The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
Starring: Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal, Sela Ward and Ian Holms
Written and Directed by Roland Emmerich
124 minutes.
Rated PG-13
The Day After Tomorrow was the summer’s first big blockbuster. It plays like a disaster film of the 1960s and 70s, but it’s still a lot of fun. Like most summer film it’s filled with special effects and little story, but somehow the cast manages to pull everything together into an entertaining two hours.
Quaid stars as a climatologist who has theories about global warming melting the polar icecaps, which in turn would cool the northern ocean currents and just start a new ice age. Sure enough his ideas become all too true, all too quickly. Soon massive storms, tornadoes and floods hit the northern hemisphere causing huge damage. Gyllenhaal plays Quaid’s son, who gets trapped in a public library in Manhattan. Quaid then sets out to find his son and bring him back to safety.
The film is the latest from Roland Emmerich, who is sometimes good (Stargate) and sometimes not so good (Independence Day, The Patriot, Godzilla). Emmerich got the idea from the film from a book entitled, The Coming Global Superstorm by former late night radio talk show host Art Bell and Whitley Striber. Plot has never been a strong point for Emmerich, but he pulls off a story that is, overall, not too bad. The film takes a political stance that we need to stop relying on the world’s fossil fuels and slow down green house gasses. The President and Vice President in the film are modeled after Bush and Cheney, and it’s pretty clear who runs the show!
The special effects are what hold the film together. The first hour is an amazing display of effects works that is top notch. The second hour slows down a bit and tries to bring more character relationship into view. It works to a degree. A film like this is never going to get deep into characterization, and it’s not going to be overtly moving in any way. This is a summer movie made to make as much money as possible before the next summer movie comes out. This is a trend that more times than not, produces garbage. The Day After Tomorrow is pretty good for what it is, a fun summer movie.
The performances are pretty good. Gyllenhaal, who is most known for his indie work and the film Donnie Darko (recently released in a direct cut edition), does a good job with his first major studio film. Quaid and Ward are equally adequate as his parents. Ian Holms, as always, is excellent with the little screen time he was given.
This film won’t win any awards, but it shows that Roland Emmerich can still make a good, exciting and interesting action piece. Fans of the genre will love it. Other will have a good time as well.
Grade: B
Written by David Bohnert