Netflix And Chill: The Day After Tomorrow (2004)

While it is a silly and entertaining blockbuster, The Day After Tomorrow also does a good job of showing idiots why global warming is still a major problem, even if it feels like our weather is generally getting colder and wetter. Climate change deniers like to point to bad weather as an argument against global warming. It is, in fact, actually a strong indicator of the way things are headed.

Things get very bad for us humans as the weather gets a lot worse and temperatures plummet. This is an exaggerated scenario, of course, but it’s all done to show humans trying to overcome overwhelming odds to survive a snap ice age. Dennis Quaid is the scientists who has been warning about this kind of thing happening for a long time, and Jake Gyllenhaal is his son, stuck in New York City with a mixed group of people all trying to stay warm and stay alive. There is some very bad weather, there is a need for penicillin, and there are some escaped zoo animals adding to their problems.

Few people, if any, have enjoyed destroying our world as much as Roland Emmerich. He used to be content with aliens and monsters, but has now used the environment numerous times to create tales of humans struggling to survive in increasingly inhospitable conditions. Having co-written this screenplay with Jeffrey Nachmanoff, Emmerich delivers a fantastic mix of spectacle and human interest. It's cheesy, it's ridiculous, it's increasingly unbelievable as we head to the big ending, but it's damn entertaining.

The special effects, mostly created using CGI, hold up surprisingly well, even the wandering and vicious wolves that I used to point to as the weakest part of the film. If there's one thing that Emmerich is good at then it's creating at least one unforgettable movie moment/image, and this film has more than one. Whether it's a tidal wave looking to flood a major city, a major bit of tornado damage, or the Statue Of Liberty covered in snow and ice, The Day After Tomorrow fills out the 124-minute runtime with one great movie moment after another. 

Quaid and Gyllenhaal are both very good as they take turns carrying the film on their shoulders. Both actors have an innate appeal, and both give performances that never seem to be winking or implying that they are "slumming it". There's also some decent support from Emmy Rossum (who ends up in need of that penicillin), Austin Nichols, Dash Mihok, and Jay O. Sanders, even if you suspect that not everyone is going to make it to the end credits. Elsewhere, familiar faces like Sela Ward, Adrian Lester Sasha Roiz, Kenneth Welsh, and Ian Holm (a real highlight here) do their bit to sell the unfolding apocalyptic scenario.

You will see many people dismissing this as a spectacle movie that hasn't aged too well, but I would strongly disagree. I think it is, quite frankly, a brilliant blockbuster that takes the standard Emmerich template (small set-pieces interspersed with character moments on the way to more and more spectacular destruction) and applies it to numerous weather anomalies that are as well-utilised as they are well-realised. Maybe not as good as the director's high point, Independence Day, but it's only a step or two behind it, in my opinion.

9/10

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Gone Girl (2014)

Gone Girl is a good film. At times it's a very good film. It also turns out to be the weakest one yet from director David Fincher. It's as if the opportunity to direct this came along when he wanted to coast slightly, matching his style and meticulous craftmanship to material that never really seems to deserve it. This is, let's be honest here, daytime TV movie stuff, given some added spice and edge to make it more of a talking point.

Ben Affleck plays Nick Dunne, the husband who goes home one day to find that his wife (Amy, played by Rosamund Pike) has gone. He calls in the police, and soon finds that he is the main subject of their investigation. As the evidence starts to pile up against him, Nick begins his own investigation. And he starts to suspect that perhaps he didn't really know his wife at all.

Written by Gillian Flynn, adapting her novel for the big screen, this is a film that seems to think it's always one step ahead of the viewer. It's not. Yes, there are one or two moments that will wrong-foot those wondering whether they are watching a real version of events, or something created by either of the main characters, but even those moments are easy to dismiss if you pay close enough attention to what's going on. There are a couple of BIG shocks, I guess, but even those are so heavily signposted that their impact is sorely muted.

Thankfully, none of the weaknesses in the source material cause any problems for the cast. Pike and Affleck deliver two fantastic performances, with the former able to enjoy a real variety of roles (depending on how she is being viewed by others) and the latter making the best use yet of that certain smug quality his detractors often accuse him of having. I've never had a problem with Affleck, but even those who tend to dislike what they view as his persona may end up liking his turn here, seeing him turn on charm for the sake of cameras and crowds while constantly having a large finger of suspicion pointed in his direction. Kim Dickens is great as the cop determined to crack the case, and Patrick Fugit tries his best alongside her, despite the fact that he seems trapped in a state of perpetual adolescence. Carrie Coon is the twin sister of Affleck's character, and very good she is in her role, Tyler Perry impresses as a hotshot lawyer willing to act in defence of a man who is starting to look guilty as sin, Neil Patrick Harris is an ex-lover who may or may not have information, and both Sela Ward and Missi Pyle have fun playing two TV celebrities, both with differing approaches but the same aim.

There's also the bonus of having Fincher at the helm, even if he IS on auto-pilot (or so it seems). The cool colour palette, the music by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, the slow and steady camerawork, the pitch-black humour. I seem to spend half of my time saying that familiarity breeds contempt with the other half of my time appearing to be a bloody hypocrite when I say that familiarity can often be an easy, comforting layer used in movies. This movie falls in to the latter camp.

It's not often that a film can overcome weak source material. This one manages it. But there's only so much that can be done, which is why it ends up being merely a good film, as opposed to a great one.

6/10

http://www.amazon.com/Gone-Girl-Blu-ray-Tyler-Perry/dp/B00Q5996EQ/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1419685676&sr=1-2&keywords=gone+girl