Three hours of my life I'll never get back (1 star for effects)

Rating: 1/10 (21 June 2001)

I had mixed feelings before I went to see this movie. It looked like the kind of big Hollywood blockbuster/epic I avoid (still haven't seen Titanic) but I like Armageddon enough to own it. So I thought I would give Michael Bay the benefit of the doubt. Don't make my mistake.
I should have asked myself, "What would it be like to be in a theater for three hours of the all parts in Armageddon that I skip over at home?"
Don't get me wrong. I LIKE old movies from the 40's. I like Ben Affleck. I like love stories. I like movies about war, and wartime and all that. But this was too sappy, too contrived, too over-the-top. Suspension of disbelief was not an option. I laughed inappropriately at moments of 'high drama' several times. The actual bombing scenes were spectacular. It was just the other two and half hours I could have lived without. That's not even true, really. This might have been edited into a great 90-100 minute movie. As it is, I called the ending about 40 minutes into it.
Oh, and I thought Cuba Gooding Jr. and Tom Sizemore's parts were more like cameos.