5/30/04 "The Day After Tomorrow"

I originally wasn't incredibly interested in seeing this movie, and after I saw it, remembered why. This movie was sort of silly. I went to see it at the Majestic Theater in Williston, VT, with my friend John. I had been up there for a wedding of a mutual friend of ours, Matt, and it was kind of the wind-down to the weekend. I originally had been lobbying for Shrek 2, but this caught my eye and I decided we should go see this instead. Also, John's kind of a science-head, so I figured he might enjoy it too. And we both liked Independence Day. So we thought we'd give it a try. BEWARE THE CREEPING SPOILERS.

5-30-04 "The Day After Tommorrow"

Notes From the Red Book

trailers-"Dodgeball" (I must see this!), "I, Robot" (oooo, first big trailer)

guy who played Lynn on Felicity?

Hey, it's Bilbo!

man, mean hail

wow-big storm shot from space

Emmy Rossum-Phantom's Christine

ooo...lots of birds...

Jake Gyllenhaal is SO Peter Parker

cool tornado formations

wow, cool tornados! Holy cow they're big.

Goodbye Hollywood sign. Goodbye Capital Records.

Hey, VP's kinda jerky.

"The world's finest collection of stuffed animals."

"We've enough tea and biscuits to sink a ship."

Freezing is kinda creepy.

BIG WAVE....

Sela-you cry fake.

"Nietzche was a chauvanist pig who was in love with his sister."

"There's a whole section on tax law we can burn."

At least deaths are tasteful.

crappy CGI wolves.

cool Statue of Liberty shot, cool frozen sets.

Whole movie is farfetched and sensationalized...but fun at times.

This movie details what supposedly could happen if global warming ever catches up with us. One of the results is shown to be a new Ice Age, with floods, hail, snow, tornados, and hurricanes. Dennis Quaid plays a paleoclimatologist, Jack Hall, who witnesses a "Rhode Island" sized chunk of ice wall break and away from its shelf and suspects that maybe something's not right in the ozone layer. Ian Holm plays a weather monitor from England , Dr. Rapson, who begins to first notice definite changes in the weather and the Gulf Stream itself. He also notices people freezing to death in seconds flat. But by the time they bring their findings to the world, it's too late. Jack's son, Sam (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a super bright kid who has traveled to New York to compete in the Smart Kid Olympics and to follow his dream girl, Laura (Emmy Rossum-Christine in the new Phantom movie!) The city begins to freeze while they are there, and the two get trapped in the New York Public Library along with a handful of others. Jack must make the dangerous trek to New York from Washington DC to try to save them as the newly fatal weather rages around them.

I guess my last Red Book note pretty much sums it up. This movie was ok. DEFINITELY not an Independence Day, which I really liked. I've read a whole bunch of articles saying the director knew that all this weather couldn't have happened in the way that it was portrayed, that he meant it to be that way to sensationalize it...but I think it just seemed a bit too much of a stretch for me. The thing I liked the best about this movie were the great "pretty" shots. Gigantic waves, huge tornados, the weather as seen from space...nicely done. The acting was all right, nothing to write home about. Jake Gyllenhaal did a good job, but ever since I read the article on how he almost took over for Tobey Maguire in Spiderman 2, I couldn't stop thinking of him as Peter Parker...it was downright eerie. Oh, I did like the way they handled the death of some semi-major characters...they didn't really show them actually dying, it was refreshing...most of the deaths were implied and everyone seemed to die with dignity.

Some things I thought while watching this movie-

Wow. I didn't know frost could chase you down a hallway like that...I figured it would just freeze...period.

So I wonder what's going on in the rest of the world...like outside Mexico, England, DC, and NY.

I'd rather watch Independence Day.

Watch it if you must, but I'd wait til video. Until the next time, this is Sarah saying, for heaven's sake, don't go outside and burn everything you can to stay warm!



ps-comments from me and john on my posting of this review-

-For the record, while Independence day was kinda fun, I can't say for sure I actually "LIKED" it... I LOVE to tease it, though (I'm surprised http://www.badastronomy.com/ hasn't touched it yet!)I remember going to see that one with you on the day it came out... sitting in the theatre and watching Bill Pullman give his little Independence Day speech... and LAUGHING. Everyone else was into it, feeling the love, so-to-speak, and I was laughing (and a few people looked rather put-off by my snickering such a poigniant moment). Why was I laughing: because the speech was STOLEN from Henry V... worse still, the blocking was lifted whole from the Kenneth Branagh Henry V. Watch them both... Its the St. Crispin's day speech from Henry V. the basic flow of the speech. The theme. The freakin' setting (Henry V standing on the back of a cart, president whats-his-face on the back of a truck). "Today we celebrate our independence!" versus "On St. Crispin's Day!" I couldn't help but laugh at the extreme grand-mal cheesiness of it (Cheese factor is high, repeat, cheese factor is high... like camembert time here).Comment from jmh921 - 6/14/04 12:37 PM

-That's right, we did go see Indepedence Day together, didn't we? Ok, ok, so it was pretty cheesey. But Jeff Goldblum has HOT in that movie...I just love it when he plays sexy nerdy scientists. And it was cool to see the White House blown up. NOT THAT I WANT TO SEE THE WHITE HOUSE BLOWN UP. I LIKE THE WHITE HOUSE JUST THE WAY IT IS, I SWEAR. So...yeah.Comment from nubule - 6/14/04 5:01 PM