This next review is on a Bruce Willis action film, and before you ask it's not Die Hard. I suppose when most people think of Bruce, they always think about the Die Hard film, but for me he has made some really good action films, one of which happens to be Armageddon. Directed by Michael Bay, with an all star cast, this film was released in 1998, and became a huge blockbuster hit. Now the reason I liked this film was because it took a commonly used scenario of an Asteroid hitting earth, but it made it more real life, they made it more exciting and it was so different to other films like Deep Impact, which too me was a huge flop. This film had everything, a great director, good script, and an all star cast, and thus made the film more watch able. The film had intensity, drama, action, sadness and lots of comedy, which lightened up the mood to a certain extent. Although at time the film became somewhat patriotic, you can't complain as it is the Americans who made the film after all.
Brief Info on the director:
Michael Benjamin Bay, is probably one of the most gifted directors we have had the pleasure of seeing, his style always made me compare him to James Cameron, because they both worked very hard to create some really great films. Armageddon was one of many films directed by Bay. He has directed some of my all time favourites including; Bad Boys (1 & 2), The Rock, and Transformers to name just a small few. What most people don't know is that
Bay actually appeared in Armageddon for a brief 10 second scene during the early stages of the film, when they first discover the Asteroid. I always knew it was him and always tried justifying it and proving it to my friends, who only up until now believe me. Love this film or hate it, this director is just brilliant, and his films and box office success simply prove that.
Plot:
Well I suppose the title of the film gives away a small clue that this film is in some way to do with the end of the world scenario, Judgment day, the end of all mankind. My first impressions were that this film might have been about something other than an asteroid, but I guess I was wrong. The film opens with scenes from a space mission, were asteroids are working on repairing a satellite, however whilst in space they were hit by particles from an incoming asteroid, which instantly kills them all. We then see several small meteor showers hitting New York City, during the opening of the film, I remember scenes of it passing straight through the world trade centre or through the central station, and it was something really astonishing to look at because it just felt so real. NASA, being the clever people they are discovers that there is an incoming asteroid, which will hit earth in 18 days, destroying every living organism on earth, and so a hero mission is underway. NASA recruit an experienced top class driller, to train their astronauts who will drill a hole in space and plant some Nuclear weapons in the hope of blowing it into two pieces and thereby the object missing earth. This driller named Harry Stamper is flown halfway round the world with his daughter Grace when they hear about the bad news. Instead of agreeing to train the men, Harry offers to go up into space with his own team, people he has worked all his life with and can trust to get the job done. Long story short, they accept and are trained for their mission into space. They are split into two teams, however whilst in space something goes terribly wrong. Which team makes it out a live, to they dig the whole and save mankind or are we the next to be extinct?
Characters:
Bruce Willis: Harry Stamper: Willis is the main character in the film; he is the boss, the main man and the only person who can lead this team to save mankind. He's a very down to earth protective father. His daughter Grace is going out with AJ a fellow driller, whom Harry thinks is a total slacker, he doesn't have any trust in him and at the beginning hates him. However, Harry is a brilliant driller and he is determined to get this hole drilled. I really liked this character and during the scenes with his daughter he really showed so much emotion, mainly the scenes were he is talking to his daughter on a TV screen.
Billy Bob Thornton: Dan Truman: Billy Bob is the technician that runs things back in NASA, his character really wanted to be up in space, but die to a leg injury had to choose another job. His character is the serious one; he's got the whole world on his shoulders.
Ben Affleck: A.J. Frost AJ is the smallest out of the group and the one who is dating Grace. He and Harry don't seem to go eye to eye, and Harry can't seem to trust him with anything. However, as the film develops we see the common friendship these two have, and how Harry always thought of AJ as his own son, he reminded him a lot of him when he was younger.
Liv Tyler: Grace Stamper: Like most action films, their has to be a love interest for one of the characters, it just so happens Ben Affleck was the lucky one. Grace is a small, very attractive woman, who has lived her whole life on an oil rig with her father, however they don't always see eye to eye, and with her dating AJ, things aren't always happy.
My View:
If your looking for a action film that doesn't disappoint than this is the one, for me it was done just perfectly, it didn't go over the top, and used all the tricks in the book to make it worth watching. I was impressed how they managed to fit in so much humour considering the fact that the world could be destroyed. For me Rock Hounds characters was just hilarious, everything he did and said was funny, yet you don't get the impression he is one hell of a smart guy, which he is. The training session at the start was also a joy to watch, it was like a bunch of average Joe's had been ordered to save the world, and as the quote suggest "I wouldn't trust these retards with a potato gun", just goes to show you how unusually different they are to normal people. The film was very fast flowing, it wasn't as if their were moments were everything slowed down and all of a sudden got boring, it was also brilliant to see how many twists and turns the film had, something's which you never in a million years expected to happen. I suppose the best bit about the film was the music, which was made by Liv's dads band Aerosmith. It's probably one of my favourite songs period and was so fitting for the film, especially when it was played. The film has tons and tons of brilliant special affects, which I guess made the film more realistic, it made it a typical Hollywood blockbuster.
Cast:
Bruce Willis Ben Affleck Liv Tyler Billy Bob Thornton Will Patton Steve Buscemi Michael Clarke Duncan Ken Campbell Owen Wilson William Fichtner Peter Stormare
Run Time: 150 minutes Budget: $140 million
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Production Year: 2002 - Action/Adventure - Director: Vincenzo Natali - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring:Lucy Liu, David Hewlett, Anne Marie Scheffler, Joseph Scoren, Matthew Sharp, Jeremy Northam
Production Year: 1964 - Action/Adventure - Director: Cyril Endfield - Original Language: English - Classification: Parental Guidance - Starring:Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins, Ulla Jacobsson, James Booth, Michael Caine, Nigel Green
When NASA's executive director Dan Truman (Billy Bob Thornton) makes the terrifying ... more
realisation that the Earth has just 18 days before it's obliterated by a meteor the size of Texas he has only one option - land a ragtag team of roughneck oil drille...
Postage & Packaging: £0.00 Availability: 3-5 working days
Advantages: Bang, crash wallop what a picture Disadvantages: The Cheesiest Trailer I've ever seen. Buscemi Deleted scene. girlfriend on the sideline sydrome
Pa8ax 16.11.2009 ·
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Review of Armageddon (DVD)
Feb 14th, 2008
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