The Day after Tomorrow (2004)

Director: Roland Emmerich

Starring: Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal, Emmy Rossum

Jack Hall, paleoclimatologist, must make a daring trek from Washington, D.C. to New York City to reach his son, trapped in the cross-hairs of a sudden international storm which plunges the planet into a new Ice Age.

Over the years we’ve certainly seen our share of natural disaster movies – some excellent (think ‘Armageddon’, ‘Dante’s Peak’, ‘Twister’), some excruciatingly bad (think ‘2012’ and ‘GeoStorm’). ‘The Day after Tomorrow’ falls in the good category – not excellent, not bad, and certainly better than bad.

The characters are cliched. The storms and disasters are bigger than realistically possible, and sensational. The events are highly improbable. And there’s that darn obligatory Hollywood love interest – why, just why must it be in almost every movie? There’s no place for a newfound love story in this movie. If you want to add romance, have it between a couple that’s been married or going out for some time. Not the “oh, I just realized I’m in love” scenario…pfff!

Off course there are the usual credibility issues. People make it out of situations that’s just impossible for  them to do so. I guess sensationalism outweighs reality in Hollywood. The film even gets over-sentimental at times. Despite this, though, ‘The Day after Tomorrow’ is an exciting adventure thriller. It poses the ‘what if’ scenario and I suppose one shouldn’t take it too seriously or try to analyze the facts. This is for entertainment purpose only, and in that regard it succeeds. The visual effects are good and the disaster scenes are very well made. Watch it for what it is and you will be entertained. I enjoyed it.

‘The Day after Tomorrow’ won a BAFTA for Best Achievement in Special Visual Effects. It received several other nominations. The film was also a box office success, earning $552 million at the box office, for a budget of $125 million.

Would I watch it again? Yes.