Far-fetched Sci-Fi movie that entertains with good special effects and sound track.

Rating: Null/10 (21 October 2004)

Good movie to watch for the entertainment if one doesn't take it too seriously. I didn't like Dennis Quaid's 'sad-sack' character here, but the others were all good. And for some, it may make you think about what damage we Earthlings really are doing to our environment.
LEVEL ONE: The movie is beautifully filmed. The special effects are as realistic as they can be for such a fictional premise. The snow, the cracking of the ice shelf in Antarctica, the tidal waves crashing into NYC. The surround sound track, reproduced realistically in a good home theater system, adds greatly to the mood of the movie.
LEVEL TWO: This is Sci-Fi fantasy, what would happen if global warming disrupted the Atlantic flow which keeps the northern hemisphere warm? Could this result in hurricane-like storms over land which would suck down very cold air, with resultant unusually heavy snow and freeze-killing of anything left outside?
LEVEL THREE: Some may read into this movie a political message about how we are dooming our future generations by failing to control pollution, especially that which leads to global warming. However, I don't, not to any greater extent than any Sci-Fi movie does. To me, it was chosen simply as a premise for a good story.
SPOILERS FOLLOW, QUIT READING. The human element story was the father, weather scientist, not spending enough time with his high school son. Son goes with other students from DC to NYC for a knowledge contest, get trapped there in the NYC library as the frosty storm moves over NYC. Manages to get dad on the phone who tells him to stay there, do not go outside, do anything to keep warm. Dad, experienced in Antarctica, vows to get his son, even if it means hiking to NYC. Which he has to do after they find the road blocked. One of his three-man team dies after falling into the snow-covered glass dome of an indoor mall. Students end up burning books in the library to keep from freezing. Girl with a cut leg gets infected, they have to brace the cold and three wolves to get penicillin for her aboard a ship that had run aground in the street outside after the tidal wave. President dies in plane crash, Vice takes over, orders evacuation of lower USA to Mexico, gives up on northern states. Much of the human story gets very 'hokey', and to me takes away from the drama of the Sci-Fi part, but overall an enjoyable movie for the Sci-Fi entertainment value.