Burned Books

Rating: Null/10 (31 May 2004)

Spoilers herein.
Why oh why do makers of bad films sometimes put a really good actor in a minor part? It just makes everything else seem cheap. In this case, Ian Holm has a few small scenes that anchor the film. He plays the part that Francois Truffaut played in 'Close Encounters,' that of interpreter and connection to the real work of excellent film.
This film starts the same, with vignettes from all over the world, including a nod to the snippet that Attenborough filmed in India for Spielberg. Then it simply borrows bits and pieces from other movies: the father who wants to earn fatherhood, the loyal sidekick, the guy (same guy in this case) who cuts himself from a dangling rope to save others, the black supernerd kid, the smarmy Republicans and on and on.
Its all pretty boring except for the wall of water, and we are left trying to sort out which of the 'facts' is plausible. The most unbelievable thing in this whole enterprise is the notion of a president who is the LAST to run away!
But that business about a drastic drop of temperature. At least it is novel and we have the fertile mind of Art Bell (our modern Charles Fort, who incidentally all but lived in the New York Public Library) to thank for that. But if the temperature did drop that fast and deeply, those skyscrapers would have collapsed - most especially the Empire State Building. But I guess that would have reminded us of another people who bend science to their own broken imagination.
Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.