My stone-cold opinion...

Rating: 2/10 (30 May 2004)

We all know about Roland Emmerich's uncontrollable desire to destroy the world  New York in particular  by now. After unleashing Roswell'47 aliens (Independence Day) and a giant Japanese salamander (Godzilla) upon NY, Emmerich now finds inspiration in the global warming problems. What if  a sudden new Ice Age presented itself? The basic premise of `The Day after Tomorrow' is much more logical and realistic than Emmerich's previous films, thus therefore the whole disaster takes place in a period of only a week! So far so good I mean, you can't judge a film negatively because it's far fetched. The whole thing may be scientifically unjustified, but it has to remain a little appealing to the audience, no? The dreadfulness of this film lies in the same old, disastrous clichés that keep on getting repeated over and over again. The characters couldn't be more stereotypical and the oppressed sentiment is so fake you'll feel the urge to vomit. Dennis Quaid is the dedicated workaholic who got estranged from his wife and son, but in times of need, he walks thousand of miles through snow in order to save to save his boy. And do you think he'll make it??? It gets worse The quiet, introvert boy heroically saves his girl while the boisterous older colleague sacrifices his own life by cutting the rope. And that poor, poor little cancer patientDo you think they'll be just in time to save him??? If that isn't exaggerated and fake enough, the film ends with a giant moralistic and ethical speech by the brand new President of the U.S of A. Granted, The Day after Tomorrow stuns quite a few times with amazingly impressive bad-weather effects. The professionalism of the special effects department would have been terrific if it weren't for the computer engineered wolves. They look so primitive they belong in a Stephen Sommers movie, actually. The last (positive) comment goes out to young actress Emmy Rossum. She's a beautiful teen actress who obviously has the required talent in her. I hope to see her starring in many (better) films after this. She's much better than most other cast-members, including Dennis Quaid who merely looks like a cheap Harrison Ford clone here. Jake Gyllenhaal  apparently still able to play a 17-year-old adolescent  isn't bad, but modest and intelligent films like his Donnie Darko deserve my respect a lot more than this. If you have nothing better to do with your time (when it's freezing outside or something), The Day after Tomorrow is a fair time-waster. Otherwise, it should just be skipped.