This big budget, sci-fi weather-related disaster was made in Montreal, and its $544 million
dollar gross makes it the highest grossing Canadian film of all time.
No stranger to destroying American landmarks with outlandish destruction sequences, famed
German director Roland Emmerich, who made his mark on Hollywood with pictures like "Independence
Day", "Godzilla", and later "2012", tackles the issue of climate change in a ridiculously
enjoyable way.
Voted as one of the least scientifically accurate films every made, the plot here follows the
events surrounding a father and son who attempt to survive a mammoth super-storm that is sending
New York, and the rest of the northern hemisphere into a deep, lethal freeze.
Dennis Quaid stars as a paleoclimatologist, who is somehow the only person on Earth who
predicts the coming of a new ice-age: and even following extreme weather like tornados
in Hollywood or hail in Japan, everyone is too stubborn to heed his good advice.
His brave, but caring leading-man persona is familiar, but acted well.
Staying exciting and tense throughout, the briskly paced 124-minute adventure adeptly
meshes both the macro story of mankind dealing with extinction-level storms, and the micro
events of Quaid's personal battles.
Jake Gyllenhaal plays his son, who finds himself trapped in the New York public library struggling
to survive with his attractive classmate, Emmy Rossum following a tidal wave of rising
ocean water that quickly freezes over Manhattan.
The two young leads share some passionate chemistry amidst incredible visual effects
and stunningly effective CGI, lamenting to each other, "I've prepared for a future that
no longer exists".
"The dialogue isn't anything special, but it does enough to flesh out the characters,
and drive the plot forward, even Ian Holm is able to turn in a decent performance.
Commendably, this movie shares some important messages about global climate change, and
respecting our planet's natural resources, else we'll slip into another ice age.
Unfortunately, the gross oversimplification and extreme acceleration of these worst-case-scenario
weather events nearly diminishes the effectiveness of any pro-environment message.
Rather annoyingly, this picture all but glosses over the deaths of millions of humans, but
spends a great deal of screen time focusing on a single child dying of cancer, which may
have created an ounce of emotional resonance, had his character not been bereft of any development
or dialogue.
Combine that wasted sub-plot with a nonsense sequence involving escaped wolves on a Russian
tanker ship, and this film could have stalled faster than a frozen helicopter.
Frequently delivering harrowing thrills via liberal use of unrealistic weather dangers,
like when our heroes are quite literally outrunning cold air itself, many scenes are laughably
enjoyable.
If you're able to forgive the dozens of meteorological inaccuracies, that compresses centuries of
climate events into a week-long timeframe, this can honestly be a rather entertaining
picture.
Generic music, familiar thrills, but an irresistible package make this picture supremely fun: after
all, who doesn't love watching New York get destroyed by weather?
The Day After Tomorrow", "Amazing visual excitement, unbelievable plot."
Well those were my thoughts on the picture, now lets see what you had to say in the YouTube
comments.
"The Day After Tomorrow"... a SIX and a SEVEN.
You faulted this movie for its sub-par acting, and ridiculously unbelievable premise, but
still loved the monumentally epic disaster sequences, scoring the movie a GOOD.
I'm a sucker for a fun end-of-the-world escapade, and Emmerich certainly delivers once again.
Shallow, absurd, and emotional empty, I still enjoyed this movie enough to rate is a COOL.