As a scientist and an ecologist, friends always ask me if this can really happen, which I always answer with an authorative and resounding, "Maybe!"

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Jeremy: Friedrich Nietzsche? We can't burn that! He's one of the most important thinkers in 19th Century!
Elsa: Please! Nietzsche was a chauvinist pig who was in love with his sister.
Jeremy: He was not a chauvinist pig!
Elsa: But he was in love with his sister.
Brian Parks: Uh, excuse me, guys? Yeah, we got a whole section on tax laws down here we can burn.

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This movie was a blockbuster, one of the most watched movies of 2004, but the truth is that isn't a very good movie. Not that you shouldn't watch it: it is rousing and very enjoyable. It is just not good.

The Day After Tomorrow is a formulaic 1970's disaster movie, along the lines of The Poseidon Adventure or Towering Inferno, although I think they were both better movies. As the formula goes, first you introduce a bunch of characters, then you have a disaster, and then you watch them try to survive. Some make it, some don't. The trick is to figure out at the beginning, which characters won't make it to the end. Baseball-like scorecards are handed out at the door. Extra points are awarded for guessing the last one to die.

The reason The Day After Tomorrow is so watchable, is that special effects technology has come a long way since the seventies. Here the effects are excellent, some of the best I have ever seen. I could spend the rest of this review raving about them, and for that reason alone, this is probably a movie you should see. Of course, the scale of the disaster in this movie is a little more all-encompassing than a ship capsizing or a skyscraper burning. What we are talking about is the sudden onset of an ice age and all the horrors it brings. Just the sheer awesome scope of events and the marvelous effects footage quite take your breath away. I particularly liked the twisters in LA.

The problem is, by the very nature of the disaster formula, the majority of the effects are over by the mid point of the movie. After that, the story and characters take over. Unfortunately, there really is no story or memorable characters. All the actors do their best with the material provided, but at times it is awfully thin. The characterizations are clichéd and mundane. The made-for-TV plot essentially reduces the stars to high paid, expendable extras. In fact, they are so expendable that I am not even going to bother mentioning their names here. Since you really don't care about anyone, it's hard to get involved. I was more upset about being one of the unseen millions that die, than about anyone in the movie.

After the big effects are over, the plot just runs out of steam, resorting to increasingly trivial and silly reasons to put the cast in jeopardy. Combine that with stupid, almost suicidal decisions at key moments, and the whole thing starts to feel like ducks at a shooting gallery. It's pleasant enough I suppose, and helps to pass the time while you wait for that one last big effect that always comes at the end. Hopefully, the adrenaline rush it provides will be enough to make you forget just how silly and pointless the prior hour has been.

If the movie has any saving grace, it is that for a short time, it got us talking about the environment. As I am a scientist and an ecologist, friends always ask me if this can really happen, which I always answer with an authorative and resounding, "Maybe!"

You see, there is a deep ocean current called the Gulfstream, that carries cool water to the tropics and warm water to the Arctic Circle. The driving force behind this is the warm water cooling in the arctic and sinking. As global warming warms the Earth, the icecaps melt, and the oceans become less salty. The fresher water is less dense, so does not sink as readily, and the Gulfstream slows down. Get enough fresh water into the Atlantic Ocean and this current may shut down completely; it has several times in Earth's past. The result will be a dramatic cooling in the temperate regions and an equally dramatic warming near the equator. Could this trigger a new ice age or nuclear winter? Well, in the worst case scenario, it probably could. This movie is certainly not good science, but it does have an element of truth.

So, what we have here is a pretty average 2-star B-movie, with state-of-the-art, 5-star effects. If you are one of the five people that did not see it in 2004, then you should rent the DVD, just don't expect too much.

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There is no reason not to let the kids watch this movie. It should mesh very well with their somewhat less sophisticated tastes. (Translation: they may not notice how silly it is.)

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The Day After Tomorrow (2004)

Directed by Roland Emmerich

Written by Roland Emmerich and Jeffrey Nachmanoff

Cast:
Dennis Quaid - Jack Hall
Jake Gyllenhaal - Sam Hall
Emmy Rossum - Laura Chapman
Dash Mihok - Jason Evans
Jay O. Sanders - Frank Harris
Sela Ward - Dr. Lucy Hall
Austin Nichols - J.D.
Arjay Smith - Brian Parks
Tamlyn Tomita - Janet Tokada
Sasha Roiz - Parker
Ian Holm - Terry Rapson

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Please check out some of my other movie reviews:

Finding Neverland *****
Dodgeball -- A True Underdog Story ****
Kiss of the Dragon ****
House of Flying Daggers ***
Hero *****
Sideways *****
Quest for Camelot **
The Haunted Mansion **
Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas ****
A Knight's Tale ***

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Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 9 - 12