AVIVA-BERLIN.de im November 2024 - Beitrag vom 21.05.2004


The Day After Tomorrow
Jennifer Gallagher

In "Independence Day" the earth was nearly destroyed by aliens. But in Roland Emerich´s latest film, the force of destruction is even more devastating - nature herself! don´t miss! Opens May 27th

A massive snow storm pounds New Delhi, bucket-size hailstones batter Tokyo, multiple tornadoes tear Los Angeles apart and in New York City the temperature swings from sweltering heat to freezing temperatures in one day. These extreme weather conditions make palaeoclimatologist Jack Hall (Dennis Quaid) realise that a new ice age is coming. And it does. Jack´s calculations are a bit off and havoc strikes with 48 hours. His son Sam (Jake Gyllenhaal) becomes trapped in New York´s Public Library when a tidal wave strikes the city. Jack and two colleagues attempt the dangerous journey from Washington to find him.

"The Day After Tomorrow" has everything you expect from a disaster movie: personal dramas set against apocalyptic mayhem, scenes set in control rooms with no-one in control, public monuments that we all know and love being torn apart, flooded or frozen in a split second.

Some of the scenes in this film are so silly that you just have to like them. For example, when Jack feels he has to explain the relationship between the North Atlantic current and the world´s climate to a room full of meteorological experts, or when Sam and his friends run faster than a towering wall of water. Perhaps the silliest of all is the realisation that Jack has made his journey not to save inhabitants of New York, or to save his own son, but rather to prove that he can actually keep an appointment. Unfortunately this makes the final scenes of this film anticlimactic and prompts a groan from the audience while our hero is left with nothing to do except grin.

As far as politics is concerned this film makes a direct attack on the refusal of the current US administration to reduce greenhouse emissions. It also makes fun of the illegal immigrant policy that America has towards Mexico. As a desperate bid to escape the pending disaster, thousands of Americans are seen crossing the river into Mexico as illegal immigrants. In a somewhat simplistic way, "The Day After Tomorrow" might have more impact on George Bush´s policies regarding the environment than any serious science report could have.
The sound track of "The Day After Tomorrow" is absolutely thrilling. It will batter you with total sensory overload to convey the sheer, overwhelming scale of the devastation. The bass rumble which accompanies the wave rolling through New York is probably the most ear-splitting sound you will ever hear in a cinema.

So, if you liked "Independence Day", you´ll certainly be glued to your seat with "The Day After Tomorrow" but make sure you see it in a big cinema with the cutting-edge of sound projection otherwise you might be disappointed. And take something warm to wear when you see this film because when you leave the cinema you´re going to feel very wet, and very cold! And you might also be terrified into doing something that we British have always done - talk about the weather!

The Day After Tomorrow
Director: Roland Emmerich
DarstellerInnen: Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal, Emmy Rossum, Sela Ward, Ian Holm
20th Century Fox
Prädikat: Besonders Wertvoll
Kinostart 27.05.2004
Freigegeben ab 12 Jahren
Länge: 124 Minuten
Screenwriters: Jeffrey Nachmanoff, Roland Emmerich
Producer Mark Gordon
www.THE-DAY-AFTER-TOMORROW.de