The Day After Tomorrow
Jun. 6th, 2004 09:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
luckykaaI saw The Day After Tomorrow The day Before Yesterday. No, actually it was yesterday, but it will be the day before yesterday tomorrow, and the day before that the day after tomorrow.
I felt this would have been a great film, if only it were permissible to shout out extra dialogue at key points in the film.
So, it starts with our heroic scientist tm in the south pole. They're drilling some core samples, and he ice begins to crack. Who'd a thunk it. There's an entire continent to break through, and it just happens to choose that small area they're standing on to pass through. Anyway, because of thge percieved urgency of getting these 10 000 year old core samples back in time, out heroic scientist leaps across the crack to grab the samples.
Then there's some tedious stuff where various relationships are created from the big book of cliches. Our dashing scientist is too involved in work, and doesn't quite have enough time for his son, and the corrupt politician. Surprise as Roland Emerich actually realises that there are other countries, when they have a world conference on the environemt in India, where the heroic scientist meets the doughty British scientist, who works at a british wather research centre. And also the Son, and two other team members (one girl who the son obviously is madly in love with but she doesn't realise, the other a nerd, and therefore not remotely interested in the girl) head off to New York for the interstate spelling bee championships (Okay, it's some sort of inter-college quiz thing, but a spelling bee sounds like it could be more exciting).
So, after a bit, we get some severe weather. Multiple tornadoes rip LA to shreds, Great Britain freezes, or at least 3 helicopters do. Fortunately our stalwart British weather station has a generator and plenty of tea and biscuits for them to weather the storm.
Back to New York, the spelling bee gets cancelled, and the kids meet one of the local students, and end up quite safe in his New York appartment, with the rain pouring down outside. Since they're perfectly safe where they are, they immediately need to find an excuse to leave, so the local student goes to meet his brother. They don't quite manage, and as the place starts to get flooded, they take shelter in a library.
As they're heading in, our heroine notices that there's some difficulty with the police who can't speak spanish trying to undderstand what a woman trapped in a car is saying. I'd have guessed "Help! Get me out of here!", but that's beside the point. We need her to go back so she can cut her leg for later plot complications. So she translates the impossible to mime instruction "Cover your eyes" so the police can smash the window, and the lady and her son are saved. And they all get into the library just in time to not be killed by the tidal wave. After getting in and safe, the son wades to some public payphones, and has a long winded conversation with his folks, who want to know how he's doing, whether he's going to ask that nice girl out, and get so involved in converstaion that he forgets to say "By the way, this place is flooded, and I'll have to ring off before I drown". The scientist does manage to get across the useful message to stay inside and stay warm though. His son almost drowns, and the heroine does nothing to help him, but he survives. The flood gets worse, and a ship sails down the street, stopping just outside the library.
Meanwhile, the heroic scientist makes a dramatic speech,and we're all impressed that he's in charge and knows what do do. Various other bits happen to do with the weather, but really that's a backstory. It gets colder.
In New York, the floodwater freezes. A group of people decide they're going to walk out of New York. The scientist's son tries to persuade them they shouldn't but he gets the brushoff. A group of people walk away, and a few sensible people decide to stay in the Library, and burn books. There's a big argument abotu whether to burn a particular book before the homeless guy points out there's a load on tax law. Nobody seems to spot the large number of wooden chairs and tables that have considerably less emotional attachment
Back in LA, or wherever it is, the heroic scientist heads to New York to get his son. Sadly, his statement lacked the "Dammit!" on the end that is traditionally used to add gravitas in a disaster flick. So, they head to an area with arctic conditions in a truck. I would have thought a snowmobile would have been better. They crash, turn on the foglighs, and find that they'd hit a snowdrift. So, they walk the rest of the way, causing one of the team to fall down a hole in a shopping mall, and have to sacrifice himself.
Back in the library, heroine starts to die from blood poisoning. Someone figures that perhaps that ship has penecillin (Good thinking. Also probably has food, a generator, oil, and generally stuff that may be useful). So, they go to the ship, grap the penecilin, and get attacked by timber wolves that escaped a few scenes ago. They manage to escape though, just as the weather starts to get ludicrously cold. They rush to the library, and run as the cold chases after them. Apparently cold moves at a brisk running speed, and if frost touches you you'll immediately freeze to death, whereas it will be a nice warm temperature a couple of feet away. They get into the heated library just in time, close the doors, and the cold tries to get through, but doesn't quite manage.
Anyway, at the end of the film, the scientist rescues his son, or at least gets there so that he can send a shortwave radio call to tell the army to get him out. And they all lived happily ever after. Well, at least the characters we're expected to are about. The british weather researchers, the guys who decided to walk out, and the president are all dead, and the world economy is in tatters. But the important characters are alive, and thats what matters.
I felt this would have been a great film, if only it were permissible to shout out extra dialogue at key points in the film.
So, it starts with our heroic scientist tm in the south pole. They're drilling some core samples, and he ice begins to crack. Who'd a thunk it. There's an entire continent to break through, and it just happens to choose that small area they're standing on to pass through. Anyway, because of thge percieved urgency of getting these 10 000 year old core samples back in time, out heroic scientist leaps across the crack to grab the samples.
Then there's some tedious stuff where various relationships are created from the big book of cliches. Our dashing scientist is too involved in work, and doesn't quite have enough time for his son, and the corrupt politician. Surprise as Roland Emerich actually realises that there are other countries, when they have a world conference on the environemt in India, where the heroic scientist meets the doughty British scientist, who works at a british wather research centre. And also the Son, and two other team members (one girl who the son obviously is madly in love with but she doesn't realise, the other a nerd, and therefore not remotely interested in the girl) head off to New York for the interstate spelling bee championships (Okay, it's some sort of inter-college quiz thing, but a spelling bee sounds like it could be more exciting).
So, after a bit, we get some severe weather. Multiple tornadoes rip LA to shreds, Great Britain freezes, or at least 3 helicopters do. Fortunately our stalwart British weather station has a generator and plenty of tea and biscuits for them to weather the storm.
Back to New York, the spelling bee gets cancelled, and the kids meet one of the local students, and end up quite safe in his New York appartment, with the rain pouring down outside. Since they're perfectly safe where they are, they immediately need to find an excuse to leave, so the local student goes to meet his brother. They don't quite manage, and as the place starts to get flooded, they take shelter in a library.
As they're heading in, our heroine notices that there's some difficulty with the police who can't speak spanish trying to undderstand what a woman trapped in a car is saying. I'd have guessed "Help! Get me out of here!", but that's beside the point. We need her to go back so she can cut her leg for later plot complications. So she translates the impossible to mime instruction "Cover your eyes" so the police can smash the window, and the lady and her son are saved. And they all get into the library just in time to not be killed by the tidal wave. After getting in and safe, the son wades to some public payphones, and has a long winded conversation with his folks, who want to know how he's doing, whether he's going to ask that nice girl out, and get so involved in converstaion that he forgets to say "By the way, this place is flooded, and I'll have to ring off before I drown". The scientist does manage to get across the useful message to stay inside and stay warm though. His son almost drowns, and the heroine does nothing to help him, but he survives. The flood gets worse, and a ship sails down the street, stopping just outside the library.
Meanwhile, the heroic scientist makes a dramatic speech,and we're all impressed that he's in charge and knows what do do. Various other bits happen to do with the weather, but really that's a backstory. It gets colder.
In New York, the floodwater freezes. A group of people decide they're going to walk out of New York. The scientist's son tries to persuade them they shouldn't but he gets the brushoff. A group of people walk away, and a few sensible people decide to stay in the Library, and burn books. There's a big argument abotu whether to burn a particular book before the homeless guy points out there's a load on tax law. Nobody seems to spot the large number of wooden chairs and tables that have considerably less emotional attachment
Back in LA, or wherever it is, the heroic scientist heads to New York to get his son. Sadly, his statement lacked the "Dammit!" on the end that is traditionally used to add gravitas in a disaster flick. So, they head to an area with arctic conditions in a truck. I would have thought a snowmobile would have been better. They crash, turn on the foglighs, and find that they'd hit a snowdrift. So, they walk the rest of the way, causing one of the team to fall down a hole in a shopping mall, and have to sacrifice himself.
Back in the library, heroine starts to die from blood poisoning. Someone figures that perhaps that ship has penecillin (Good thinking. Also probably has food, a generator, oil, and generally stuff that may be useful). So, they go to the ship, grap the penecilin, and get attacked by timber wolves that escaped a few scenes ago. They manage to escape though, just as the weather starts to get ludicrously cold. They rush to the library, and run as the cold chases after them. Apparently cold moves at a brisk running speed, and if frost touches you you'll immediately freeze to death, whereas it will be a nice warm temperature a couple of feet away. They get into the heated library just in time, close the doors, and the cold tries to get through, but doesn't quite manage.
Anyway, at the end of the film, the scientist rescues his son, or at least gets there so that he can send a shortwave radio call to tell the army to get him out. And they all lived happily ever after. Well, at least the characters we're expected to are about. The british weather researchers, the guys who decided to walk out, and the president are all dead, and the world economy is in tatters. But the important characters are alive, and thats what matters.
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Date: 2004-06-08 02:23 am (UTC)Tosh!?
Date: 2004-06-08 02:39 am (UTC)It suffers a little in that the special effects are quite good (i.e. Simple and convincing rather than "Look what what we can do with out computers!", and, as I mentioned, the dialogue is completely lacking in "Dammit"s, but apart from that, it's a great movie.
Re: Tosh!?
Date: 2004-06-08 02:50 am (UTC)