The Day After Tomorrow

"OK"

The Day After Tomorrow Review


"The Day After Tomorrow" isn't quite the disaster of a disaster flick I thought it would be.

Don't get me wrong -- it's bad in a way only $150-million movies with awe-inspiring special effects can be bad. It's riddled with nonsensical pseudo-science, saddled with supposedly brainy characters (climatologists, high-school science whizzes) who nonetheless haven't a scrap of common sense, and stuffed with stock characters designed for the kind of instant sympathy (or instant comic relief) that doesn't require actually giving them a personality.

But for popcorn munching and smart-remarking during a bargain matinee, it's a bad movie worth the price of admission.

A summer action flick about out-of-control climate change (go figure), the nonsensically-titled blockbuster gets its thrills from adding a little fantasy (instant ice age!) to the premise loosely based in a supportable scientific theory that, because of the particular flow of certain ocean currents, global warming could conversely lead to a deep freeze in the northern hemisphere.

Grasping at plot straws with the notion of such events happening in a matter of days, in "The Day After Tomorrow" Los Angeles is laid waste by monster tornados, Tokyo is pummeled by brick-sized hail, and Manhattan is drown in a 50-foot ocean swell (the initial wave is chest-deep on the Statue of Liberty) that is so spectacularly rendered, all I can say is "wow."

But while this disaster is supposed to be taking place on a worldwide scale, after destroying a few landmarks in Hollywood, the action focuses exclusively on two cities on the U.S. eastern seaboard (but at least it stays focused).

In Washington, D.C., government officials, led by a bull-headed vice president who looks and thinks a lot like Dick Cheney, refuse to look out the window or listen to the wild theories of climatologist Dennis Quaid, who literally sees the storm clouds gathering and is predicting doom, doom, DOOM! Meanwhile, in New York, Quaid's son, high-schooler Jake Gyllenhaal ("October Sky," "Donnie Darko"), and Jake's cutie-pie love interest Emma Rossum ("Mystic River") hole up in the top floors of the public library with a handful of other survivors as the city is flooded and then frozen in rapid succession.

Accustomed to dumbing down out-sized blockbusters, writer-director Roland Emmerich ("Independence Day," the 1998 "Godzilla," "The Patriot") invents a 100-degrees-below-zero instant-freeze weather effect so his characters have something to run away from, claiming that as long as you get indoors and light a small fire (with books at the library, even though the place is littered with wooden furniture), you'll be just fine. Although just for good measure he also throws in some escaped timber wolves from the Central Park Zoo.

But it isn't the absurdity of the instant-freeze new ice age that gets the movie in trouble -- it's the stories Emmerich builds around this message-heavy theme and the unintentional laughs they generate.

"Sam, just tell her how you feel," advises a friend as Gyllenhaal's character pines for the girl.

"I'm using my body heat to warm you," says the girl soon thereafter, while rubbing up against Gyllenhaal when he's been soaked in a glacial rush of flood water.

"I've walked that far before in the snow!" insists Quaid when he decides to -- get this -- snowshoe through the storm from Washington to Manhattan to save his son, even though there's not a single thing Dad can do once he gets there.

Dedicated actors that they are, Gyllenhaal and Quaid fully throw themselves into their characters, and it's interest in these two men that keeps the picture's human element alive. But they're still playing second fiddle to special effects.

Emmerich uses his story to get some pointed laughs out of the United States being in deep doo-doo, for example showing a news report that Mexico has closed its borders to immigrants. But "The Day After Tomorrow" is unlikely to get anyone thinking about the implications of greenhouse gasses and arrogant American foreign policy, and the film is simply too plagued with plot gaffes (why isn't the Southern Hemisphere effected?) to take it seriously anyway.

But it is fun, in a drive-in movie sort of way. Emmerich knows how to put on a good fireworks display, and as long as you're prepared to be laughing at the movie, not with the movie, there's no reason not to go and have a good time.



The Day After Tomorrow

Facts and Figures

Genre: Sci fi/Fantasy

Run time: 124 mins

In Theaters: Friday 28th May 2004

Box Office USA: $186.6M

Box Office Worldwide: $542.8M

Budget: $125M

Distributed by: 20th Century Fox

Production compaines: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation., Centropolis Entertainment, Lions Gate Films, Mark Gordon Productions

Reviews

Contactmusic.com: 2.5 / 5

Rotten Tomatoes: 45%
Fresh: 95 Rotten: 117

IMDB: 6.4 / 10

Cast & Crew

Director:

Starring: as Jack Hall, as Sam Hall, as Laura Chapman, as Jason Evans, Jay O. Sanders as Frank Harris, as Dr. Lucy Hall, as J.D., as Brian Parks, as Janet Tokada, as Parker, as Terry Rapson, Nassim Sharara as Saudi Delegate, Carl Alacchi as Venezuelan Delegate, as Vice President Becker, Michel 'Gish' Abou-Samah as Saudi Translator, Kenneth Moskow as Bob, as Luther, as Simon, as Gomez, as Veteran Scientist, Richard Zeman as Flight Director, as President Blake, as Secretary of State, Vitali Makarov as Yuri, Russian Astronaut, Russell Yuen as Hideki, Japanese Astronaut

Contactmusic


Links


New Movies

Star Wars: The Last Jedi Movie Review

Star Wars: The Last Jedi Movie Review

After the thunderous reception for J.J. Abrams' Episode VII: The Force Awakens two years ago,...

Daddy's Home 2 Movie Review

Daddy's Home 2 Movie Review

Like the 2015 original, this comedy plays merrily with cliches to tell a silly story...

The Man Who Invented Christmas Movie Review

The Man Who Invented Christmas Movie Review

There's a somewhat contrived jauntiness to this blending of fact and fiction that may leave...

Ferdinand Movie Review

Ferdinand Movie Review

This animated comedy adventure is based on the beloved children's book, which was published in...

Brigsby Bear Movie Review

Brigsby Bear Movie Review

Director Dave McCary makes a superb feature debut with this offbeat black comedy, which explores...

Battle of the Sexes Movie Review

Battle of the Sexes Movie Review

A dramatisation of the real-life clash between tennis icons Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs,...

Shot Caller Movie Review

Shot Caller Movie Review

There isn't much subtlety to this prison thriller, but it's edgy enough to hold the...

Advertisement
The Disaster Artist Movie Review

The Disaster Artist Movie Review

A hilariously outrageous story based on real events, this film recounts the making of the...

Stronger Movie Review

Stronger Movie Review

Based on a true story about the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, this looks like one...

Only the Brave Movie Review

Only the Brave Movie Review

Based on a genuinely moving true story, this film undercuts the realism by pushing its...

Wonder Movie Review

Wonder Movie Review

This film may be based on RJ Palacio's fictional bestseller, but it approaches its story...

Happy End  Movie Review

Happy End Movie Review

Austrian auteur Michael Haneke isn't known for his light touch, but rather for hard-hitting, award-winning...

Patti Cake$ Movie Review

Patti Cake$ Movie Review

Seemingly from out of nowhere, this film generates perhaps the biggest smile of any movie...

The Limehouse Golem Movie Review

The Limehouse Golem Movie Review

A Victorian thriller with rather heavy echoes of Jack the Ripper, this film struggles to...

Advertisement
Artists
Actors
    Filmmakers
      Artists
      Bands
        Musicians
          Artists
          Celebrities
             
              Artists
              Interviews