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Reviews
The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
The Earth Dies
So, we've got ourselves a big-budget disaster flick as the backdrop of a stereotypical drama and a very blunt environmental call to arms. You're going to get outraged if you went in looking for perfection, but you've read the reviews and you know this guy's previous work - you just wanna see New York crushed by a tidal wave. And that's what you get, enormous, very-well-done special effects and a so-so story that we've all seen before about a girl loved by a guy who doesn't spend much time with his dad.
Where the film really fails is the part about environmental awareness and the laughably cold-hearted vice president/Dick Cheney look-alike. There's this enormous, groan-inducing "I-told-you-so" vibe running throughout the movie, and the final speech had my pupils glued to my eyebrows, but this subtext only comes up occasionally between scenes of hail crushing citizens of Tokyo and a multiple climate chase scenes.
That drama part is stereotypical out the wazoo, but I hope nobody came into the theater seriously expecting to see a unique or surprising look at post-apocalyptic teen romance. Yes, the movie is severely predictable, with only the occasional minor surprise... but you know you ain't paying for a mystery. You're paying for entertainment. Does it come through? Yeah, it's good enough for an "event" film. Not great, not spectacular, but you couldn't really go through summer without seeing at least one major city destroyed, could you?
Final (2001)
Odd, yet engaging
Odd, odd movie. It's a movie defined by the last twenty or so minutes. If those last twenty minutes had gone in a different direction it would have been an entirely different movie, though I'm not sure if it would have been a better one.
I caught it on TV and it was interesting enough to make me keep watching, so I guess that says something. I don't know what my feeling about it would have been if I had rented it instead, but I think it's worth watching. Yeah, I guess I'd recommend it. If you're feeling in the mood for a decent small-budget movie then check this out. I can't really talk about it too much without giving away the ending, which is pretty daring for a psycho-drama... if you can define the movie this way.
I guess I don't have much more to say without going in more circles. Check the movie out and then I can really talk about it. Yeah, but at least check it out, although I'm guessing your only gonna be reading this if you've already seen it.
Signs (2002)
Just keeps getting worse
The movie was fun in the theaters, it had some good scares. But whereas the Sixth Sense (and to some extent, Unbreakable) made me want to see them again immediately, this movie could not stand up to a second viewing. In the 6th Sense, the twin stories of the supernatural and human drama were closely intertwined, making a tight story. Here, Shyamalan cannot make the separate plots work together. They become two completely different stories that end up dragging each other down.
Aliens are coming... what will happen? Suspense.
They will knock around the house for a few hours and then run away. Stupidity.
The more I think back to the movie, the more problems I find. Too, too many problems to even begin listing them. Problems that render both stories ineffective. The director feels he has to keep making the same type of movie every time. Even the formula itself is getting old.