The Day After Tomorrow, a disaster of a movie
The Day After fucking Tomorrow! What a movie! They don’t get much more ridiculous than this one, brother. Take Independence Day, change the aliens for various and sundry deadly weather disasters, and you’ve got yourself one hell of a summer blockbuster. Now that’s good shit.
Except it’s horrible. Wow, that’s a bad movie. Luckily, I saw the film in a packed theater of drunken, post-Dillo Day Northwestern students who enthusiastically jeered the laughable dialog as loudly as I did. Favorite moments in the movie:
- “Just tell her how you feel.” This was said by the super-rich prep school kid to the smart-yet-rebellious Sam as he gazes upon his love interest. This part is funny because, like, damn, I want to see some tornadoes tear shit up, not this guy try to mack this girl.
- Sam, the smart-yet-rebellious son of smart-yet-rebellious main character Jack Hall, attempts to save people before they venture out to certain death in the cold. “Wait, stop! My dad’s a climatologist!” This is funny because if I were one of those people, I would have told him to go fuck himself and his climatologist father, too.
- The three brave, young lads make it back to the safety of the warm NYC Library just in the nick of time before evil subzero Ice Monster envelops them. Random guy from theater audience yells out, “I’m on the edge of my seat!” This was funny because the weather was trying to kill people.
- Evil Dick Cheney-esque President makes pathetic speech at end of movie describing the lessons we’ve learned as an arrogant, industrial nation. We can’t go on using nonrenewable energy resources forever, says the penitent president. “Yes we can!” yells Mark from the row in front of me. I laugh, really hard.
- “George Bush in 2004!” This was yelled by me at the conclusion of the movie. This was funny because other people probably thought I was making fun of George Bush, but I was actually encouraging them to vote for him and protest against poppycock movies like The Day After Tomorrow. I was proud of myself for yelling this.
The movie would be funny enough as a standalone, piece-of-crap of Hollywood blockbuster. It is doubly hilarious, however, in that liberal crazies are trying to use it to promote their envirowacky agenda. Yeah, I’m serious—they think that a movie where Scotland suddenly has a cool front move in with temperatures of -150°F is credible. But hey, nobody expects wackos to know they’re wacko; we have to tell them that.
See here: MoveOn.org thinks this is a great opportunity for a publicity blitz.
It’s an exaggerated story, designed to thrill, but it will leave people wondering, “Could this really happen?” This weekend, thousands of MoveOn members will be handing out flyers, answering people’s questions, and giving them a way to take action.
This is an unparalleled opportunity to help people do something to prevent a climate crisis. Twenty million people are expected to see this movie.
The film’s website is also a good place for entertainment. Want some “facts” on global warming? TheDayAfterTomorrow.com wants it to be known that, “In 2003, the hottest European summer on record caused more than 20,000 deaths.” Unfortunately, they failed to mention that all but 9 of these fatalities were caused by vacationing French workers who left their elderly parents to bake to death in apartments without air conditioning. Now how’s that for awareness, baby!
Hell, even climatologists are jumping on the bandwagons. Some guy named Stefan Rahmstorf, a real-life, thinking, feeling, breathing scientist, seems to kinda dig this ridiculous movie.
I think it would be a mistake and not do the film justice if scientists simply dismiss it as nonsense. For what it is, a blockbuster movie that has to earn back 120 M$ production cost, it is probably as good as you can get. For this type of movie for a very broad audience it is actually quite subversive and manages to slip in many thought-provoking things. I’m sure people will not confuse the film with reality, they are not stupid - they will know it is a work of fiction. But I hope that it will stir their interest for the subject, and that they might take more notice when real climate change and climate policy will be discussed in future.
Again, that lovely theme. “Hey, we know this film’s fucking retarded. We know it’s not real. We know it’s laughable pseudoscience. But if it scares people about global warming, that can’t be a bad thing!” It’s almost as if those silly liberals are making a modern day pitch for an eco-nut version of Reefer Madness.
Of course, most film critics, liberal though they may be, had too hard of a time choking back the vomit on this one to give it the thumbs up. Hence the 47% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. And the dialogue really made for hilarious fodder in the reviews. But hey, if you want to be wowed by the special effects, make sure to see it in the theater. If you’re just in it for the political nuance and the dialogue (like I was), this one’s ripe for a rental.
May 14th, 2006 at 5:34 pm
This is an interesting viewpoint, but where to begin.
Well lets just say that this review represents something of a twisted conservative/punk kid viewpoint. First the cusswords, ensure no one takes it seriously. Second, the giving of the responses to some of the movie’s lines, by some of the other prepubescent’s onhand made more of an impression on the frivility, and carelessness of this generation as a whole, than of the movie itself.
It is true, like 99 percent of all movies, The Day After Tomorrow has flaws, or even things id have done differently than the characters, but it is an awesome movie.
My father, a very critical man, gives it 3 stars, and from him, that is high praise indeed.
Oh, and for the young man, who took the time to trash this movie, this is for you.
I am 29 years old, not an old fart, as you might think from my words.
Obviously my opinion of my own generation, and of the one following mine, is very low, lol.
I am a conservative, a member of the RNC, and have voted republican my entire life.
However, my one disagreement with the republican party’s views is on the environment.
First I grew up in the 80’s, going to bed everynight, wondering if we’d all die in a nuclear war before morning.
Since I live less than 50 miles from Whitemen airforce base (wheres the stealths are kept) this is quite understandable.
Second, the longer we continue to burn fossil fuels, pollute the atmosphere, pollute the oceans, lakes and streams, cut down every tree, clear every stretch of land for more houses, the liklihood that something like the day after tomorrow may happen, increases.
AND, get this if you can.
The rate of increase, is increasing. Get it?