Rednecks in Space...Or, Good Old Boys Vs. The Apocalypse!

Rating: Null/10 (6 September 2003)

If you're looking for a sensitive, thoughtful look at humanity facing extinction, watch ON THE BEACH. If, however, you want to crack a beer, scratch your belly, and hoot and holler, then ARMAGEDDON is for you!
Bruce Willis, more subdued than usual, plays the world's greatest driller, who's recruited to lead his team of intellectually-challenged misfits into space to plant charges and blow up an asteroid on a collision course with Earth. His crew of stereotypes include a brash young stud (Ben Affleck, proving he quit drama class at least a couple of semesters too soon) in love with his daughter (Liv Tyler, who must have skipped her drama classes entirely); a slightly air-headed hippie (Owen Wilson, playing...Owen Wilson); a rigger with "a past" (Will Patton); a gentle giant (Michael Clarke Duncan, in his first major role); and a wise-cracking psychopath (Steve Buscemi, who looks like he went outside the spacecraft without his spacesuit).
Heading the NASA support team in Houston is Billy Bob Thornton, who gives the best overall performance in the film, and had so much fun working with Willis that the pair would team up again, in BANDITS.
Don't THINK while watching this, or you'll get yourself in trouble (I loved how NASA just happened to have some size 50XXXL spacesuits around for a couple of the beefier drillers); just run with it, and enjoy the movie for the cheesy spectacle it is! Unlike the year's other big 'Asteroid on a Collision Course with Earth' movie, DEEP IMPACT, it doesn't bog itself down in weepy melodramatic subplots...This is the Wild West in Space, with big men, lots of cool toys, and enough rootin'-tootin' explosive action to fill a dozen Saturday matinees.
Pass me a beer, and let's enjoy the show!