Hopefully, this is as ridiculous as this genre will get.

Rating: 6/10 (29 July 1998)

Βay and Bruckheimer have created this film based on what they think the public wants to see, not based on a story or message that they want to convey. In far too many respects, I get the feeling that plot elements, dialogue, or settings are inserted because of their mass appeal, and how they will look in 30-second TV spots. This is to action films what "Moonraker" was to the James Bond series: an utter contrivance, in which characters and logic are sacrificed in order to set up an unlikely but visually spectacular situation. Just as Bond was returned to his roots in subsequent films, we can only hope that those responsible for this film realize that they've pushed the envelope (and their luck) far enough. Now that we've narrowly avoided extinction from an incoming Texas-sized cliché, one hopes that the next film from Bruckheimer features a better plot and more intelligence, not a bigger disaster with a dumber redneck hero. If we keep going along this path, we'll have a high-school dropout garage mechanic preventing a supernova by swallowing a nuclear weapon and belching the national anthem at the sun.