Big dumb fun - but far too OTT and far too long

Rating: Null/10 (15 February 2002)

When several eastern seaboard cities are struck by small meteorites causing significant damage and loss of life the Government look further into space to find a bigger meteorite the size of Texas heading for Earth. The meteorite will destroy the earth, wiping out all life. Oil rig owner Harry Stamper and his crew are employed by NASA to join the elite programme put together to destroy the meteorite. The plan is to drill 800ft into the rock, plant a nuclear device causing the meteorite to split in two, with both pieces missing the Earth. The team face a huge amount of challenges on the way to their goal.
In the summer of two "danger from space" meteor movies (Deep Impact being the other), this was the less thoughtful but the more enjoyable. This is very much an action movie, from the first time we see Stamper chasing an employee round an oil rig with a shotgun, we know that we're not in for a thoughtful, reflective film. Instead this is all about spectacle - New York is destroyed - in fact everything is destroyed! The training section of the film is funny but again it is all OTT. The rest of the film is all about action without reason. For example the team stops at a USSR space station to refuel and blow it up accidentally - that's the way it works, everything they touch explodes.
This gets a little tiring after a while and I got to the point where I was almost numb to the action onscreen. The only breaks from the explosions are scenes of soppy sentiment that don't really work. In all it never really gets anywhere near a clever film however it's still quite enjoyable in a summer blockbuster kind of way.
The cast is superb! They all play it with their tongue in cheek so they all seem to be having fun. Willis is good, but his character is stupid and poorly developed. Thornton, Patton, Buscemi, Wilson, Duncan and Stormare all add class and are good despite the material. However Affleck and Tyler are both poor, he must be the heroic romantic man and he clearly can't do it (not his fault, his character is far too serious for this) while Tyler is forced to do all the emotional wailing and crying (again not suited to the dumb action stuff). I could easily have done without both of them to make a better film.
Overall, this isn't Shakespeare - it's a dumb action film. It's constant explosions and stupid action scenes get a bit tiring but it's all packaged together in such a slick way that it's difficult not to enjoy it.