MPAA Rating: PG-13 for intense situations of peril
Runtime: 124 minutes
Director/Writer:
Roland Emmerich (Stargate, Independence Day, Godzilla, The Patriot)
Cast:
Dennis Quaid - (The Long Riders, The Right Stuff, Dragonheart, Frequency) as Jack Hall
Jake Gyllenhaal - (October Sky, Donnie Darko, Moonlight Mile ) as Sam Hall
Emmy Rossum - (It Had To Be You, Nola, Mystic River) as Laura Chapman
Ian Holm - (The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, From Hell, The Fifth Element) as Professor Terry Rapson
Sela Ward - (Double Jeopardy, Runaway Bride, 54) as Dr. Lucy Hall
Jay O. Sanders - (JFK, Daylight, Along Came A Spider) as Frank Harris
Dash Mihok – (The Thin Red Line, The Perfect Storm, Dark Blue ) as Jason Evans
Jack Hall has been all over the world working as a paleo-climatologist for the U.S. government. He’s trying to spread the word about the long-term danger of a new ice age brought on by global warming, but no-one is listening. When pressed, he admits he doesn’t know when it’ll happen: “. . .a hundred years, a thousand. . .” Surprise - it's starting right now! Unprecedented and uncharacteristic storms are striking all over the world, deep-ocean bouys are showing anomalous readings and it all adds up to one thing - disaster. In the midst of all this, Jack's son Sam (and friends) is in New York City to compete in a scholastic decathlon. As the rest of the survivors of the initial onslaught fight their way southward, Jack and his two teammates, Frank and Jason, head toward New York in an effort to rescue Sam.
Based loosely on a non-fiction book titled The Coming Global Superstorm by Art Bell and Whitley Strieber, The Day After Tomorrow tries to show some of the science behind one of the latest theories on the Ice Ages. I'll admit that there are some "that's not correct" moments in this movie, but suspending your disbelief a bit will let you enjoy what turns out to be the best disaster flick to come our way in a long time. The special effects are almost all first-rate and a few, like the storm surge sweeping into New York City, are jaw-dropping. A great deal of time and effort went into most of the FX and it shows. Another favorite shot of mine is a close-up of the space station with the eye of the storm directly below it, and visible through the eye is part of Manhattan. Oh, I did say almost, didn't I? A couple of shots weren't so special. One long shot of an ice shelf cracking off, and one sequence with helicopters were fairly obvious CGI.
Performances are good throughout, with kudos going to Dennis Quaid and Ian Holm (Bilbo is a climatologist?) for warm and believable characters that you care about. FYI, the character of the Vice President was cast specifically because he looks something like Don Chaney! Hehe.
Visually, this was a nicely done effort. The color palette was straight-forward with no use of sepia tones or textures to differentiate shots. Scenes ranged from panoramic daytime shots of the Antarctic, to the space station in orbit, to the darkened passageways of a deserted ship, to the blizzard-darkened hills of England. Most scenes were nicely framed, and detail was good overall.
Sonically, this movie came down in the upper-middle of the pack. Lot's of bass activity is present during the storm scenes and the surround channels carry a good bit of ambient information, but it's not overwhelming or intrusive. Wind sounds are consistent throughout - that's not a real surprise though, is it? Dialog is generally clean and well-separated from the other sonic information.
This movie also passed the family test with flying colors. My wife, son (19) and daughter (17) all enjoyed it, with my son seeing it a second time. For me, it's a little scary in its message and a lot of fun to watch, and I'll be putting this one on the DVD must-buy list.
I give The Day After Tomorrow :3: out of :5:.
Can't wait till it comes out on DVD!
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