By Edwin Hopkins
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Solid Super HUGE

Man made disasters, mostly, are preventable. God made, natural disasters are not. And Roland Emmerich's apocalyptic film "The Day After Tomorrow" is one of the finest expressions of this truth. Tornadoes, tidal waves, hurricanes, massive flooding cannot be overwhelmed by guns, tanks, missiles or nuclear weapons. You ar

Jack Hall is one of the most straightforward roles Dennis Quaid has played. He's quite persuasive as a brilliant scientist who refuses to pander to high ranking government officials who are more concerned about economics and policy than scientific realities. His uncompromising attitude does tend to annoy his superior, Gomez, played with subtle duplicity by Nestor Serrano.
Disaster films from The Poseidon Adventure to the present have been formulaic with multiple characters having personal problems. It offsets the dazzling special f/x by providing good storylines. Fortunately, Emmerich's cast( unlike Godzilla) are people you care about. Sela Ward's Lucy Hall, the divorced wife of Quaid's character is reminiscent of Margaret Colin's Connie from Independence Day; Sam is a little shy about telling Rossum how he feels about her; Jay O. Sanders is always supportive, never detracting from the story itself.

Special f/x wizards at ILM, plus eleven other effects houses flex their prowess as always, keeping our eyes glued to the screen with some of the most realistic natural devastation ever created. Most notable is the marvelous view of the wreckless storm system from the space station. You cannot make a disaster film without taking a bite out of the Big Apple. And the tidal wave that crashes into New York is so credible, it will scare you. Also rather breathtaking is the immense ice storm looming over the city instantly freezing everything and everyone in it's path.

Emmerich and Jeff Nachmanoff's engaging script carefully balances the above elements with a soild plotline laced with scientific jargon that doesn't need much translation (a relief, I'm sure to non-scientific people) Personalities are quickly established, changing gradually through the course of the film, helping it to flow naturally.
I don't know if Roland Emmerich is saved or not. But he may have inadvertently given homage to God's awesome power, His sovereign control over our planet. Whatever may one may think of this film, Christian or non-Christian, the storytellers here show us a horrible vision of what could happen if we neglect the stewardship of our environment.
Before I go into the special features on this dvd, I'd like to mention that there's a mandatory 20th Century Fox promo. I say mandatory because no matter how many times I pressed the menu button, I couldn't get to it until the promo was over. A trifle annoying.

There are two excellent audio commentaries complementing this first edition DVD (I'm assuming later down the line that Fox will release a 2 disc special). One by director Roland Emmerich and producer Mark Gordon; the other by co-writer Jeff Nachmanoff, cinematographer Ueli Steiger, editor David Brenner and production designer Barry Chusid. For cineastes like myself, both are enjoyable as well as informative with little or no repetition of certain elements. Unique perspectives from all make them worth a listen.

For those of us who lack the luxury of a DVD ROM, I wish the hour + "making of" footage had just been added to the dvd spec features. I haven't had a chance to look at it yet, but I'm sure it's good.

Only two deleted scenes; a shady wall street deal and the first version of Jack and Jason after the big freeze. Both could've been added to the film without screwing up the continuity.

One feature first encounter. An audio anatomy interactive demo. This eight track breakdown of the frozen helicopters scene covers the sound elements individually and can be mixed and matched by using your audio button on the remote.
 

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