Yes, today was that day. The first real blow 'em up/scare 'em to death movie has been released. Although the blow 'em up is really mother nature and not a designated bad guy, the end result is that we get bigger than life special effects. But more on that later.
This is The Day After Tomorrow.
Professor Jack Hall (Dennis Quaid) is a weather/scientist dude who studies past (billions of years ago) weather patterns and determines that our current path of global warning will lead to many horrible doom and gloom moments. When? Well who knows. One hundred years. One thousand years. All he knows is that the government needs to take steps to save the world NOW.
And of course the government, represented by the Vice President (Kenneth Welsh) says, Yeah right, we'll get RIGHT on that. Not.
Weather patterns start to change drastically. Hall warns the government again. They don't so anything...again. All of his predictions are coming true but NOW - not in one hundred years. Meanwhile, Jack's ex-wife, Dr. Lucy Hall (Sela Ward), is stuck in a hospital, caring for a cancer patient while his distant, seventeen year old son Sam (Jake Gyllenhaal) is off in New York, attending some school function, pining away after a fellow student (Emmy Rossum).
New York is immediately hit by the bad weather and with the assistance of his two co-workers, Jason (Dash Mihok) and Frank (Jay O. Sanders), Jack sets off to find his missing son.
Does he find his son in time? Well...
I have to tell you that director/writer/producer Roland Emmerich disappointed me with this movie. Enjoyed one of his other blow 'em up movies (Independence Day). It combined just enough wackiness with some smart dialog and most importantly - way cool actors (like Will Smith).
In The Day After Tomorrow, you get B-movie actors (Dennis Quaid, Sela Ward), who recite lame dialog, while pretending to be shocked, hurt, and determined.
You also have the stereotypical story lines - which hey - ain't a bad thing, but at least, it would be nice for the cheesy stuff to not be staged in a way in which the audience feels like they're being duped. Take for instance, the immensely talented, Jake Gyllenhaal. His performance in this movie consists of (mostly), lame scenes with this chick (Emmy Rossum) - which he has no chemistry with. Random stares. Random glares. One has to wonder why such a talented actor would need to appear in a film like this.
Emmy Rossum was - well - not EVEN attractive background noise. She had two expressions - happy, happy (joy joy) and worried/concerned.
Dennis Quaid made me laugh every time he opened his mouth and recited four syllable scientific words. Like I'm supposed to take him seriously.
Sela Ward, who I enjoyed from her Sisters days, cried a lot. She's good at crying - she may have been good at other things however, Mr. Director never clued us in.
I often wonder why bad things (at least in the movies) only seem to happen in New York. What...Indianapolis isn't cosmopolitan enough?! Anyway, maybe it's the effects of 9/11 - but it was difficult for me to feel bad for the human beings in this movie. In some ways, I did feel like Mr. Director was attempting to make some political statements, especially with the characters that played the President and Vice President. I might have zeroed in more on the message (or felt that grand swelling of pride in human kind) had he not distracted me with all of the stupid dialog.
The one saving grace of this movie was the special effects. I'm not a technical chick however, they were absolutely cool.
The Day After Tomorrow is rated PG-13 for intense situations of peril (although, comparing it to OTHER situations of perils - I find the stuff in here to be quite tame). This is one of those movies that really, you can skip altogether.
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