The Day After Tomorrow

Turning off your brain and not looking for any meaning to it is the way to approach what Emmerich presents in his two-hour disaster vision of the coarsest grain. Although it might irritate climatologists, why get upset when he serves us a picture of thousands of Americans begging to enter Mexico? At that moment, it is necessary to have a hearty laugh and lightly acknowledge that there is no more American American than this defector German, who spends high budgets like the biggest snob and yet unabashedly winks at the audience, almost begging them to enjoy the ride with him. Serving up a few remarkable special effects sequences pleasantly elevates the dose of patriotism, which could knock down an elephant, and it's necessary to handle it with an eye roll and a loud chuckle. The perfect sabotage of Hollywood! (16/06/2004)

I'm surprised that I've only seen the film today, which was quite big for its time. Of the actors, I liked Dennis Quaid and the young Jake Gyllenhaal. The disaster scenes are decently gripping and gritty, and the scene with the aggressive wolves is great. I had fun. 80%. (04/10/2017)

On a second viewing, it's just a little bit better. Roland Emmerich toned it down with pathos, he doesn't always hit the mark, but he can win over the audience. The climate action boasts fantastic visual effects and thrilling action sequences. Unfortunately, there isn't as much of it as in his previous films, and especially the second half can bring a feeling of boredom, mainly due to a weak screenplay and a flood of clichés that unpleasantly stick to the very likeable heroes. (10/09/2004)

“Well, that’s the ice age for you..." Dr. Emmet Brown might have said. The Day After Tomorrow is a success in terms of special effects and completely empty in terms of ideas. Lots of clichés and lameness. On the other hand, it has a pretty solid storytelling pace. If you’re looking forward to a popcorn movie where you have a few laughs at the expense of the creators and don’t fall asleep due to pure boredom, The Day After Tomorrow is just the movie for you. (27/05/2004)

Leaving aside the obvious fact that the processes of flow change and cooling that Emmerich describes in this film are long-term and span many decades (OK, exaggeration, I'll take it), the rest of the story is the essence of everything that is wrong with contemporary Hollywood: the tired clichés, the boring to tedious predictability of everything that happens on screen, the shoddy psychology of the cookie-cutter characters on the level of a literary attempts of a ten-year-old. The result is an unhealthy toying with the intelligence and tolerance of the normally thinking viewer. EMMERICH, GET OUT!!!! PS: To rate a film with a few stars just because it has great visual effects seems misguided to me. Nowadays, good special effects are par for the course, not an exception. (03/12/2005)