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The Day After Tomorrow
This is a film that I have a love/hate relationship with. I hate parts of it because it becomes a heavy handed propoganda film as it preaches against the evils of using gas and how that is ruining the environment, when there is little evidence to suggest so, but it also has a fairly compelling storyline. I'm a sucker for the self-sacrifice to save others type of storyline that this film has.
What doesn't work well in this film, as I've already said, is the heavy handed propoganda that is in this film. There definitely is some truth to what it is saying about the troubles of polution, but the way in which it does it is most of the time not based on any aspect of reality, so it become grating because while it is a fiction film, it tries and treat these moments like it is a documentary based on fact.
But there is more good then bad in this film. The acting performances by Jake Gyllenhaal, Dennis Quaid, and Emmy Rossum are all pretty solid. Gyllenhaal and Quaid are much better then they normally are in films, and Rossum, who is normally solid, gives a good performance in this film. The side characters are also done well, with the exception of the Vice President who is a very grating character, somewhat intentionally so, but when he becomes a "good guy" at the end of the film, he is still grating.
Also this film is pretty impressive visually. They had a good amount of money to spend on the special effects and with very few exceptions, it looks good. The fact that they had to show some enormous disaster scenes and were able to pull them off without them looking bad, it is quite impressive. There are a few parts that look a little off, but they are very minor and brief, so they don't distract much at all from the film.
Overall this is a very entertaining film. If it wasn't that it tried to preach instead of just tell a story which would have had a similar effect as the preaching drops it down some in my book, but the preaching is fortunately minor. This is primarily a popcorn type of film, but it is definitely enjoyable and easy to watch.
Overall Grade B-
Story: C+
Acting: B-
Audio/Visual: B+
This is a film that I have a love/hate relationship with. I hate parts of it because it becomes a heavy handed propoganda film as it preaches against the evils of using gas and how that is ruining the environment, when there is little evidence to suggest so, but it also has a fairly compelling storyline. I'm a sucker for the self-sacrifice to save others type of storyline that this film has.
What doesn't work well in this film, as I've already said, is the heavy handed propoganda that is in this film. There definitely is some truth to what it is saying about the troubles of polution, but the way in which it does it is most of the time not based on any aspect of reality, so it become grating because while it is a fiction film, it tries and treat these moments like it is a documentary based on fact.
But there is more good then bad in this film. The acting performances by Jake Gyllenhaal, Dennis Quaid, and Emmy Rossum are all pretty solid. Gyllenhaal and Quaid are much better then they normally are in films, and Rossum, who is normally solid, gives a good performance in this film. The side characters are also done well, with the exception of the Vice President who is a very grating character, somewhat intentionally so, but when he becomes a "good guy" at the end of the film, he is still grating.
Also this film is pretty impressive visually. They had a good amount of money to spend on the special effects and with very few exceptions, it looks good. The fact that they had to show some enormous disaster scenes and were able to pull them off without them looking bad, it is quite impressive. There are a few parts that look a little off, but they are very minor and brief, so they don't distract much at all from the film.
Overall this is a very entertaining film. If it wasn't that it tried to preach instead of just tell a story which would have had a similar effect as the preaching drops it down some in my book, but the preaching is fortunately minor. This is primarily a popcorn type of film, but it is definitely enjoyable and easy to watch.
Overall Grade B-
Story: C+
Acting: B-
Audio/Visual: B+