- Film Review
- Reviewed By Sloan Freer
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4 out of 5
This jaw-dropping disaster movie makes director Roland Emmerich's previous outings feel like expensive dress rehearsals. For all their epic destruction, his previous features Independence Day and the lacklustre Godzilla are damp squibs compared to this astonishing, cautionary tale. Rooted loosely in scientific reality, the film piles on the Hollywood excess to deliver a US-centred thrill-ride in which global warming abruptly pushes the planet into a new ice age during one incredible worldwide superstorm. Though there's a human element, focusing on climatologist Dennis Quaid's cross-country journey to Manhattan to rescue his trapped son, Jake Gyllenhaal, it's the weather effects that take centre stage. Putting aside the anticlimactic conclusion, this is cinema as pure spectacle, as tornados, flash floods, hurricanes and snow demolish cities including LA and New York. Never mind that the dialogue is frequently laugh-out-loud cheesy and the performances are often melodramatic, what counts here is the enormous entertainment factor.
Plot Summary
Disaster movie from Independence Day director Roland Emmerich, starring Dennis Quaid and Jake Gyllenhaal. When climatologist Jack Hall tries to warn Washington that the planet is facing an imminent, catastrophic climate shift, government officials fail to take him seriously. But, when the Earth abruptly plunges into a new ice age, it soon becomes clear that the human race is facing extinction.
Cast and crew
Cast
- Professor Jack Hall
- Dennis Quaid
- Sam Hall
- Jake Gyllenhaal
- Professor Terry Rapson
- Ian Holm
- Laura Chapman
- Emmy Rossum
- Doctor Lucy Hall
- Sela Ward
- Jason Evans
- Dash Mihok
- Frank Harris
- Jay O Sanders
- JD
- Austin Nichols
- Brian Parks
- Arjay Smith
- Janet Tokada
- Tamlyn Tomita
- Luther
- Glenn Plummer
- Simon
- Adrian Lester
- Vice President Becker
- Kenneth Welsh
- President Blake
- Perry King
- Judith
- Sheila McCarthy
- Gomez
- Nester Serrano
Crew
- Director
- Roland Emmerich
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