Good for the first half hour

Rating: Null/10 (14 June 2004)

Mostly great effects for the first half hour or so, with various places being spectacularly destroyed (in America, mainly). Unfortunately, the complete inattention to the script, uncharismatic characters and implausible plot mechanics dragged the film down thereafter. Dennis Quaid is not Harrison Ford, unfortunately, and Jake Gyllenhaal better realize that reading the script in a deliberative manner combined with vacant stares does not constitute acting. It is a shame that with the vast budget for films like these that some funds are not used to hire a decent scriptwriter or to develop the screenplay. Scenes that should have had some feeling to them (simply because of disaster film conventions) were curiously devoid of impact, such as Quaid's wife being left behind with the cancer victim during the storm. As for the notion of the President being the last to leave Washington DC, well, you know that that is a preposterous idea.