The Day After Tomorrow

Roland Emmerich 2004

The 1970’s gave us many things, most of which, thankfully, I am far too young to remember. However, I do know that this was the decade of the disaster movie. A time when any gathering of people could at any moment be subject to sudden trauma. Well it seems that those times are back…bigger, bolder and to a certain extent better.

If you didn’t know, this film stars Jake Gyllenhaal, an actor I have an…ahem…affection for. Therefore I will be honest and say that I am biased towards this film.

Basically this film shows us what would happen if Global Warming continued and the climate got so screwed up we would go into another Ice Age. On another level it is a father reconciling with his slightly estranged son…Finding Nemo with Ice.
This film contains some of the best special effects I have seen in a long time, but however these can’t quite make up for some of the weaker points of the plot.

I would love to see a film that didn’t revolve around families, either breaking down or making up. Or romantic sub-plots that seem to be crow barred in at the last moment. This film also suffered from added peril, imminent temperature drop that will kill instantly…not enough, add some wolves. Jake Gyllenhaal and friends in mortal danger…not enough, add a kid in hospital too. I also felt that this film was trying too hard to include lots of different countries...and rather annoyingly kept putting captions on the screen to tell us where we are.

However, what we are treated too is Jake Gyllenhaal in his boxer shorts, which makes up for so many cinematic sins.

This film is essentially "Independence Day" with bad weather instead of aliens. Not great but an enjoyable 2 hours, enough special effects (and Jake) to wow you.