So endlessly forced and yet so endlessly beautiful...great effects!!

Rating: Null/10 (28 August 2011)

The Day after Tomorrow (2004)
Great and terrible.
Wow, the effects are amazing, pure and simple. But--hey, look, really, this is such an absurd idea taken this far you have to laugh. And it's quite funny at times, not only when it wants to be (there are some funny one liners) but also in the whole scenario. And at other times it's seriously serious, action-adventure stuff.
Of course you can't take any of it seriously, and so you go with the flow here and think the world's weather really could go south in a few days, that helicopters could run into a storm that would freeze the gas in the lines and make them crash, that a series of really pretty and awful tornadoes could wipe out Los Angeles in an hour, and so on. It's great visual stuff, and it's a perfect movie to watch while Hurricane Irene blows past and the trees are shaking their booty.
Here's what's great. First, a huge range of scenes of terrifying weather, beautifully depicted. We're talking all kinds of hugely awful disasters, and lots of snow. Second, the acting though routine is vigorous and up to the task of talking over the storm noises and flashing lights. It's all pretty intense, start to finish. Even the Cheney-like vice-president plays his part well. And the idea that people are good is permeated in every scene. There are no looters, no selfish fools, just heroes and beautifully charitable people. It's too much, of course, but it's what you would hope for.
What's fun? Lots of stuff. The homeless guy who knows good practical street stuff the rest don't know, the librarians who love books so much, the guys in space (brief but a new look), and all the weathermen who get whacked by flying buses. Okay, not so fun, but it's part of the free-for-all that is this movie. The wolves are amazing.
What's wrong? Well, the science is bad, if anyone cares. An example comes right at the beginning when there is a large image of the ocean currents in the Atlantic, and the Gulf Stream is shown going backwards, or so it seems. It gets cold rather fast and rather extremely (150 below Fahrenheit). The hurricanes forming over land (without explanation) are gigantic. New York is abandoned (all 8 million people) except for a handful in said library. And the endless exceptionalism of people doing exactly what they are told they shouldn't do because they just have to. And their flashlights keep working, days later. Lucky.
German director Roland Emmerich has a handful of similarly excessive films (like "Independence Day"), and I think he isn't a bad director. I say this only to point out that he wrote the story and screenplay, too, and that's where the weakness lies, for sure.
Maybe this is a test of personality. If you are an optimist, you'll enjoy what's good here, and there are so many terrific scenes you can't help but just look sometimes at the effect and the set design. It's a disaster film, pure and simple.