Mediocre disaster film.

Rating: 5/10 (7 June 2004)

THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW is your typical disaster movie: At a conference meeting, a climatologist named Jack Hall (Dennis Quaid) states his theory that with the continuing elevation of global warming, in about 100 years, the world's icecaps will melt, thereby causing disastrous floods, and then the globe will freeze over again, causing "the next Ice Age." Even though most people can see the sense in this, the board he is speaking to doesn't. Little do they know, this theory rapidly becomes true, in much less than 100 years--more like 2 days. Gigantic pieces of icebergs in Antarctica break off and then melt, increasing the water level in the ocean and causing terrible flooding all over New York City. The only people who survive are locked in buildings with little hope.
As far as disaster movies go, THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW is either at the better end of the stick or right among the pack, depending on how you look at it. On the one hand, all of the cliches are present, from the turned-away scientist looking to earn his son's love back, to said son's inevitable love interest, to said love interest's possibly lethal condition... etc. The acting is pretty poor, even from Jake Gyllenhaal (as Jack Hall's son Sam) and Dennis Quaid, who actually are good actors, but are given nothing to work with. The script is almost laughable (some people sitting behind me did laugh, actually), with more than its fair share of cheesy moments. Particularly the ending, which almost did make me laugh aloud. The direction is acceptable.
But, on the other hand, there are some good points. There are several humorous moments, as well as several genuinely tense and even scary ones. The special effects are extravagant, namely in the scenes of floods overtaking New York City. And of course, the fact that this could (and probably will) happen one day, not to us, but possibly to our grandchildren or even great-grandchildren, is pretty terrifying. Even if it is a little far-fetched.
Overall, the bad points outweigh the good ones. A simple rewrite would've done the film a lot of justice. 5/10.