Battlefield Earth

Easily the most mind-bogglingly ludicrous movie in a long time. The scenario—no time for a plot, thank you—rotates around throwback tribesman “Greener” (Barry Pepper), who wanders down off the mountain to be captured by Psychlos, aliens who vanquished humanity hundreds of years before, following a nine-minute dispute over mineral rights. A Psychlo security officer (John Travolta) schemes to employ Earth monkeys like Greener as gold miners, but his plot backfires when an intergalactic Berlitz light show intended to boost Greener’s language skills instead invests him with enough brains to lead a revolution. The power of any effective fantasy lies in encouraging a suspension of disbelief through careful attention to the internal logic of the piece. But Battlefield Earth has no logic of any sort, making it impossible to elicit any reaction other than sheer amazement at the chutzpah of the filmmakers demanding we swallow this dreck.