David Galindo
Screenwriter
- Joined
- Mar 30, 2003
- Messages
- 1,264
[c]The Day After Tomorrow (UMD)
Region 1 • PG-13 • Dolby Digital • Available Now
[/c]
Thoughts on the Movie
There are only so many reasons to go see a disaster flick. Obviously the first reason would be to check out all the awesome special effects, and the second would be...let’s see...
Well, there really isn’t any other reason. Thankfully the Day After Tomorrow has some great special effects, a nice score and some great action.
In between all of that are some really hokey scenes that you generally accept in a disaster picture like this one. For instance, the shots showing the aftermath of a storm in New York, where a zookeeper shouts, “The wolves are gone!” You don’t spend three seconds on plot development like that just to NOT have the wolves show up to endanger the main characters later in the film. And then there’s the kid with cancer trapped in a hospital, and they’re “running out of time” to get him out before the storm hits. Do they get him out in time? Don’t make me laugh.
And then there are the warning signs. And with warning signs, you always get the doubting Thomas, who happens to be the Vice President in this movie. He refuses to call for an evacuation, the city is destroyed, he still refuses to do anything about the next storms, etc. What would the point be if everyone evacuated? We’d just see some tidal waves running down the empty streets of New York, and what’s the fun in that? Throw some screaming people running for their lives in there though...NOW you got yourself a movie!
There’s much more silliness to be had here...including the always good for trailers shot of a huge monument being destroyed. In ID4 it was the White House, but in this one it’s the Hollywood sign. Not really that big a deal since the original Hollywood sign has been replaced already many years ago, but it sure looks neat.
There are some funny moments in the movie, including the huge mass of Americans illegally crossing into the Mexican borders to escape the blizzard. The special effects are convincing enough to pull the weight of this somewhat silly disaster movie, and I can think of worse ways to spend some spare time. Fun for what it is.
Video Quality
Fox never fails to chop their ratios, and once again this 2.35 ratio gets zoomed into a 1.78 ratio to fill the screen. Fox also has a problem with their movies having blue tints, but it actually works for the film since most of it is spent under a blizzard. The picture is overly dim, and not quite as sharp as it could have been. And the black levels are pretty bad, nearly wiping out the darker scenes in a grayish mess. This is not a pretty transfer.
2.5/5
Audio Quality
The audio comes in nice and loud, with the booming bass coming through nicely. Everything sounds great with the right set of headphones or speakers, but I could have used a bit more volume overall.
4/5
Extras
The menus for this UMD are done pretty nicely, but no scene selection as usual with Fox. We do get two commentaries however, one with producer Roland Emmerich and producer Mark Gordon. It’s a pretty good commentary with some nice tech info, but the second commentary with co-writer Jeffrey Nachmanoff, editor David Brenner, cinematographer Ueli Steiger and production designer Barry Chusid focuses a bit better on the tech side of things. You also get some Fox trailers for other UMDs.
I always prefer commentaries over any other bonus materials, so I do like how Fox puts them on there more than any other studio so far. Pretty good in terms of extras, even though the audio and video is a bit lacking.
4/5
Overall…
The video leaves much to be desired, unfortunately, but if you liked the movie and the idea of having it portable sounds good to you, then go for it. Otherwise, leave it be.
3/5
IGN CONVERSION:
Movie: 7/10
Video: 5/10
Audio: 8/10
Extras: 7/10
Overall: 7/10
Region 1 • PG-13 • Dolby Digital • Available Now
[/c]Thoughts on the Movie
There are only so many reasons to go see a disaster flick. Obviously the first reason would be to check out all the awesome special effects, and the second would be...let’s see...
Well, there really isn’t any other reason. Thankfully the Day After Tomorrow has some great special effects, a nice score and some great action.
In between all of that are some really hokey scenes that you generally accept in a disaster picture like this one. For instance, the shots showing the aftermath of a storm in New York, where a zookeeper shouts, “The wolves are gone!” You don’t spend three seconds on plot development like that just to NOT have the wolves show up to endanger the main characters later in the film. And then there’s the kid with cancer trapped in a hospital, and they’re “running out of time” to get him out before the storm hits. Do they get him out in time? Don’t make me laugh.
And then there are the warning signs. And with warning signs, you always get the doubting Thomas, who happens to be the Vice President in this movie. He refuses to call for an evacuation, the city is destroyed, he still refuses to do anything about the next storms, etc. What would the point be if everyone evacuated? We’d just see some tidal waves running down the empty streets of New York, and what’s the fun in that? Throw some screaming people running for their lives in there though...NOW you got yourself a movie!
There’s much more silliness to be had here...including the always good for trailers shot of a huge monument being destroyed. In ID4 it was the White House, but in this one it’s the Hollywood sign. Not really that big a deal since the original Hollywood sign has been replaced already many years ago, but it sure looks neat.
There are some funny moments in the movie, including the huge mass of Americans illegally crossing into the Mexican borders to escape the blizzard. The special effects are convincing enough to pull the weight of this somewhat silly disaster movie, and I can think of worse ways to spend some spare time. Fun for what it is.
Video Quality
Fox never fails to chop their ratios, and once again this 2.35 ratio gets zoomed into a 1.78 ratio to fill the screen. Fox also has a problem with their movies having blue tints, but it actually works for the film since most of it is spent under a blizzard. The picture is overly dim, and not quite as sharp as it could have been. And the black levels are pretty bad, nearly wiping out the darker scenes in a grayish mess. This is not a pretty transfer.
2.5/5
Audio Quality
The audio comes in nice and loud, with the booming bass coming through nicely. Everything sounds great with the right set of headphones or speakers, but I could have used a bit more volume overall.
4/5
Extras
The menus for this UMD are done pretty nicely, but no scene selection as usual with Fox. We do get two commentaries however, one with producer Roland Emmerich and producer Mark Gordon. It’s a pretty good commentary with some nice tech info, but the second commentary with co-writer Jeffrey Nachmanoff, editor David Brenner, cinematographer Ueli Steiger and production designer Barry Chusid focuses a bit better on the tech side of things. You also get some Fox trailers for other UMDs.
I always prefer commentaries over any other bonus materials, so I do like how Fox puts them on there more than any other studio so far. Pretty good in terms of extras, even though the audio and video is a bit lacking.
4/5
Overall…
The video leaves much to be desired, unfortunately, but if you liked the movie and the idea of having it portable sounds good to you, then go for it. Otherwise, leave it be.
3/5
IGN CONVERSION:
Movie: 7/10
Video: 5/10
Audio: 8/10
Extras: 7/10
Overall: 7/10
