I was such a fan - and still am - of Producer Roland Emmerich’s "Independence Day" that I was expecting the same snappy dialogue, a few over the top characters for comic relief, and great special effects with his latest film, "The Day After Tomorrow." If nowhere else, the filmmakers definitely deliver in the CGI department with some of the best eye popping visual effects ever put on the silver screen with tornadoes ripping Los Angeles to shreds, a tidal wave that washes out the population of New York, and a Big Freeze wipes out most of the population in the Northern Hemisphere with the action settling on the main branch of the New York Public Library. The message is clear: the earth is going through a climate shift.

"The Day after Tomorrow" is a combo sci-fi/disaster movie but even the B-est of B sci-fi movies of the fifties had the intelligence not to supply bogus science to support the thinnest of premises, be it bugs invading the landscape or aliens roving the countryside. It was often a case of the less said the better. Some decent actors like Richard Denning and Forrest Tucker (F Troop) gave it their all and made films like "The Day the World Ended," "Cosmic Monster" fun. Think of Kenneth Tobey who helped breathe life into some of Ray Harryhausen classic animated ventures like "It Came from Beneath the Sea," and "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms." Mathew Broderick approached Emmerich’s update of "Godzilla" with a wide eyed sense of innocence, wonder and shock that helped make it better than it was. Ian Holm supplies the only credible performance as a climatologist who sees the first indications of the global weather shift from electronic buoy markers in the North Atlantic. His wizened character is akin to Cecil Kellaway’s dinosaur expert in "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms."

Dennis Quaid gets top billing as the sooth saying Washington based scientist who saw the whole thing coming, even it is a few thousand years too soon. And when it does happen, he sees it as his duty to trek across the frozen wasteland from DC to NY to rescue his son, played by Jake Gyllenhaal. He ‘s there for a High School science competition with fellow classmates and the girl of his dreams - Emmy Rossum who gets to do the dumbest things - like trying to retrieve a passport from a taxi of Fifth Ave. in front of the main branch of the New York Public Library with a skyscraper high wave about to wipe her and her buddies out. There are heroics, attempts to create sympathetic characters, and a homeless man with some good ideas about survival. It would have a lot easier to accept and the dumbed down dialogue and have fun with it, if only screenwriter, Jeffrey Nachmanoff and company had stayed away from political diatribe, and absurd debates about which books at the library merited burning to escape the cold. There were plenty of un-intended laughs that would have seemed right for those B sci-fi movies of the fifties and early sixties but not for "The Day After Tomorrow."

Not even Moses, in the guise of Charlton Heston, could save the theme ride inspired "Earthquake" (1974) from being a disaster, but it did win Oscars for sound and special effects. "The Day After Tomorrow" easily tops "Earthquake" in both departments.

Copyright 2004

"Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" (1961) - A radiation belt threatens the earth as Walter Pidgeon and his atomic sub crew try to save the world. With Barbara Eden before I Dream of Jeannie, Michael Ansara after Broken Arrow, and Frankie Avalon before he became the Big Kahuna in the beach movies of the sixties. The future producer and king of disaster movies Irwin Allen directed.

"The Poseidon Adventure" (1972) - A cruise ship goes bottom up when hit by a tidal wave. All star cast go through the motions with surprising effect trying to escape. With Gene Hackman, Ray Borgnine, and Shelley Winters among others. Produced by Irwin Allen who directed some second unit sequences, but most of directing chores fell to former cinematographer Ronald Neame ("The Odessa File" - 1974). He’s worked with the likes of Noel Coward, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, as well as David Lean in a long and distinguished career.

"The Towering Inferno" (1974) - Title tells all in this star studded Irwin Allen produced story about a skyscraper consumed by fire. With Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Fred Astaire, Carol Lynely, and - in what now appears as a curio - O.J. Simpson. Directed by John Guillerman.

"Twister" (1996) - Paul Verhoeven’s former cinematographer Jan DeBont directed this thrill ride of a movie about tornado chasers, Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt, who are more often chased by the tornadoes. Scripted by Michael Crichton ("West World") and wife Anne Marie Martin. The relationships seem inspired by Howard Hawks’ "His Girl Friday" which was likewise based on "The Front Page" by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur.

"Volcano" (1997) - Not even Tommy Lee Jones can stop Mother Nature when he and Anne Heche discover that Los Angeles is about to erupt - It’s sitting on top of a volcano. Goof effects and good Jones make this worthwhile.