Diagnosed with an aggressive cancer of the right lung on my 58th birthday (14th July) So not really ...
Diagnosed with an aggressive cancer of the right lung on my 58th birthday (14th July) So not really in the humour for writing much at the moment, although I *WILL* be back before too long...Ken
Member since:06.12.2000
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~ ~ The mad cabbie and daughter went to watch the latest in a long line of Hollywood ‘Armageddon’ movies last night, the new blockbuster “The Day After Tomorrow” (henceforth DAT) from Director Roland Emmerich, who also gave us such classics as “Independence Day” and “Godzilla”. For his latest offering Emmerich has had New York and various other American cities rapidly rebuilt after their practically total destruction in his other movies, in order to be able to destroy them all over again, this time not by alien attack, but by dramatic changes in the weather, which sees the whole of the Northern hemisphere plunged into a new Ice Age in the space of a couple of weeks.
~ ~ If you’re wondering about a plot, then I just gave it to you in my last sentence. Emmerich has taken the theme of global warming, which we are all warned about on almost a daily basis in the media, and accelerated the process beyond either recognition or credibility, to produce a doomsday scenario of epic proportions. Tornados lash Los Angeles, (even having the temerity to tear down the famous ‘Hollywood’ sign!) there’s snow in New Delhi, hailstones the size of golf balls in Tokyo, and tidal waves in New York. And all this is only a precursor to the coming of the New Ice Age, which strikes at lightning speed, fast freezing everything in its path with temperatures as low as 150 degrees Centigrade!
~ ~ There’s a sub-plot of sorts, or storyline if you will. Dennis Quaid
plays palaeoclimatologist (some job title, no!) Jack Hall, who suspects that something is drastically wrong with our weather, when huge chunks of the Antarctic ice shelf the size of Rhode Island start dropping off into the ocean. He addresses the United nations to give them due warning, but is (of course) totally shot down in flames by the unbelieving and sceptical politicos, including a Dick Cheyney look alike of a Vice President called Becker, (Kenneth Welsh) who thinks he’s madder than a March hare, and the oil producing nations who are (naturally) unwilling to give up their huge profits. He finds a supporter for his mad theories in a British scientist called Professor Rapson, (Ian Holm) who is concerned about the rapid fall in water temperature in the Atlantic Ocean currents. Of course, nobody thinks that events are going to advance so rapidly, thinking that they have around a 100 to 1,000 years to put things to rights.
~ ~ In fact, it’s only days before things begin to go drastically wrong with the world’s weather, giving Emmerich the opportunity to scare the bejaysus out of the lot of us with his totally amazing special effects. They really are awesome, and for these alone the DAT has to be a ‘must see’ movie this summer. The natural climax of the movie is the scene where New York is completely devastated by a gigantic tsunami, and then quickly overwhelmed by the rapidly advancing ice. But the story is drawn out long past this scene, with Jack Hall and a couple of his workmates deciding to trek to the by now flattened New York in order to rescue his son Sam, (Jake Gyllenhaal) who has been stranded in the New York library along with some of his classmates while attending some sort of inter-College quiz. Meanwhile his wife, Dr. Lucy Hall, (Sela Ward) is unselfishly (and unbelievably) looking after a terminally ill boy with leukaemia at the hospital where she works.
~ ~ Enough of the storyline, which in all honesty is a load of total bollocks, most of the actors being practically unknown “B” movie extras, and the lines they speak being lifted straight from a ten-year-olds comic book. The true star of DAT is the special effects, computer generated and otherwise, which will have even the most sceptical viewer thinking twice before turning on their car engine or using their aerosol deodorant. (Both are large contributors to the global warming process.) All the scenes are very dramatic, with the best of these being the tidal wave hitting New York, and the ensuing rapid ice advance. (You’ll blink more than twice when you witness a Russian freight ship floating sedately down a mid-Manhattan street!)
~ ~ What I found particularly interesting about DAT is the way mankind generally (and especially we in the Western World) seem to have an ongoing and completely insatiable appetite for movies about our imminent destruction and extinction. Ever since Hollywood started churning out films they have fed this appetite on a constant basis. (Making mega-bucks for themselves in the process) In recent years we have had films like “Armageddon” and “Deep Impact”, which play on our fears of destruction by being hit by a gigantic comet from outer space. We’ve been over-run by aliens, killed off by germ warfare, and blasted to kingdom come by nuclear warheads. Even before we had the cinema and TV, there was the phenomenon of the radio play “War of the Worlds” by Orson Welles, (invasion by Martians) which had people panicking in the streets in America when it was first aired. And still we don’t seem able to get enough of this particular genre of movie, and flock to fill the box office coffers every time a new offering hits the cinema screens! It’s almost as if we all have some sort of in-born racial memory of Armageddon, and are sitting in our comfortable homes waiting for God, science, (the new God in today’s secular society) or nature to wake up to our annoying presence on the planet and rectify the mistake! Maybe it dates back to the Great Flood described in the Bible, and now generally accepted as a fact by modern science. (They’ve even found the remains of Noah’s Ark buried on a mountain somewhere in modern Turkey!)
~ ~ Taken as a whole DAT is a profoundly silly movie, with a childish plot and wooden acting. But yet it has stirred up a hornet’s nest of comment in the world’s media in regard to the question of global warming, and in particular the refusal of the USA to accede to the Kyoto Treaty. It’s basic premise is sound, even if the science behind the story is obviously fatally flawed, and it has had the effect of making people stop and think about the world and their environment. Whether the effect will last, or make any lasting difference, is another question altogether.
~ ~ However and whenever the world we know (and love?) eventually meets its end, I don’t think that it’s going to happen in the way Emmerich speculates in DAT! But the wee lass and myself both enjoyed the movie immensely, and it comes with a high recommendation from the mad cabbie, if for no other reason than the awesome special effects.
Jack Hall: Dennis Quaid Sam Hall: Jake Gyllenhaal Laura Chapman: Emmy Rossum Jason Evans: Dash Mihok Frank Harris: Jay O. Sanders Dr. Lucy Hall: Sela Ward Vice President Becker: Kenneth Welsh Prof. Rapson: Ian Holm President Blake: Perry King Brian Parks: Arjay Smith
Production Year: 1945 - Drama - Director: David Lean - Original Language: English - Classification: Parental Guidance - Starring: Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Stanley Holloway, Joyce Carey, Cyril Raymond
Production Year: 2004 - Drama - Director: Nick Cassavetes - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, 12 years and over - Starring: Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Gena Rowlands
Production Year: 1999 - Drama - Director: Dick Maas - Original Language: English - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring: William Hurt, Jennifer Tilly, Denis Leary, Michael Chiklis, Francesca Brown
Turning pressing environmental issues into the theme of a big summer blockbuster, you cant ... more
say that director Roland Emmerich isnt willing to take his chances. And whileThe Day After Tomorrowdoes ask you to suspend fair chunks of disbelief, it is both a...
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From the Director of 'Independence Day' comes a spectacular roller-coaster ride that ... more
boasts pulse-pounding action and sensational mindblowing special effects. When global warming triggers the onset of a new Ice Age tornadoes flatten Los Angeles a...
Postage & Packaging: £0.00 Availability: 3-5 working days
From the Director of Independence Day comes a spectacular roller-coaster ride that boasts ... more
pulse-pounding action and sensational, mindblowing special effects. When global warming triggers the onset of a new Ice Age, tornadoes flatten Los Angeles, a tida...
Turning pressing environmental issues into the theme of a big summer blockbuster, you cant ... more
say that director Roland Emmerich isnt willing to take his chances. And whileThe Day After Tomorrowdoes ask you to suspend fair chunks of disbelief, it is both a...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
Advantages: Great special effects and good interesting characters. Disadvantages: I wasn't to keen on the ending and also felt that some things were cut out.
![The Day After Tomorrow - Two Disc Edition [DVD] [2004]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78519533.jpg "The Day After Tomorrow - Two Disc Edition [DVD] [2004]")
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