THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2004 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): * 1/2
A ludicrous and sanctimonious environmental sermon disguised as a summer
disaster flick, THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW has more in common with
writer/director
Roland Emmerich's abysmal GODZILLA than his stirring INDEPENDENCE DAY.
Without
a single credible character, it's just a collection of good -- but not
great --
special effects in search of a movie.
The basic premise of the plot is that global warming is about to cause the
next
ice age. How quickly will this worldwide change take place? Well, the
film
isn't titled SOME CENTURY SOON.
Dennis Quaid, fresh from his "success" in THE ALAMO, stars as Jack Hall,
the
only scientist on the earth who gets it and who predicts what will happen.
And
just when it appears that he is the only one on the planet who could save
it,
or at least parts of it, Jack gives a briefing in Washington and then
heads
north, much of it on foot, to save his son, Sam (Jake Gyllenhaal), one of
the
few people left alive in Manhattan. It's obvious to anyone that Jack has
no
chance of making it to Sam, which, of course, means that he will.
The cheapest shot of all comes in the casting of the key role of the Vice
President, who is shown as the power behind the throne. The filmmakers
cast a
Dick Cheney look-alike then proceed to turn this fictional Vice President
into
a blithering idiot.
Speaking of idiots, the director acts as though the audience were filled
with
them. The movie keeps grinding to a complete halt so that some faux-human
drama can unfold, including a bald boy who is a cancer patient who can't
be
moved since all the ambulances are gone, a tourist who won't follow police
orders because she can't speak English and the Americans who break the law
by
becoming illegal immigrants into Mexico, where it's still warm. The
script
keeps throwing ridiculous pseudo-science at us, which it mixes with just
enough
of the plausible, to argue that this all really could happen. Massive
tornadoes could strike L.A., people could be killed by softball-sized hail
in
Japan, half of the world could almost instantly be buried in snow and a
tidal
wave -- which humans, we find, can outrun -- could flood Manhattan several
stories deep.
I want my two hours back.
THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW runs way too long at 2:03. It is rated PG-13 for
"intense situations of peril" and would be acceptable for kids around 12
and
up.
My son Jeffrey, age 15, could only muster * 1/2 for it. He liked the
special
effects but complained about everything else about the movie, including
its
blatant political agenda, its length, its unbelievable coincidences and
the
overall weirdness of the storyline. He just didn't buy it for a minute.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, May 28, 2004.
In the
Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC and the Century theaters.
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X-RT-RatingText: 1.5/4
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