Why They're Called "Disaster" Films

Rating: Null/10 (2 December 2004)

This movie has it all - all the trite situations, hackneyed dialogue and banal clichés you can think of. It reminded me of a National Lampoon magazine cover from the disaster-film-craze days of the mid-'70's: depicting a satiric poster for a non-existent film called "Armageddon '75," it showed an aerial view of a major urban center with a tidal wave (complete with capsizing ship) washing over it, a volcano erupting, a plane crashing...all of it during an earthquake, of course.
THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW isn't content with catastrophic global climate change; it has to cover the usual dysfunctional marriage/family ground, visit the hospital ward with the de rigueur kid dying of cancer (with whom the noble doc must stay behind after all others have evacuated) and trot out a pack of ravenous escaped wolves roaming frozen Manhattan (how come they can stay alive when the storm is flash-freezing everybody else who ventures out into it?) for good measure. Characters who are supposed to be smarter than everybody else ignore their own dire warnings and venture out on a mission of (practically) certain death, because (heavy music here), "I made a promise." Did I mention the young lovers who discover they've worshiped each other from afar but were too shy to make a move (what year is this, again?), and find romance only when it's (practically) too late?
One of director Roland Emmerich's earlier efforts in this vein, "Independence Day," tacky as it was, at least had the benefit of not taking itself too seriously; a virtue missing here. It's easy to see why those who realize the gravity of the issue of global climate change felt this silly exercise would do more damage than good to the cause.
Oh, sure, the special effects are well-rendered and impressive, but when they can do so much - so convincingly (like sail an oil tanker down a flooded Fifth Avenue) - these days without leaving the comfort of the computer terminal, one really doesn't expect any less (with a $125 million budget, anyway). It kinda takes the "special" out of "special effects."
All in all, I'd put it down at the bottom of the dramatic dumpster with "Twister," If you absolutely must see how Lady Liberty looks in snow up to her skirts - or are wondering whatever became of Perry King - and have a couple of hours to kill, go for it. But consider yourself warned: been there; done that.