The Day After Tomorrow

[Matt_G]

Posted: 5/28/04 at 7:28pm

Okay, so I gave in and paid my money to see this today. I can hear you yelling at your computer sreen telling me I should have saved my money. But let me tell you, besides how unbelievably predictable it was (and everyone knows this going in) the movie wasn't half bad. I have to admit that the reason I went to see it was because of Jake Gyllenhaal and Sela Ward. Everyone who knows me knows I have a thing for Jake and I heard he was half naked in the movie which is true, but the camera is so far away he might as well could have been in a snow suit.
Anyways, it was nice to see Sela Ward on screen again, even though she was extremely under used as usual. I've been a fan of hers since she was on SISTERS and will run to see anything she does.
I usually limit myself to one or two summer movies in order to support the smaller films, so I'm glad this one at least kept me entertained. And damn Jake's cute.

Also, I forgot to add that Emmy Rossum had a pretty major role in the film so with the popularity of this film, it should only make PHANTOM that much more appealing to the general public.

Updated On: 5/28/04 at 07:28 PM

[mominator]

Posted: 5/28/04 at 7:33pm

Actually I may see this one. The first showing is only $5, so I can actually get some popcorn!
B

[Ruffian]

Posted: 5/28/04 at 7:44pm

There she goes with the popcorn again

[Auggie27]

Posted: 5/28/04 at 7:44pm

I predict it will be everyone's guilty pleasure, the movie everyone sees and pretends they didn't. I will proudly admit: I wouldn't miss the damned thing.

What I will skip is that dreary looking Kate Hudson movie. The kooky-eccentric-inherits-the-kids formula has been done, from BABY BOOM to THE STEPMOTHER.

[Ruffian]

Posted: 5/28/04 at 7:51pm

soooooooooooooooo tired of Goldie Junior

[mominator]

Posted: 5/29/04 at 1:08am

Well actually I just got back from it........... Well not great cinema, it wasn't as bad as I expected, and it was only $7 for the evening show. (Heck I paid $95, to see "Six Dance Lessons..)
B

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 5/29/04 at 1:41am

Saw this tonight (and Saved), and I enjoyed myself. No, it isn't a great film, but it was a big, summer disaster flick and just what I was in the mood for.

[Matt_G]

Posted: 5/29/04 at 1:43am

How was SAVED? I'm going tomorrow afternoon to see that one. I'm really excited about it!

[robyn525600]

Posted: 5/29/04 at 10:05am

I saw it too - it was okay but I wanted more of the storm and less of what the people were doing b/c the special effects were amazing.

But since that cutie Jake Gyllenhaal was in it - I was okay with spending the $$ for the film.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 5/29/04 at 10:48am

I saw it yesterday. It was silly and fun and I had a good time. There were some wonderful effects, every cliché line from just about every disaster film every made, some unintentionally very funny scenes, cyber-wolves, and two scenes almost directly lifted from the greatest disaster film ever - The Poseidon Adventure. What's not to like?

[Auggie27]

Posted: 5/30/04 at 1:12pm

Warning, SPOILERS (though the trailer is the biggest spoiler.)

I wanted to love it, being a POSIDEN/INFERNO fan from way back, but I thought it was a lame effort, with a very lazy screenplay. And did anyone else feel we'd seen 99% of the effects in the trailer? More than any movie in recent memory? What was left to thrill to?

Did anyone else have a problem with the plot holes? READ NO MORE, YE WHO HAVE YET TO PARTAKE. The biggest one for me in the major action at the center of the film -- Quaid taking off on foot (though with nice Eddie. B. snow shoes) during the Second Ice Age, to find his son. I mean, walking from Philadelphia to NY in beautiful autumn weather would be a challenge -- but a storm capable of lowering the temps to 140 below zero?? They camped out in a little tent, around a Coleman stove... And then, why have him do it, improbable as it was, only to find his boy safe and sound, dozing by the fire (burning, rather than reading, Charles Dickens... Why didn't they burn some furniture?) But why have Dennis go the trouble if the kid didn't need saving! He coulda' stayed home and continued to warn the poor frozen folk above that hysterical line on the map. Dennis on foot -- the lenght of his journey mysterious -- reminded me of Mr. Antrobus in SKIN OF OUR TEETH, a paterfamilias during an ice age -- but in a satiric comedy.

And for an apocolyptic movie, what a dreary bunch of characters to spend time with. Beautiful Sela, chewing her bottom lip, worrying about one boy when billions were turning into popcycles. Jake had about 10 lines, other than his overexploited phone call to Daddy. He mostly sat around and batted his eyes at the septasemic lass. (Speaking of which, this is a movie with millions dying, but two teens with bloody leg injuries. Oddly more befitting a civil war movie than The End of the Damned World.) The excursion to the boat that parked, miraculously, in front the library, was a true howl. Didn't we see that coming when the zoo keeper, or whoever, said "Where are THE WOLVES?!" Those plucky Lupine creatures, the ice age won't stop them. Why didn't THEY succumb to the ice? The storm makes jet fuel freeze, but not wolf blood?

And what about that strange drop in temp? That scaled down skyscrapers but could be kept out of rooms if you just slammed the doors fast enough? Ha! It was more like something out of the cheezy remake of THE HAUNTING. It's been my experience than when the temp drops, it doesn't whoosh through windows like ectoplasm. But I'm s stickler for pesky details I guess.

Oh, the holes are endless. And the effects aren't all that jaw-dropping. And I'm in the minority here, but I thought the HOllywood tornadoes were waaaaaay below TWISTER, which at least made twisters looks like twisters. These dirty brown dervishes reminded me of the old Disney Pecos Bill cartoon from my childhood. Or a RoterRooter commercial. And playing the whole LA sequence for cheap laughs -- the weatherman was the goofy daddy on WILL AND GRACE -- felt very strange. Forget about the extra who was boinking the other extra on the vinyl couch and couldn't be bothered with the howling wind (in a city plagued with EARTHQUAKES?)... it was supposed to be a big ol' scream that shallow Angelians jumped out of their cars -- they are that stupid -- and let debris the size of a house smack 'em to the pavement?

I dunno, INDEPENDENCE DAY at least had a satisfing structure, and if it ended with a plot twist as ridiculous as Quaid's on-foot-journey (Jeff Goldblum using Windows 95 to tap into Alien computers!)...at least there was payoff. Dennis just stumbled into the library, finding a kind of a mid-winter slumber party for rich kids, and then the Cheney guy declared lessons learned on TV. If only...

Updated On: 5/30/04 at 01:12 PM

[nystateomind04]

Posted: 5/30/04 at 2:25pm

around the time they started running from the temperature, i went to sleep. they shut the door to keep the freeze out for crissake.

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 5/30/04 at 2:31pm

lol, Auggie! You are right! I just tried not to care about those things--even though, I usually hate plot holes. It would have been an "awesome and amazing" film had it tried harder.

[Broadwaylady]

Posted: 5/30/04 at 7:47pm

I saw the movie also. Although the special effects were good, I did not think the movie was that great.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 5/31/04 at 12:22pm

Two big screw ups:

1) The tidal wave hits the Statue of Liberty coming in from one direction, then hits the library from a different one. Hmmmmmmm

2) Why were the Library Lions not there? Oh wait it was shot in Canada.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 5/31/04 at 1:38pm

Shrek 2 beat it this weekend. Interesting. It did well, and will clearly make a big profit, but one wonders if the global warming angle is keeping at least some people away. Further proof of the nation's divid. For what it's worth, I think they took a great sci-fi premise and blew it. If they hadn't set it over one preposterously storm-packed week, but had found a subtler approach, it might've been compelling. It's a cartoon version.

Updated On: 5/31/04 at 01:38 PM

[Auggie27]

Posted: 5/31/04 at 1:38pm

Snafu is right: The Tsunami seems to be coming from either Staten Island or Weehawken, NJ. New York looks more like Bermuda or the Florida Keys than our wee island between rivers. Odd. Also, in typical Perils of Pauline style, the wave that chases Jake and the gal seems to freeze, then cover the same block 2 or 3 times. Suddenly, this handful of teens can run faster than water that moments before covered 20 blocks in 5 seconds. It's fairly ludicrous. And then the water smashes all of the glass in the library windows -- conveniently forgotten later when the big freeze comes! The killer freeze that they carefully avoid merely by slamming a few wooden doors (sorry, I can't get past that.) My 13 year old son picked up on the glass being back in place. Sloppy movie making, this effort. 124 million, but continuity and logic lapses somewhere below a Japanese Godzilla circa 1958.

[mominator]

Posted: 5/31/04 at 2:01pm

Thanks SNAFU, my husband and I were wondering about that same exact thing.
B

[DAME]

Posted: 5/31/04 at 2:35pm

Seeing it during the week. But we saw Shrek on Saturday. And that was hysterical. LOVED IT.

[newyorkuniq]

Posted: 5/31/04 at 2:39pm

I'm seeing this tonight. I saw Shrek 2 Thursday and didn't like it very much.