Ignore the critics, Armageddon is lots of fun

Rating: 8/10 (23 January 2000)

When the message "65 million years later" appears on screen after a brief voice over explaining the dangers of an asteroid hitting the Earth, you know that a movie is not going to be serious. Indeed, whether you enjoy Armageddon is going to depend entirely on your personal taste. If you can except the end of the World as a piece of pure hokum, then you're going to have a barrel of fun. If not, then you'd better watch Deep Impact. Clearly all the critics' have far too good taste and they tried desperately to bury it. The rest of World didn't quite agree. Can a $450,000,000 gross be that far off the mark? The (admittedly ludicrous) plot centers on Bruce Willis as an oil drilling expert whose sent up into space nuke an asteroid heading for earth with a motley crew of workers including Affleck and Buscemi, giving the opportunity for some truly dazzling special effect. It also make as nice change to see a city other than an American one be destroyed in a film, as Paris gets hit by one of the fore running meteorites. Yet this mindless premise is pulled off extremely well. The first half will have you laughing at the steady stream of gags and one-liners and the second will have your heart pumping over-time as everything that could go the mission does: with a vengeance. Yet unlike the 1991 Willis flop Hudson Hawk, somehow all the noise, the action, the explosions are not at all numbing as Roger Ebert and co. would have you believe. In fact director Michael Bay orchestrates it far better and the result, for all its ridiculous story and brainless action, makes for a thrilling and unforgettable time at the movies.