Jack Hall: Dennis Quaid
Sam Hall: Jake Gyllenhaal
Laura Chapman: Emmy Rossum
Jason Evans: Dash Mihok
Tery Rapson: Ian Holm
Dr Lucy Hall: Sela Ward
Frank Harris: Jay O Sanders
Okay so what have we got here?
A shot of the ‘Stars & Stripes’ within thirty seconds of the movie opening? - Check!
A stock group of multi-ethnic characters spanning the whole range of economic groups? - Check!
A cheap group of established, solid B-List character actors and up-and-coming talent? - Check!
Some form of ecological/extra-terrestrial threat that could possible wipe out humanity starting with America? - Check!
A noble U.S. President who makes a point of being the ‘last-man-out’ of the White House? - Check!
A scientist who nobody in authority will listen to until it’s too late (must be estranged from family/significant other)? - Check!
Bingo… We have ourselves this year’s disaster movie!
Dennis Quaid plays Jack Hall, a scientist who has become estranged from his family due to frequent absences because of work.
He has a theory that unless World Powers don’t start looking after the Earth then we are heading towards a possible sudden
climate change, resulting in the start of another ‘Ice Age.’ Asked when this is likely to happen, Hall answers that he
doesn’t know, but not in our lifetime.
Shortly after, freak weather starts occurring all around the Northern Hemisphere and it becomes apparent that Hall’s theory
is correct, but the timescale he suggested was wildly out. It also looks as if the worst hit US area is going to be New York,
and it just happens that his son, Sam (Jake Gyllenhaal), is currently there on a school trip. All this is discovered too
late in the day to do anything about it, many people are going to die, but Jack must find a way to save as many as possible,
including his son.
Anyone looking for an intelligent thesis on the effects of climate change should probably look elsewhere. This movie is only
really interested in hitting every disaster movie cliché ever invented, and giving the audience a good time in the process.
It’s kind of embarrassing to admit this, ...Tomorrow being from the man who shat
Godzilla
into the world, but it achieved its aims pretty well!
To borrow a phrase, The Day After Tomorrow is a film of two halves much the same as Emmerich’s earlier work
Independence Day,
it shares a lot of the same strengths and weaknesses of that film. It’s at it’s strongest in the first half, the build
up to the disaster is quite tense and the major set-pieces are absolutely breath taking, Emmerich certainly hasn’t lost his
touch with destruction writ large. The budget is most certainly up there on the screen, the CGI laughs in the face of
Van Helsing,
although to be honest that’s not exactly difficult.
The acting is pretty decent all round, don’t get me wrong nobody’s going to be taking any Oscars home from their work here,
but then again nobody shames themselves either. Dennis Quaid has always been a solid character actor and good value for
money, it’s just a shame he’s never really made it to A-List status. Ian Holm actually manages to breathe some life into
what is essentially a Brit stereotype (but more of that later). Jake Gyllenhaal continues to build on the goodwill he gained
with Donnie Darko, and shows again why he one of the most charismatic up-and-coming young actors around today. Emmy Rossum,
as the object of Gyllenhaal’s affections, also shows herself as one to keep an eye on in the future (in all senses of the
term).
But, I said it was a film of two halves, and the second half is where all the flaws creep in. In the fast paced build-up to
the main event the rather thinly sketched, stereotypical characters are not too much of a problem, however, afterwards they
become a very big problem. Apart from Quaid, Rossum, Gyllenhaal and Holm, none of the actors are really given much scope to
develop the roles outside of their stock beginnings. This might be a good thing though, as when they are fleshed out the
result is usually less than good.
It seems Emmerich knows he’s producing a cynical event movie and throws every cheap clichéd character into the mix in an
effort to drum up some kind of audience empathy. He fails… These calculated attempts, by Emmerich and co, to tug the
heartstrings become laughable in their obviousness and only result in further alienating the audience. They scale from ‘the
lovable homeless guy with a cute dog,’ all the way down the manipulative scale, to the ‘seriously sick bedridden kid with no
parents!’ Since we’re talking about stereotypes here, I may as well mention that the British characters have an unhealthy
obsession with ‘Tea and Biscuits,’ once again showing Roland
(The Patriot)
Emmerich's fine grasp of the English psyche.
Emmerich has said in an interview, "In many ways, the movie’s a testament to the people of New York, who survived
September 11 and survive this." So please be prepared to see character conflicts (both spoken and unspoken) resolved in the
most saccharine way possible, even when it really hurts the movie. A genuinely sweet burgeoning romance between Gyllenhaal
and Rossum quickly turns into a love triangle, but is then resolved in a wholly unsatisfactory way in order to make one of
the participants more likeable. This detracts from the eventual outcome because the conflict is never really won, only by
default. There’s another really manipulative scene when the plucky homeless guy shows the rich kid how to insulate himself
with paper… No, I’m being too cynical here. It’s not manipulative. It’s beautiful. Wordless gratitude and newfound respect
passes between them, years of conditioned mistrust due to different social and economic strata are cast aside in an instant,
because we are all one after a disaster… Eeeuuggghh!
Even though this film is little more than a cheap excuse to destroy stuff and a repository for every cliché and hackneyed
plot device going, I still find it hard to dislike it. What you’ll get out of it depends on what you’re expecting going in.
If you’re looking for a good time and an opportunity to shut off the old brain for a couple of hours then you should enjoy
this film… If you’re looking for anything more challenging or worthy, then this will likely be the filmic equivalent of Water
Torture, so, all I can say is caveat emptor.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
Anyone looking for an intelligent thesis on the effects of climate change should probably look elsewhere. This movie is only
really interested in hitting every disaster movie cliché ever invented, and giving the audience a good time in the process.
It’s kind of embarrassing to admit this, ...Tomorrow being from the man who shat
But, I said it was a film of two halves, and the second half is where all the flaws creep in. In the fast paced build-up to
the main event the rather thinly sketched, stereotypical characters are not too much of a problem, however, afterwards they
become a very big problem. Apart from Quaid, Rossum, Gyllenhaal and Holm, none of the actors are really given much scope to
develop the roles outside of their stock beginnings. This might be a good thing though, as when they are fleshed out the
result is usually less than good.
