Armageddon

Michael Bay did it!!! I didn't know there was a film that, with its simple pathos, could trump Emmerich's mega-babbling Independence Day. However, Bay scored in a manner so vehement that he broke through the net and beat the spectators in the back of the stands. The first minutes, however, do not suggest any extreme performance, but rather it smoothes everything out into a decent action sphere with good actors and a certain sarcastic perspective; however, at the latest when the President of the USA unpacks his messianic hit and the anonymous mother personally declares to me one of the stupidest sentences in the history of cinema: "He's not a salesman, that's your daddy," Armageddon begins to have the right zest. This is followed by a somewhat weaker passage, where the film goes full-tilt action, everything explodes, is spoiled, corrected... until it turns into slightly boring fireworks. But there's also an excellent ending, where you can finally see some nice compositions with American flags (the actors certainly have them on their shorts) and to hear pearls like "You were the best, Harry!" Bay literally explodes with an orgasm of pathos, cheese and stupidity that knows no bounds. It's an orgasm as powerful as an asteroid explosion, backed up by famously arranged shots and especially (how many times is that now?) an excellent screenplay that has such verbal and stylistic power that it gave me a headache. Don't be angry with me about this waste. It's gourmet waste, the kind of waste I'll probably carry in my heart all the way to my personal Armageddon. I'm just praying something else doesn't beat him. What's that in your pocket, Roland??? (05/11/2005)

This is truly an all-time favorite full of quality humor and characters. I'd be hard pressed to find a better elite. Bruce Willis' charisma is unbeatable, I can't get enough of Ben Affleck, the "Rat" Steve Buscemi made me laugh too much, and M.C. Duncan always adds that much-needed missing touch to a film. Perfect direction, a bombastic script, and I have a big soft spot for the music from this film. 100% for me. More than enough laughs and tears. (13/02/2011)

Clichés, clichés and then some more clichés. Add to that a hearty dose of patriotism and boredom, and the result is Armageddon. I don't want to be biased and so: the introduction with meteorites is decent, the training on the NASA base has flair and wit. The rest, on the other hand, is what I say above. (11/05/2003)

I looked at him for so long until I fell in love with him definitively. A controlled dose of absolute patriotism with lots of romantic pathos and catastrophically tuned action scenes. Bay here let loose his megalomaniac destructive imagination for the first time and created the best disaster movie I have ever seen. Willis has never been such an adored hero. (23/07/2007)

Camera orgies reaching indescribable dimensions, one of the best soundtracks ever created for a film, captivating action, beautiful Bruckheimer-like filters, sharply contoured image composition and perhaps the most exquisite coloring I have ever seen, excellent dynamic direction, romantic scenes alternating with the most action-packed ones, with at least every other shot carrying an emotional charge that doesn’t leave a moment to catch your breath, great voiceovers, and Bay’s stylish and indispensable low-angle. Bruce Willis delivers a magnificent and restrained performance, brilliantly complemented by the rest of the cast, and the screenwriter deserves praise for the wonderfully structured and diverse characters. For nitpicky film student it will be rubbish, for the ordinary viewer, divine entertainment and literally burning filmmaking, showing what can be done nowadays. As Bay himself once said, “I didn't come to cure cancer, but to entertain people.” It is holy truth. (25/10/2003)