Truly awful - skip it

Rating: 1/10 (28 March 2006)

This is a great example of a plot-driven film whose plot is absolutely awful.
Jeff Goldblum is often an interesting actor, Bill Pullman can sometimes be very good, Randy Quaid is often funny, and Will Smith has a certain charisma, but none of them can save this steaming pile of you-know-what. I can't believe any of them agreed to do this script. They must have somehow got strong-armed into doing this.
Clearly the director shares a lot of the blame here. In a movie like this, the only good parts are the violent parts and the parts in which things get blown up, but some of the explosion scenes were very poorly done. For example, in one scene, from the trajectories of the cars that are ostensibly being blown down the street, it is clear that they are just being dropped into the screen from above.
It's hard to believe that anyone would agree to direct or act in a film based on this script.
Characters are killed without first being developed at all, resulting in the viewer not caring so much when they die. The story is stupid in about three different ways. There's no way to suspend disbelief because it's so stupid. At no point during my viewing of this was I unaware that I was watching a movie--and a very bad one. The script is cliché-ridden and childish, designed for an audience of children and mental invalids.
I had always thought of Vivica Fox as kind of pretty, but she is looking pretty ugly in this one.
Trust me, you can skip this one. Don't rent it, don't buy it, and don't waste time watching it. You'll never really know how much aggravation you'll save by skipping this one, but trust me it will be a substantial amount.