After some silly opening narration by Charlton Heston the story starts. According to this an asteroid the size of Texas is going to hit the Earth in 13 days. If it hits it will destroy the entire planet. (I know I know--just go with it) So NASA (led by a slumming Bily Bob Thornton) hires a group of oil drillers (led by Bruce Willis), trains them how to work in outer space, sets them off to drill a hole in the asteroid, set explosives and get the hell out of there...all in 11 days. Also, before the asteroid hits, meteors are coming down and virtually wiping out major cities like New York and Shanghai.
As you can see logic disappears pretty quick in this one. Director Michael Bay has said he makes movies for teenage boys. That's no surprise. There's LOTS of explosions here, lots of masculine men fighting each other and a plot dumbed down so anyone can understand it. There's also a hysterically funny "love" story between Ben Affleck and Liv Tyler (their goodbye scene using Animal Crackers has become a classic of bad cinema). Despite all this the movie WAS a huge hit. I saw it in a theatre back in 1998. It was a ridiculously stupid movie but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't entertained. It pounds you into submission with some incredible widescreen imagery, LOUD stereo sound and some truly unbelievable special effects. After a while you ignore the stupid story and just sort of go with it. As for characterizations--well who needs that? All of the actors are playing walking, talking clichés. There's not one person that acts like a normal human being. Liv Tyler tries but the script is stacked against her. Also I LOVE how she's allowed to casually stroll around the top secret NASA facility while her father and boyfriend are on the mission! The acting is as good as it can be. Willis delivers his regular one note performance; Thornton doesn't take this seriously for a moment; Tyler tries; Affleck looks lost and Steve Buscemi, Owen Wilson, Will Patton and Michael Clarke Duncan basically hit their marks and say their lines. So this movie is big, loud, stupid and far too long but it WAS entertaining. Just turn off your mind, sit back and watch things blow up. I give it a 7.
26 out of 41 found this helpful