The Day After Tomorrow (2004) Movie Information:

The Day After Tomorrow (2004) Directed by: Roland Emmerich The Day After Tomorrow (2004) Written by: Roland Emmerich, Jeffrey Nachmanoff, Art Bell, Whitley Strieber The Day After Tomorrow (2004) Cast: Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal, Emmy Rossum, Dash Mihok, Jay Sanders, Sela Ward, Austin Nichols, Arjay Smith, Tamlyn Tomita, Sasha Roiz

The Day After Tomorrow (2004) U.S. Distributor: 20th Century Fox The Day After Tomorrow (2004) U.K. Distributor: 20th Century Fox

Our Rating: User Rating:  Log in to rate this movie

The Day After Tomorrow (2004) Synopsis:

What if we are on the brink of a new Ice Age? This is the question that haunts climatologic Jack Hall. Hall's research indicates that global warming could trigger an abrupt and catastrophic shift in the planet's climate. While Jack warns the White House of the impending climate shift, his 17 year-old son Sam finds himself trapped in New York City where he and some friends have been competing in a high school academic competition. He must now cope with the severe flooding and plummeting temperatures in Manhattan. Having taken refuge inside the Manhattan Public Library, Sam manages to reach his father by phone. Jack only has time for one warning: stay inside at all costs. As full-scale, massive evacuations to the south begin, Jack heads north to New York City to save Sam. But not even Jack is prepared for what is about to happen--to him, to his son, and to his planet.

The Day After Tomorrow (2004) Movie Review:

A nagging, disappointing familiarity torments us throughout this apocalyptic disaster movie. And the problem isn't that this is a bad film, but that it reminds us of far better ones. And it proves that corny premises do not need to have appallingly lame dialog and subplots.

Jack Hall (Quaid) is a climatologist who's right about global warming ... except that it's happening right now instead of a century in the future. The world is in the grip of crazily destructive weather, the President and Vice-President (King and Welsh) won't do anything, and Jack's ex-wife (Ward) is worried that their son Sam (Gyllenhaal) is trapped in Manhattan, which of course he is. So Jack gets all heroic and heads to New York with his colleagues (Mihok and Sanders), while Sam and a huddled mass of survivors tries to stay alive as the new ice age dawns.

It's all terribly exciting, and Emmerich clearly loves trashing New York and L.A. on screen (he's done it before). There's enough outrageous end-of-the-world stuff to keep us entertained, and the cast give it everything they've got. Sadly, they get no help from Emmerich, since the script abandons all of them when they need it most; the characters are paper thin, the plotting is lazy and the dialog is painfully earnest. The only joy in watching this film is in the over-the-top disaster effects and a series of extremely witty sight gags.

Otherwise, this was done more profoundly in Deep Impact and with more wit in The Core. Not to mention obvious references to Titanic and AI, plus a general lack of logic (if trapped in a freezing library, which would keep you warmer: burning the books ... or the wooden chairs?). And why do we never see anything outside North America, besides two guys (Lester and Holm) huddled in their Scottish weather station? There are a couple of contrived romantic subplots, a one too many sermons and way more digital sequences that were required. Some of the catastrophes are impressive, but others (like the wolves at the zoo) are just pointless. The whole film feels stingy and vacuous. And it's only barely trashy enough to be fun.

Our Rating: User Rating:  Log in to rate this movie

The Day After Tomorrow (2004) review written by: Rich Cline