Action/Sci-Fi
Cast
Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal, Emmy Rossum, Sela Ward
Director
Roland Emmerich
Release Date
May 28, 2004
Rating
PG-13
My Rating
B-
The movie opens with a group of scientists sitting on an ice shelf. Not very exciting�until the ice shelf cracks and their drill falls to the ocean. Well, Dennis Quaid's character, Jack Hall, was on that ice shelf and he comes up with this theory that the North Atlantic Current is changing. Just from this one incident. Anyway, he tells the U.N. that the climate could drastically change and that would cause the next Ice Age. No one in the U.N. believes him, not even his boss. What made me think during the movie was Jack's job�he is a paleoclimatoligist, I don't know how to spell it so just bear with me. Anyway, he's a guy that studies weather in the past. Why the heck is he speaking at U.N. conferences? I would have thought that his job would be one of less importance, but I could be wrong. Moving on, Jack is a bad father because he's never home and doesn't spend any time with his son, Sam, played by Jake Gyllenhaal. Sam, meanwhile, is going to New York to compete in an academic triathlon. The only reason he's on that team is to be with the girl he likes. Back to Jack, immediately after he makes his speech about the North Atlantic Current changing, the weather starts to get all screwy. But he meets this guy who studies the Current, played by Ian Holm. He tells Jack that he believes him and so on and so forth. Anyway, soon after that, the major storms start developing and people start dying. Sam, meanwhile, is in New York and he tells everyone to stay inside because it's going to get so cold that any person out in the open will freeze to death. But no one listens to him and he and his friends stay inside the New York Public Library. That actually works for them because they need some kind of fuel source to keep them warm for the time being and what better way to stay warm than to burn books�personally, I love books and would've hated to burn the books. But what can a cold person do except become Guy Montag and burn books (he's from Fahrenheit 451 for anyone who hasn't read it). Well, Jack finds out that Sam is still alive and decides to go save him and actually keep a promise for once. So begins his journey from Washington D.C. to New York to save his son. And that's basically the movie�because I don't want to spoil the ending�not that you couldn't guess it�but I still don't want to ruin it for the few who can't guess what happens in the end.
All in all, the graphics were ok�I thought the pack of wolves was CGI but I'm actually not quite sure about that so I'm not going to say anything bad about them. I was so angry, though, when a bunch of twisters destroyed Los Angeles. I love Los Angeles and it made me mad seeing it destroyed. Anyway�the story was good, but the script sucked. The dialogue was so cheesy�erg�it just makes me angry. With that being said, I think the actors did a great job with what they were given. My heart goes out to Dennis Quaid, however. The day the movie came out, a news station was doing a story on the movie and they were naming the actors. Instead of saying Dennis Quaid, they said Randy Quaid, his brother. That must really suck for him being in a huge movie and the news doesn't even know his name. Anyway�if you like weather and you like seeing disaster movies, then I would recommend this movie. But let me warn you�the script is cheesy but that is almost expected from a movie like this. The movie was still good though.
