Solid Entertainment

Rating: Null/10 (26 November 2004)

I've seen several of these apocalyptic-type movies, where some natural disaster (or alien invasion) threatens the existence of humanity, i.e. - "Deep Impact," "Independence Day," and "Armageddon," but this was probably my favorite thus far. It does a better job of capturing the awe and general creepiness of the destruction of our society and all its renowned landmarks (There's a chilling shot of the New York skyline with about 100 feet of its skyscrapers protruding from a sea of snow.). My criticism of the film comes from its subplots. There are several of them, and while one of them is interesting and valuable, the others are generally a waste of time. Dennis Quaid plays Jack Hall, a government meteorologist who predicts the natural disaster, and becomes the leading authority on the subject. His son, Sam, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, is trapped in New York in the storm, and Jack bravely treks across barren fields of snow and deadly weather to rescue his son - who he's not even sure is still alive. This subplot gives the story a human connection, and allows us to experience some real emotion along with our fear and thrill. Among the other subplots, the most useless is a sweet little romance between the son, Sam, and one of his classmates, Laura. They do a decent enough job of being lovey and cute, but it's fairly difficult to care much about whether or not they end up together in light of global annihilation. Anyway, I generally recommend this film, especially for a group or a family. I was impressed with how clean it is, also. There's very little bad language, and no sexual content at all. Anyway, good, clean, fun movie. And oh yeah, the special effects are incredible.