfection is the brilliantly simple story construction. The story begins with humans and alien living parallel lives, separate and inequal. The aliens are vilified and made as to be sub-human monsters. The humans are kind benefactors. As the story progresses these parallel existences begin to merge and reverse. By the end of the film, the humans are the monsters and the aliens are human. When you leave the theater you are left wondering at what point did the humans become monsters and vice versa.
This is a very simple structure but what makes it brilliant is an ingenious plot device. The primary character undergoes a metamorphosis both psychologically and physically. Early on in the story the protagonist is exposed to strange substance. Needless to day this has a profound effect on him. The substance alters his biology; transforming him into one of the aliens.
Using this transformation as a dramatic vehicle, the main character looses his ethnocentrism and begins to see the barbarity of his own species and begins to see the humanity in the aliens. The humans are enslaved to greed and violence; served by the mega-corps and drug gangs wanting to harness alien weapon and enrich themselves. The aliens simply want to go home.
Now, all of this sounds very introspective and high minded, and it is, but the film doesn't let it drag things to a crawl. It stays fast paced and action packed with plenty of special effects. It is not until after the movie is finished and your driving home does it really start to sink in; the bigger messages revealed.
I really enjoyed this movie. It is as close to perfect as one could expect from a modern film.
 Awful and stupid September 7, 2010
Charles W. Brown (Chicago, IL USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I did not like this movie at all. It was so awful I had to retire it to my never ever watch again file.
 Begs for a sequel August 23, 2010
Michael G. Bennett
District 9 is an interesting account of ghetto aliens, trying to survive on a hostile planet following the breakdown of their spaceship. The lead character, a human, is our hero, if a bit selfish, and unable to see a larger picture. It's a good yarn, and I hope a sequel is made to help fix all the bad things that happened.
9 out of 10 August 17, 2010
DrekkOn
Plot: 9 out of 10, Acting: 8 out of 10, Visual Effects: 10 out of 10, Overal Effect: 9 out of 10
Showing reviews 1-5 of 25
|
|
|
CERTAIN CONTENT THAT APPEARS ON THIS SITE COMES FROM AMAZON SERVICES LLC. THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED ‘AS IS’ AND IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE OR REMOVAL AT ANY TIME.
 
| |
