Read the book. Spoilers.

Rating: Null/10 (31 May 2004)

"The Day After Tomorrow" is a cataclysmal frolic that makes so little sense it is frustrating. Why would any parent let a child travel when the world's weather is acting strangely violent? Other commentators have pointed out the beyond-belief plot points (i.e. trying to drive to a frozen NYC when 3 RAF copters were flash frozen into uselessness moments before...right up there with driving a truck through a lava flow, which I recall from another film...)
I was also concerned by the opening sequences. I felt that if I were viewing a genuine helicopter flyover, it was recorded at such fast speed that the images blurred. I rubbed my eyes. Then I felt that I was seeing not-very-good CG effects. This did not bode well. The "wolves" that looked like dogs and acted nothing like wolves were enough to make me want to go home and put on a DVD of "Dances With Wolves". The animals locked in their zoo cages as flood waters were rising (except the smart wolves that broke out) with their handlers ignoring them really was disturbing. Add to this the President sitting in the oval office, not wanting to leave, as the city is freezing, glancing reluctantly at his desk......Sigh. No way the President's security would allow such a set up.
Dennis Quaid, for his part, struggles valiantly to save the world, the U.S., his son, friends, and even his marriage. He gives a heroic effort in the face of some rather difficult to believe plot lines and not very special effects.
Sela Ward adds a warm performance under similar hard-to-believe conditions, although her character has little to do; such a waste of a talented lady. Jake Glyllenhaal as Sam, Quaid's son, sure looks like Tobey Maguire's younger brother. His performance was believable and human. Expect to see more from this young man. The actors do try to make a go of it; worth viewing the film for their performances.
One line of dialogue struck a bell, though. The kids (Sam and co.)go to the Museum of Natural History and look at the mammoth that was purportedly flash frozen in ancient times with the food it was chewing in its mouth, having had time only to lift its head up as the temperature plummeted from around a summery 80 degrees Fahrenheit to -150. I had read about this in a book about 2 years ago, "The Coming Global Superstorm", by Art Bell and Whitley Strieber. Sure enough, in the ending credits, the movie credits this book as its source for its concepts. The book was not an easy read; but it eventually got round to its points in the final chapters. It did present some interesting arguments, however. And some of its predictions have been occurring.
All the typical Hollywood political jibes aside, (I found them as distracting as the effects)some of the science is worth thinking about, though I, too, would question the eons-to years-to days compression of the film. A recent program on PBS pointed out that the magnetic poles are in the process of beginning to shift. A "bubble" of opposite polarity already exists, which modelers indicate is the beginning of the process. It has been theorized that a reversal of the magnetic poles could bring about such climactic conditions and/or the salinity changes could effectively reverse the currents of the oceans. As the polar ice caps melt, the salinity of the seas is decreasing. Many marine animals are dying and becoming endangered and immunocompromised. Red flags SHOULD be running up all of our poles. We are all inextricably linked on this planet.
Within recent weeks we have seen an early tropical cyclone-type system near Peru in early May, I believe, and another one has been sitting upon Haiti and the Dominican Republic, with thousands dying. It's not even hurricane season yet, technically. The scientists/modelers and insurance folk that often fund their research seem slow on the uptake of Mother Nature's latest changes (our bureaucracy?). The last few years storms have been rather mild (a Floridian's viewpoint)but though not even classed as tropical storms, the storms have been landfalling tropical systems and have spawned tornadoes as they came ashore, and then they were so large in dimension that some filled the entire Gulf of Mexico or were able to be on both sides of the Florida peninsula at once, sucking energy off the Gulf while leaving the Atlantic. And they did not just "die" after landfall. Some went off to the Midwest to cause flooding. We had the worst rain/tornadoes from a system that was not a tropical storm, by wind speed criteria (Alison). But the damage was as severe(windstorm from tornadoes and major flooding). The storms have been larger, slower moving, and heavy rain producers. The modelers have not--at least as far as I have gleaned from the Weather Channel--changed any classification systems to match Mother Nature's inventions of the last 3 to 4 years. A recent interview indicated that the modelers feel their ability to track storms has improved. But to predict...ah, there is the rub.
Now, if everyone reading this would please go park their SUVs and find something more economical to drive that does not pollute as much....we might have a snowball's chance. But if folks insist on keeping them, start kitting them out with spare parts, fluids, and arctic gear. And for those of us in Florida that will go below sea level as the polar ice melts (a prequel to "Water World"?), try scuba gear and a cinder block.
This film could have been scarier if more realistic in its special effects and plot lines. I am afraid the summer movie-going public will just laugh the entire concept off, rather than rethink the need for that SUV/truck, or consider green house effects, species extinction, and current weather phenomena. Thank you, Mr. Quaid, for tackling a role with a social conscience, albeit with flawed production technicalities. Frankly, showing such incredible weather changes is a tall order for the effects folks.