The Day After Tomorrow...

[KingPK 0]

The two reviews I read in the paper today (Providence Journal and Boston Herald) were positive, but they both essentially said to leave your brain at home for this one. I know it's just a braindead popcorn movie, but I'd rather see Shrek 2, Mean Girls, and a few other movies over this one.

[Art Sandusky 0]

Am I the only one that doesn't give two shits about "agendas" in films and just watches them for entertainment?

 

I was going to see this, but all the negative reviews have kinda turned me off. Either way, had I gone, the idea of an environmentalist agenda would have never occured to me, simply because all the other stuff in the film is too ludicrous to take the whole seriously.

Personally, I hate it when agendas are pushed in films. As if I'm supposed to give a rat's BUTT WHAT the director of ID4 thinks about Bush's environmental policy.

 

The reason the film has as much press as it does is BECAUSE of the politics of it. Take away that and this film has as much buzz as, say, Dante's Peak.

 

I'm still waiting for the first really good disaster movie...

-=Mike

Dude, once again, the idea of any kind of "message" in this didn't occur to me at all. It has a buzz because it's the first big summer film, one that has stuff being destroyed and the things being destroyed happen to be things we all recognize, thus making it more compelling.

 

Sorry, but I don't go into things looking to see how I can pick their subliminal messages apart, especially mindless disaster films.

[AndrewTS 0]

Blah blah blah.

 

I liked Armageddon

You're clearly unqualified to give movie opinions ever again.

 

Michael Bay is perhaps the only big-budget director around who can suck just as bad as Emmerich and Schumaker.

 

The two reviews I read in the paper today (Providence Journal and Boston Herald) were positive, but they both essentially said to leave your brain at home for this one.

 

Always a terrible, damning statement. I didnt have to "leave my brain at home" for Jaws, Predator, etc. A shitty film is a shitty film.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Dude, once again, the idea of any kind of "message" in this didn't occur to me at all.

 

Tell that to Al Gore and MoveOn.org.

 

Am I the only one that doesn't give two shits about "agendas" in films and just watches them for entertainment?

 

Sadly, I wish I could, but I can't. Everytime I see some "agenda" creeping into a movie I start bitching about it. I'm still amazed I like the Lethal Weapon movies as much as I do after all the crap that's been in those films.

 

And something else I noticed from that FX preview -- those scenes with the water rushing down the street swallowing everything in its path looks almost the same as when the aliens were destroying cities in ID4. It was like they went "Hey, it worked so well the first time with fire, let's do it with water this time around..."

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

Well at least we can take comfort in the fact that this movie will probably lose out to Shrek 2 and then get completely buried by Harry Potter coming out next week.

[AndrewTS 0]

"This was worse then Pearl Harbor, suffering from much of the same problems, such as a massive loss of life playing second fiddle to a simple love story. Also, some of the sequences are fucking laughable."

 

Emmerich out-sucked Michael Bay? I'm impressed.

[Ripper 0]

Armageddon did kick ass once you get over the fact that NASA got together and decided their best course of action was to send oil drillers on a meteor. But besides that...damn good movie.

[AndrewTS 0]

"Damn good movie?!"

 

I'm weeping inside.

[Ripper 0]

"Damn good movie?!"

 

I'm weeping inside.

Okay, but besides the complete unbelieveablity of the movie, what was wrong. Good little one liners, Steve Bushim...um..you know who I mean...he was Gold~!, Bruce Willis was his grizzled self, got some tear jerking moments out of the LAYDEES with the "I'm about to die...let me talk to my daughter" scene, good action. What were people expecting. It was a pure fun action movie, nothing more, nothing less.

[KingPK 0]

I thought the drillers were fun characters, but Ben Affleck tried to sell a love angle with Liv Tyler and bombs, as usual. And a lot of the "action" scenes were just excessive. I FFed through half of them when I rented it.

[Ripper 0]

I thought the drillers were fun characters, but Ben Affleck tried to sell a love angle with Liv Tyler and bombs, as usual. And a lot of the "action" scenes were just excessive. I FFed through half of them when I rented it.

The love angle was there all of 4-5 minutes when you really look at the movie. that nausiating scene with animal crackers and him running from the gunshot and the end. Thats about all you got. It wasn't 1 and a half hours of love fest like in Pearl Harbor.

 

 

The Fuel station blowing up was the one scene I could have done without, but it brought in russian guy so fuck dat...it was worth it.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Bah. I liked Armageddon, too.

 

Plus I was editor of my school paper when it came out and got a cool "countdown" clock as a promotional toy. Still have it, and in fact it's on the very same desk I am typing this post at. Hell, I'm looking at it right now and basking in all it's awesomeness as I type this sentence.

 

Oh, yeah, SPOILERS.

 

Three stars?...

 

BY ROGER EBERT

 

It is such a relief to hear the music swell up at the end of a Roland Emmerich movie, its restorative power giving us new hope. Billions of people may have died, but at least the major characters have survived. Los Angeles was wiped out by flying saucers in Emmerich's "Independence Day," New York was assaulted in his "Godzilla," and now, in "The Day After Tomorrow," Emmerich outdoes himself: Los Angeles is leveled by multiple tornados, New York is buried under ice and snow, the United Kingdom is flash-frozen, and lots of the Northern Hemisphere is wiped out for good measure. Thank god that Jack, Sam, Laura, Jason and Dr. Lucy Hall survive, along with Dr. Hall's little cancer patient.

 

So, yes, the movie is profoundly silly. What surprised me is that it's also very scary. The special effects are on such an awesome scale that the movie works despite its cornball plotting. When tornados rip apart Los Angeles (not sparing the Hollywood sign), when a wall of water roars into New York, when a Russian tanker floats down a Manhattan street, when snow buries skyscrapers, when the crew of a space station can see nothing but violent storm systems -- well, you pay attention.

 

No doubt some readers are already angry with me for revealing that Jack, Sam, Laura, Jason, Dr. Lucy Hall and the little cancer patient survive. Have I given away the plot? This plot gives itself away. When cataclysmic events shred uncounted lives but the movie zeroes in on only a few people, of course they survive, although some supporting characters may have to be sacrificed. What's amusing in movies like "The Day After Tomorrow" is the way the screenplay veers from the annihilation of subcontinents to whether Sam should tell Laura he loves her.

 

The movie stars Dennis Quaid as the paleoclimatologist Jack Hall, whose computer models predict that global warming will lead to a new ice age. He issues a warning at a New Delhi conference, but is sarcastically dismissed by the American vice president (Kenneth Welsh), who the movie doesn't even try to pretend doesn't look just like Dick Cheney. "Our economy is every bit as fragile as the environment," the vice president says, dismissing Jack's "sensational claims."

 

Before long, however, it is snowing in India, and hailstones the side of softballs are ripping into Tokyo. Birds, which are always wise in matters of global disaster, fly south double-time. Turbulence tears airplanes from the sky. The president (Perry King) learns the FAA wants to ground all flights and asks the vice president, "What do you think we should do?"

 

Meanwhile, young Sam Hall (Jake Gyllenhaal) goes to New York with an academic decathlon team, which includes Laura (Emmy Rossum of "Mystic River") and Brian (Arjay Smith). They're stranded there. Ominous portents abound and Jack finally gets his message through to the administration ("This time," says a friend within the White House, "it will be different. You've got to brief the president directly.")

 

Jack draws a slash across a map of the United States, and writes off everybody north of it. He issues a warning that super-cooled air will kill anybody exposed to it, advises those in its path to stay inside, and then ... well, then he sets off to walk from Washington to New York to get to his son. Two of his buddies, also veterans of Arctic treks, come along.

 

We are wondering (a) why walk to New York when his expertise is desperately needed to save millions? (b) won't his son be either dead or alive whether or not he makes the trek? And © how quickly can you walk from Washington to New York over ice sheets and through a howling blizzard? As nearly as I can calculate, this movie believes it can be done in two nights and most of three days. Oh, I forgot; they drive part of the way, on highways that are gridlocked and buried in snow, except for where they're driving. How they get gas is not discussed in any detail.

 

As for the answer to (a), anyone familiar with the formula will know it is because he Feels Guilty About Neglecting His Son by spending all that time being a paleoclimatologist. It took him a lot of that time just to spell it. So, OK, the human subplots are nonsense -- all except for the quiet scenes anchored by Ian Holm, as a sad, wise Scottish meteorologist. Just like Peter O'Toole in "Troy," Holm proves that a gifted British-trained actor can walk into almost any scene and make it seem like it means something.

 

Quaid and Gyllenhaal and the small band of New York survivors do what can be done with impossible dialogue in an unlikely situation. And Dr. Lucy Hall (Sela Ward), Jack's wife and Sam's mother, struggles nobly in her subplot, which involves the little cancer patient named Peter. She stays by his side after the hospital is evacuated, calling for an ambulance, which we think is a tad optimistic, since Manhattan has been flooded up to about the eighth floor, the water has frozen, and it's snowing. But does the ambulance arrive? Here's another one for you: Remember those wolves that escaped from the zoo? Think we'll see them again?

 

Of the science in this movie I have no opinion. I am sure global warming is real, and I regret that the Bush administration rejected the Kyoto Treaty, (EDIT: Don't forget about the U.S. Senate, too, you fat fuck) but I doubt that the cataclysm, if it comes, will come like this. It makes for a fun movie, though. Especially the parts where Americans become illegal immigrants in Mexico, and the vice president addresses the world via the Weather Channel. "The Day After Tomorrow" is ridiculous, yes, but sublimely ridiculous -- and the special effects are stupendous.

[Guest MikeSC]

Whew!

 

I was worried there'd be a political agenda.

-=Mike

...Nice line:

The Day After Tomorrow is to serious environmental thinking about climate change what Hogan's Heroes was to serious representation of World War II prison camp experiences.

http://www.aei.org/news/newsID.20603,filte...news_detail.asp

[Ripper 0]

Whew!

 

I was worried there'd be a political agenda.

-=Mike

You all joke now, but when everything in the movie happens, you know it will be Bush's fault.

 

I mean all that has to happen is the planet stops rotating, which would me that us sending Military to the middle east balanced the planets weight too much and made it stand still then THIS happens. I heard from this guy that we are about 10-20 troops away from this becoming a reality.

 

Goddamn Republicans.

[Guest MikeSC]

Whew!

 

I was worried there'd be a political agenda.

      -=Mike

You all joke now, but when everything in the movie happens, you know it will be Bush's fault.

 

I mean all that has to happen is the planet stops rotating, which would me that us sending Military to the middle east balanced the planets weight too much and made it stand still then THIS happens. I heard from this guy that we are about 10-20 troops away from this becoming a reality.

 

Goddamn Republicans.

Oh damn!

 

Who in the heck leaked the memo to you?

-=Mike

[Guest Vitamin X]

Rottentomatoes.com has given it a 47% rating thus far, certifying it Rotten. I'm not one much for movie reviews, but even though I was somewhat interested in seeing this movie, I was largely undecided thinking it might be more Core than Independence Day. Here's what the critics are ACTUALLY saying->

 

"This often entertaining movie mixes grand, epic effects and amazing visualizations of catastrophe with a sappy family-in-crisis plot that would look hackneyed in a '60s Disney TV movie."

"Despite spots which are sappy and unintentionally funny, The Day After Tomorrow does deliver what it promises: a big, wild, bring-it-on disaster flick"

"[Emmerich] crams the film with enough digital wizardry to make you wish he had jettisoned the script altogether and simply paraded the visual effects with chapter titles such as Snow Over New Delhi and The Hollywood Sign Gets Totaled."

"Despite the clunky bits, Tomorrow still manages to deliver the blockbuster goods."

"A blockbuster with incredible momentum, chilling us even with shots of Doppler radar. And if Emmerich can make comic relief out of illegal immigration, his game is on. "

 

Hmmm. Looks worth sneaking into after I see Shrek 2, of course.

[Art Sandusky 0]

Soul Plane gets my money this weekend.

[Renegade 0]

God this film was shit. Not even funny to laugh at.

[Guest MikeSC]

God this film was shit. Not even funny to laugh at.

Ah, the tradition of disaster movies is alive and well.

-=Mike

[Ravenbomb 0]

*shrug* I didn't mind it so much. Of course, I didn't have high expectations, but it was better than any of the other disaster movies I've seen

[Guest Crazy Dan]

Most scientists have said that the what happens in this movie would never happen all of the sudden overnight, like they do in this movie. So enjoy it for what it is, a SUMMER MOVIE. Go for the special effects, stay for the popcorn, and leave the logic at the door.

 

But I will not ignore that continued pollution might cause some nasty wheather changes down the line. But that is another whole can of worms that I care not to open right now, or maybe never. Also I am in the wrong folder.

 

So I would not take this movie too serious, but it will be the box office champ this weekend, because people are suckers for disaster movies, especially the ones with awesome visual effects.

[Guest MikeSC]

Most scientists have said that the what happens in this movie would never happen all of the sudden overnight, like they do in this movie. So enjoy it for what it is, a SUMMER MOVIE. Go for the special effects, stay for the popcorn, and leave the logic at the door.

 

But I will not ignore that continued pollution might cause some nasty wheather changes down the line. But that is another whole can of worms that I care not to open right now, or maybe never. Also I am in the wrong folder.

 

So I would not take this movie too serious, but it will be the box office champ this weekend, because people are suckers for disaster movies, especially the ones with awesome visual effects.

It's nice that you don't take it seriously.

 

But that a man who was almost President DOES take it seriously --- it has to make you wonder how people could support so delusional a person.

-=Mike

[DangerousDamon 0]

I thought the movie was pretty good, plus me and 200 other freshmen at my high school got to get out of school to go see the movie as a field trip.

[Guest Crazy Dan]

Most scientists have said that the what happens in this movie would never happen all of the sudden overnight, like they do in this movie.  So enjoy it for what it is, a SUMMER MOVIE.  Go for the special effects, stay for the popcorn, and leave the logic at the door.

 

But I will not ignore that continued pollution might cause some nasty wheather changes down the line.  But that is another whole can of worms that I care not to open right now, or maybe never.  Also I am in the wrong folder. 

 

So I would not take this movie too serious, but it will be the box office champ this weekend, because people are suckers for disaster movies, especially the ones with awesome visual effects.

It's nice that you don't take it seriously.

 

But that a man who was almost President DOES take it seriously --- it has to make you wonder how people could support so delusional a person.

-=Mike

Well in the case of that guy, I voted for him based on his whole platform, not just his environmental policies only. Based on issue by issue, I agreed with Gore on more issues. Plus, I found Bush not to be the brightest bulb in the batch. But that is just my view of him. I know he went to an Ivy league school and stuff.

 

But global warming is something to keep your eye on, becuase it could pose problem, just not as severe as the one you see in the movie.

[Just John 0]

Well, I had reasonably low expectations going in, but it really wasn't too bad. The plot is cheesy and predictable and the political message is as blatant as it could possibly be, but if you go in expecting the opposite, you're an idiot. The acting was ok, but the story was really sappy. The special effects and unintentional comedy are enough to slightly redeem the movie. If you want in to the overly corny type diaster movies that have happy endings, then go see it.

[Hogan Made Wrestling 0]

The estimated opening day for this was 24.3 million dollars, which means it should have a pretty good first weekend at any rate. I doubt this thing will have much in the way of legs though.

 

For all the overblown controversy this movie has generated, I've found the best advertising of it so far has been their NBA tie-ins. The ad which features clips interlaced with NBA highlights is pretty good.

 

BTW, I actually liked "The Core" as far as disaster movies go. It was cheesy but at least for once they made the scientists the main characters, and not a bunch of scruffs like in Armageddon.

[Guest MikeSC]

The estimated opening day for this was 24.3 million dollars, which means it should have a pretty good first weekend at any rate. I doubt this thing will have much in the way of legs though.

 

For all the overblown controversy this movie has generated, I've found the best advertising of it so far has been their NBA tie-ins. The ad which features clips interlaced with NBA highlights is pretty good.

 

BTW, I actually liked "The Core" as far as disaster movies go. It was cheesy but at least for once they made the scientists the main characters, and not a bunch of scruffs like in Armageddon.

Sadly, it's only real shot at being #1 in the box office --- and it appears to be coming up short. "Shrek 2" appears ready to make more money this weekend.

-=Mike

[Scroby 0]

Now I wonder if I could go see it for the first half since I heard thats where all the special effects are, and when the acting starts, I leave and say I want my money back..*ponders*

[Guest OctoberBlood]

It was a solid good movie until the ending. Totally brought it down. It just eneded without explaining anything. "Oh, yippie, here comes the sun, yay" ... yeah, ok. I really wanted to like it more than I did, and give it a better rating since it was enjoyable until that point, but overall, just ended up benig an above average movie for me.

[Vyce 0]

Why are people even debating this when they could go see Shrek 2, a movie that is INFINITELY better than every part of this awful, awful film?

 

And hey, what a shocker to see Ebert hand out stars like that for this particular film.