Surprisingly subversive big-budget movie

Rating: Null/10 (5 June 2004)

*MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS*
I was surprised to see 'The Day After Tomorrow', the new film by Roland Emmerich, to be a delightful and also quite satirical piece of catastrophe moviemaking, with impressive special effects and a sense of visuality that has already impressed in 'Independence Day', also directed by Emmerich. The movie was the more interesting as dangers such as these are much closer and more realistic than, say, aliens from outer space attacking us. Most of the physics of the whole thing were complete bogus of course (an ocean can't freeze in only a few hours, regardless of outer temperature; even at very low temperatures people wouldn't freeze in seconds; even if the Golf current was to stop, its follow-up effects would take years, etc.), but still I think it is important to tell people that global warming will have serious effects that will affect the global climate and all of us.
The most enjoyable thing though were the really nasty bits of satire about the US government and its politics: the president is an incompetent guy who reminded me of the one in Stanley Kubrick's 'Dr Strangelove'; the vice-president is a slave of big business for whom money is more important than the environmental dangers faced by humanity. There was also a lot of irony about US citizens crossing the Mexican border illegally - but in the other direction...
A really enjoyable and surprisingly subversive piece of Hollywood moviemaking.