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Summary: Starring Marty Z with Robert Duvall, Tea Leoni and others...
Review: In chapter 26 of this DVD you can find me in the traffic scene. I'm wearing a gray shirt and have a bit of a smile on. (I was supposed to be 'frightened' of the devastating comet) but for some reason something made me giggle and they kept in the movie!My 1.75 seconds of fame! The DVD is great, though. Armageddon had no substance! This movie had a story that tugged at the tear ducts. The visual effects are incredible and Morgan Freeman should really run for president.
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Summary: Entertaining but flawed
Review: The smartest thing about this movie is that it will endlessly be compared to Armageddon, which makes it look like one of the best movies ever made. I am not a fan of Armageddon because they made nothing more than a two hour plus MTV video, which got sillier by the moment. The makers of Deep Impact were smarter in that they actually set out to make a movie about the end of the world. They should have let it be the end, however, which would have set up far more interesting scenarios in the subsequent struggles just to survive for the remaining peoples. Instead, they copped out and gave us some compensatory damage and deaths, but I knew all along what would happen. There are great shots of the comet and attempts to destroy it and I liked the performances overall and the effects were, well, effective. But a true disaster film needs to be disastrous to work well. Poseidon Adventure was a great disaster film because most of the people on the ship died. To prove the point of a comet or asteroid impacting on the Earth, it needs to be shown in every detail, deaths and all. Someday, a film like this will be made and this one will be seen as quite secondary, or even tertiary.
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Summary: More Meaning in the Title than Most Realize
Review: Since "D E E P IMPACT" and "Armageddon" were released at approximately the same time in theaters, moviegoers will most likely always compare the two. It's apples and oranges though. The title "D E E P IMPACT" is really a play on words that goes over most people's heads I guess. Anyone expecting an MTV-like retread of "Armageddon" will definitely be disappointed. This is a serious movie that treats it's audience with respect and is NOT just an excuse to make a 2 1/2-hour "Aerosmith" video like the other movie was. Also, this movie is the more realistic of the two as well. When these movies were released, NASA actually chimed in their two cents and commented on how completely accurate the scenario was. They commented on the national lottery system for choosing the survivors that was executed in the film as well as the use of the cavern in the mountains where they would remain until Earth was habitable again, etc. This movie has all the effects too, but it also affects you as well. The reality is that this type of holocaust happened already with the dinosaurs and is very likely to happen again (fortunately probably not in our lifetime though). But...what if? What would you do if you knew the end was coming and who would you spend that time with? Would you seek out friends or loved ones that you've been estranged from and make amends? Would you try to survive somehow? Being a New Yorker I saw this movie in a theater with many other New Yorkers, and I will always remember the scene where a gargantuan tidal wave hits New York City. Now the audience sitting in the theater has an aerial view of this scene, watching groups of frantic people on the rooftops of several skyscrapers running from one side of the rooftops to another, trying to avoid the wave. Then there is a cut to the streets of New York which is now under several hundred feet of water, where we see taxi-cabs and the Statue of Liberty's mangled head floating aimlessly into buildings and each other. At this moment there was ABSOLUTE SILENCE in the Movie Theater. You could've heard a pin drop. The DVD edition doesn't really have any fancy extra features other than 2 theatrical trailers, but it doesn't need anything else. It has a very scary and fact-based premise, outstanding performances by all of the actors involved, and amazing and exhilarating special
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent drama and realism
Review: This exciting movie is more a drama than a disaster flick. I had the privilege of working on the movie as a science advisor and can attest that the producers, director, and writers had a strong commitment to making the movie as realistic as possible within the framework of the human drama they were telling. The effects of the impact are realistically portrayed, as is the surface of the comet and the overall premise that such an impact could occur. I believe the realism of this movie makes it much more exciting and dramatic. Morgan Freeman and Robert Duvall are terrific, and there are a number of powerful emotional scenes.
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Summary: More Human That That "Other" Film
Review: I found Deep Impact to be a very good "study" on how we has humans, may react to an E.L.E. (see this movie for details on that.) The special effects were good, but the best thing about this movie was the focus on the characters. This wasn't loud and stupid as "that other asteroid movie." This film will entertain you and mostly, touch your heart. You actually feel the doom that is about to reach these people, and to me, that is good film making. About the only thing I could pick on would be the performance of Téa Leoni. To me, she was never convincing. She seemed down and depressed all of the time, even when she was doing the news. Very odd performance. On a whole, this film delivers.
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Summary: So Much To Understand
Review: Deep Impact and Armageddon are so similar, but I feel that Deep Impact hit me harder with much more feeling. A huge comet is headed towards earth. It is pretty much the end of the world for most everybody. Only about a million or so people can stay in a huge mountain until the dust clears and they will have to start life in the U.S. over again. Well, this one boy, who had studied the comet has to make a choice within the movie, go with his parents to live in the mountain or stay back and try to find and save his newly wed wife. I must admit, I cried in this movie, and I won't spoil the rest of the movie for you who haven't seen it. Deep Impact for me was a door opening and got me to think, what if this really happened. It's a definite rent, and if this movie has the same effect on you as it did for me, you won't be disappointed.
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Summary: Powerhouse performances with a backbone plot!
Review: Movies made in the hopes of earnings lots of money from box office sales usually don't fare well, but that is not the case with Paramount's "Deep Impact," the first of two asteroid thrillers to come out on 1998. Unlike Touchstone's "Armageddon," this movie's plot is much more lucid, relying not on predictability, but on slow-building intensity, interesting twists and turns, and characters that we can care for from beginning to end. This film has a human element to back its story, which makes it much more emotional and entertaining for the audience. If you've seen the theatrical trailer, then the movie will be ruined somewhat, but if not, or even if you enjoy movies with trailer spoilers, then this movie will be entertaining and intense. The movie begins with high school students looking at the sky, one of them spotting a mass in the sky that seems out of place. He sends his images and graphs to an astronomer, who concludes that is is an Earth-bound asteroid which will cause worldwide destruction and death. In his haste to rush his findings to a different lab, he is involved in a fatal accident that destroys his information. Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., the vice president has just resigned, and while the media thinks its because of an extramarital affair, news reporter Jenny Lerner discovers that it is something else. This forces the President to make public the fact that there is an asteroid headed towards Earth, and that they have taken necessary action on hopes of preserving human life. Meanwhile, a team of astronauts is sent up to the asteroid to try and destroy it, but their mission is a failure, which calls for more counter-actions. The big climax comes to intense life as those who have been selected for safety are grouped together, leaving the others to fend for themselves as they wait to see whether or not the asteroid will strike. The movie follows some typical cliches and plotlines that you normally find in movies of the nature. The asteroid's perseverance is one of these; no matter what they do to try and destroy it or knock it off its trajectory, it still keeps coming back, each time faster and more dangerous. This is really the only thing you'd find in another movie, though. The plot keeps a high level of originality as we watch the lives of the people affected by the impending disaster. This is told in three separate stories: Leo Biederman, who first spotted the comet, reporter Jenny and how her personal life comes to a crossroads with the announcement of the comet's course, and the astronauts in space, who have the toughest job of all in saving the planet. Biederman's story centers around his family and that of his girlfriend's, and the choices both of them must make in order to survive impending doom. Jenny's parents are divorced, and she must come to terms with the anger she holds for her father as the countdown gets closer to completing. The astronauts, of course, must deal with intense situations and a perilous mission to save the planet, which provides for a lot of the action in the movie. The fact that it takes its time in diving into these character's lives gives it a much richer, emotional feel. In this movie, we can actually care about what happens to the planet because we see life in many different ways, through different peoples' eyes. We also get a chance to think about what we would do in their situation, placing ourselves in their shoes when it comes down to who's going into the caves and who's not. And instead of going down trodden paths, the characters do things that surprise us, keeping the story original and the suspense moving. The science behind the making of this movie is, for the most part, authentic and believable. The asteroid-hitting-Earth theory is exercised quite well, surrounding itself with historical scientific findings which are used to lead up to the story for this movie. The space aspect of the movie may seem a bit hokey, but give it some credit: it does provide us with a feel for what we might do if we were given this type of situation. The hokiness is downplayed by the sincere acting and special effects, which are not totally seamless but believable enough. There is also an interesting take on how an asteroid might change things if it were to hit Earth, but I'll leave all the details out of that so as to keep it a surprise. The actors here are all-star, and this is one of those movies where each performance is strong and credible. Morgan Freeman plays the President of the United States, and brings with him all his austerity and onscreen presence that he possesses in his other roles. Tea Leoni is Jenny Lerner, and she is able to bring to life Jenny's perseverance and ambition, while keeping the role emotionally involved as well. Elijah Wood is Leo Biederman, and he moves with a swiftness all his own, breathing life into his character. He is the ideal science geek who is boyishly handsome, which is important for a role like this. Other actors include Robert Duvall, Vanessa Redgrave, and others, all of whom add here and there to the heart and emotional core of the story. "Deep Impact" is more or less mainstream summer entertainment for the masses, and given this, it does quite well for itself, taking its time in bringing to life its thrilling story. The characters are given time to develop, and the story never fails in delivering intensity and suspense. I must confess I am a nut for movies of this genre, and while this one of is not the best of the best, it certainly deserves recognition and praise.
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Summary: THIS IS NOT THE REAL DEEP IMPACT
Review: Don't be fooled by the similar looking cover, this is actually the adult German film about relationships. While the "impact" is especially "deep" it is intensly boring, and the women don't shave their pits. It's a slow paced romance between an uber-leftenant in post-WWII Czeczhlosclovakia, and a chaste young country fraulien. Not bad if you like that stuff.
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Summary: Deep Impact In Deep Trouble
Review: Or, why can't these dopey sci-fi writers do the research first? Warning! If you've not seen the movie DO NOT READ THIS as it will blow the story for you. Criticisms and logic-flaws of Deep Impact. 1. From the very first scene we know that the writer has already lost the plot; how this got past the producer, I'll never know; the boy-next-door type kid hero peers through his ten cent telescope and sees - a comet! Wow! I wonder why none of the thousands of other amateur astronomers with powerful instruments missed it, not to mention the hundreds of observatories. Oh well I guess they just weren't looking in the right spot. So now we are supposed to believe that the ONE LONE astronomer who calculated the comet's trajectory is the ONLY ONE who worked out that it was on a collision course - duh! 2. Here we are one year later (if they are close enough to be seen by a backyard telescope, most comets take only a few weeks to pass by the earth and circle the sun, however this one takes a year ...) and apparently NO-ONE ELSE has twigged that there is a 2 kilometre chunk of ice heading for us ... so the President decides to keep it a secret. But then after he does announce it to the world, not much happens. In reality, people would immediately start panic-buying. Within a few days ALL the shops would be out of stock. People would stop going to work to protect their families as the survivalist "it's us or them" mentality sets in. Society collapses very quickly under these conditions, the utilities collapse, marshal law is established for a while until the military chain of command also caves in. Religious revival, rioting, looting, anarchy on a global scale ... money would mean nothing, the stock markets crash within days ... but in the movie this did not happen until just before the comet hit ... strange ... 3. The Russians (bless their little hearts) come to the rescue by SECRETLY (oh yeah? How do you hide a spaceship the size of a battleship in orbit?) constructing a shiny big new spaceship with a TOTALLY NEW AND UNTESTED NUCLEAR FUSION DRIVE IN ONE YEAR! A kind of turbo spaceship, probably made out of bits of the scrapped Mir. If the Russians can't even build a measly new trailer-home-sized module for the new international spacestation in several years, let alone a completely new propulsion system (where the hell did they test this thing?) ... well you be the judge. I'd rather believe that it was powered by Yeltsin's vodka stock. 4. The gung-ho Yank crew with token Cool Russian behind the wheel (piloting the ship like he was driving his Lada through Moscow traffic) race off to blow up the comet (didn't anyone bother to tell them that even if they did blow it up, all the pieces are still gonna be travelling at the same speed and in the same direction? Look guys, listen up, I'll say this just once, what you gotta do is ALTER ITS DAMN COURSE - NOT BLOW IT INTO A MILLION LITTLE PIECES, ALL TRAVELLING AT THE SPEED OF A BULLET, THAT WILL COME RAINING DOWN ON OUR CITIES LIKE A COSMIC SHOTGUN BLAST!) but instead of flying PARALLEL to the swirling ball of ice, the stupid twits fly RIGHT UP ITS TAIL! Well I suppose if Yuri or whatever the driver's name was, is used to dodging all those potholes in Moscow, then a few meteors spewing out from the comet's tail is a piece of piss! Pity that this damaged the ship though. 5. So after they finally detonate the cool nuclear explosives and split the comet into 2 big bits instead of millions of small ones, they retreat and lick their wounds wondering what to do now that they have failed. They argue about not having enough fuel to return to the comet and have another go. Excuse me? Did I miss something? Aren't they travelling at the same speed and direction as the comet? Only further away to avoid the shockwave of the blast - even though in space there is nothing to propagate a shockwave ... it would only take a minor course correction to return them to the comet. Ah but we need all that unnecessary drama don't we? Or do we? 6. So finally the small bit impacts in the Atlantic with the predictable VERY BIG SPLASH. It would've been nice to see this from the crew's perspective - the panic in their eyes as a second later as they ploughed into the pillar of lava that would be spewing up from the miles-wide fissure that has opened up in the continental shelf (which the computer animators completely forgot about) - right behind the REALLY BIG BIT as it dug itself into the crater left by the first bit. Research please! Who consulted the astronomers? Fire them! 7. And what was all that tosh the Prez was spouting about survivors being able to come out of their nice warm cavern to the surface in TWO years? Try 10,000 years mate. There's a very good reason the dinosaurs are only in the museums and computers. The dust cloud would cover the earth for at least that long, the temperatures at the equator would be minus 20 within a month, and you can forget about finding any food. All plants and animals (and people, except those living near volcanic hot springs) would have died from the volcanoes and earthquakes and choking fumes and volcanic dust and ... oh you get the picture ... that would shake the planet for hundreds of years after ... But that wouldn't have been much fun would it? It would have been more believable to have Superman leap out of his wheelchair and push the comet into the sun. But he's just never around when you need him is he? © Peter Enright Moscow Aug. 1998
Rating:
Summary: Different from Armageddon
Review: Lots of people compare this movie and Armageddon. I have to agree to a certain extent. Armageddon was very much about the technology side by side with the relationships. This movie was much, much more focused on the people and their relationships. Starring Elijah Wood, Tea Leoni, Denise Crosby, Morgan Freeman, Maximillan Schell, and Mellisa Redgrave, Deep Impact is an incredibily moving movie that I enjoy watching again and again.
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