Ah, back to those thrilling days of...

Rating: Null/10 (7 June 2004)

...the 1970s, when we saw such big-budget blockbuster disaster movies as "Earthquake" (in SENSURROUND!) and Irwin Allen's "The Poseidon Adventure" and "The Towering Inferno". I have to admit, I loved these movies as a kid, though "Poseidon" is likely the only one that even remotely holds up.
Even so, when I saw the ads for "The Day After Tomorrow", I felt a long-forgotten chill of excitement run through me. The disaster movie is BACK, baby!
This is not really a very good movie, but I liked it anyway, and give it a marginal recommendation. The script is cliched (right down to the "we have to do something before it's too late!" dialogue), parts of the story downright asinine (you just KNEW those wolves were going to show up at an inconvenient time), but the effects were incredible, and some of the story lines turned out to be fairly interesting. That I've always liked Dennis Quaid, and I'm happy to see him find work, only adds to my enjoyment.
Normally, I'd say wait for video. However, some of the disaster sequences are utterly spectacular and truly demand big-screen viewing. In particular, the scene where the tidal wave first washes around the Statue of Liberty and into Manhattan is breathtaking.
By the way, as silly as much of this is, there are a few grains of intelligence behind this story. I doubt the science is meant to be taken seriously at all, but the film does leave us with the message that if we continue to abuse the environment, it may turn on us in drastic and unexpected ways. And I liked the irony that Americans are forced to flee south to Mexico, suggesting that perhaps it's worth improving relations with the developing world because we never know when we'll need them...
Call it 7/10, for spectacular special effects and some nostalgia.