Rating: 
Summary: Extremely boring and bad
Review: The acting is awful, the story without any thrill... there is so much bad I could say about that movie, probably one of the worst I ever saw. I found it so bad and boring that I quit watching it in the middle after the anti-meteorite mission fails. BTW I wonder if there isn't (maybe unintended) some anti-African racism in it as an America depicted here with all top-leaders (president, etc.) being African fails to protect the planet whereas other movies of this kind show European national leaders succeed? I would not expect this from Hollywood though, so I guess it is unintended.
Go and get instead a good comedy like Bulworth. At least you will have some fun, thrill, and food for thought.
Rating: 
Summary: Movie with a heart.
Review: This is Armagedon with a heart, human feelings play a larger role in this movie and the end result is pretty good.
Rating: 
Summary: Impact Could Have Been So Much Deeper.
Review: As apocalyptic disaster movies go this is one of the better ones. It keeps the special effects to a minimum- focussing instead on the various human storylines that run through it. Deep Impact's strong cast includes Tea Leoni, Vanessa Redgrave, Robert Duvall, Morgan Freeman, Elijah Wood and Maximilian Schell. The one criticism I would have of this movie is that it's myriad of individual storieslines when taken in conjunction fail to work. Courageously, perhaps, the film's directors have tried to balance incredible cinematic spectacle with personal stories of great emotional import. The only problem is that there are quite simply too many stories. As a result no individual plot line is developed sufficiently in the 117mins running time to garner the viewers sympathy. The film would have benifited greatly from the axeing of at least one of its subplots or possibly just having one narrative thread instead of several. There are inevitably several moments of beauty and pathos yet the sense of tradegy would have been so much greater if only this excellent cast had been given the scope within the film to develop their characters more. As regards the cast Morgan Freeman contributes his customary powerful performance as the US president. Tea Leoni is muted but engaging in what is probably the main role. Her performance tends to stagnate somewhat as the film progresses. Vanessa Redgrave contributes an excellent cameo as Leoni's mother but is only seen briefly. Max Schell lacks charisma and Elijah Wood's undoubted talents are utterly wasted as Leo Biederman. The film is, however, well paced and succeeds in building a great tension in the viewer as it approaches its climax. It raises intersting questions about democracy and the role of the State in the case of such a catastrophe. They are questions, unfortunately, which it does not choose to pursue to any great extent.
Deep Impact is a highly viewable film but in the end too ambitious for its own good. Its ultimate message of hope in the midst of disaster rings true and it contains many stories of courage and sacrifice. In the end though this is a film that sacrifices too much to its over-ambitious excess of plot lines for it to attain the level of true greatness.
Rating:
Summary: A Thriller with a heart
Review: First things first. If you want action, don't see this movie. Go rent Armageddon with it's static characters and predictable plot.To tell the truth this is the most moving disastor movie I've ever seen. It seems every charachter gives a powerhouse performance. This was a relief after watching the charachters in Armageddon make jokes just when Earth was supposed to be destroyed. The cast includes the ever-great Morgan Freeman, superb Robert Duvall, newcomer Tea Leoni, and screen favorite Vanessa Redgrave. A lot of movies try too crowd too many good actors into a story line, with awful results. Somehow this one works. All the characters are believable. And you care about them. Morgan Freeman is painful to watch at times, he performs so well. People die in this movie. But you feel though through their sacrifice, hope will prevail. It different from Armaggedon. I felt that they killed charachters off in that movie to either keep the plot going, or because they had already served their purpose. Deep Impact is more realistic though, I gurantee that by the time it's over, there won't be a dry eye in the house.
Rating:
Summary: Beyond horrible
Review: Watching this movie was one of the most unpleasant, unenjoyable experiences of my life. There is a scene in it involving drawing straws which makes me want to vomit with rage. This movie should be drug out in the street and shot.
Rating: 
Summary: Yikes!
Review: As a kid I like watching movies with special effects and explosions I have watched Twister, Dantes Peak, Volcano, Asteroid and Armageddon and they have all impressed me. When I found out Deep Impact was in Video Stores I decided to rent it. Well I was in for a surprise. This movie was so unrealistic and there were hardly any special effects. When Leo and his girlfriend run away from a 3500 ft Tidal Wave they go on a hill and If a Tidal Wave could level the World Trade Centres which are about 108 stories high (although they no longer stand) I don't think even a hill of that hight would have survived a 3000 ft Tidal Wave . When the President announces that the Comet is going to hit earth I would think most people would be panic striken but they just stay there and moan like old granpa owls and take pictures Oh My!. When the reporter and her father are standing in front of the beach and they watch the Tsunami pull in it lokks like its only 200-300 ft high and when it is almost upon them they say a couple of words and the wave still hasn't washed over them and its traveling at the speed of sound Oh Dear! So if your looking for a movie with good special effects this ISN'T the movie for you.
Rating:
Summary: A very heart rending tale
Review: This movie is about how different people react to learning that a comet is headed toward Earth. Mayhem ensues when the citizens find that a computer will preselect 80,000 of them. The people this story focuses on are true heros and heroines, even though some may get unsung. For example: Leo, the boy who discovered the comet, marries his girlfriend in an attempt to allow her and her family to live. When he finds that he must live, while she must die, he goes back to find and try to rescue her. This story is an excellent choice, one that I recommend full heartedly.
Rating: 
Summary: Not the Deep Impact I expected
Review: Deep Impact was not the movie I expected after the first time I watched it. After seeing the cover art of the video box, I thought this must be a movie filled with special effects, showing the destruction of the planet after a large asteroid impacts. Instead, deep impact takes on a different meaning. It doesn't refer to the deep impact of an asteroid (which is really a comet instead) but refers to the deep impact this event has on human society. What you get with Deep Impact is an emotional story with a lot of meaning. Don't expect a whole lot of special effetcs until the very end, only a minute or two. If you prefer a movie with more action, Armageddon may be the one to watch. But if you want a movie with a lot of heart, Deep Impact my friend.
Rating:
Summary: No impact...
Review: A precocious reporter stumbles upon information that a giant comet is heading directly to earth, almost certain to cause human extinction. That is the backdrop for the story DEEP IMPACT. But, the story follows that same reporters psychological issue concerning her father's divorce and second marriage, and she's willing to go to her grave without accepting that union. Director Mimi Leder has a meteor the size of Mount Everest plummeting toward Earth but she's not comfortable focusing on it leaving earthly extinction as a subplot. The protagonist in the story is reporter Jenny Lerner (played by an amateurish Tea Leoni), whom introduces the world to the comet and spends the rest of the film more miserable over her parent's divorce then the lonely mother. This lack of compassion pays off in Leder's world where Dad gets his. This sort of melodrama is far more likely to destroy the planet than a giant meteor. Meanwhile, off the planet, the always-impressive Robert Duvall portrays the most understated astronaut in the history of space. Unlike, Loeone, he is an active character; he does take action to save the earth instead of wallowing in its pending destruction. This works well with the sturdy but corny performance of Morgan Freeman as the humble President. His is a leader of the free world where there could not be partisan politics; he would've gotten 100 percent of the vote. There is also another subplot involving an amateur teen astronomer (who first notices the asteroid) ... Elijah Wood (The Lord of the Rings) fits nicely into the pretentious disaster. The DVD has a below standard transfer with a lot of breakup in the dark areas of the picture but the audio is impressive. There are no special features beyond the all-telling trailer. DEEP IMPACT was Dreamworks entry in the comet wars against Disney's ARMAGEDDON. While that film is in no way a great film, it did not take itself too seriously and Disney won the box-office battle.
Rating:
Summary: Human touches highlight sci-fi thriller
Review: In 1998, as has often happened in years past, two movie studios competed directly by producing films with identical themes. This year the subject was huge asteroids on a collision course with Earth. Paramount was feverishly working on "Deep Impact," while Disney was toiling away on "Armageddon." Luckily, Paramount had two things in its favor with "Deep Impact". It had a film that cost half as much as Disney's giant, and it got the movie into theaters several weeks sooner. As a result, it also proved to be major succes. In some ways, "Deep Impact" proved once again that smaller can be better. While its director, Mimi Leder, has been working for eleven years, the first nine of these were strictly in television. She has won two Emmys for her efforts on "ER". Since the picture did not have the astronomical budget of its competitor, her training at character portrayal and at manipulation of our emotions makes it the better of the two. Although the FX are unspectacular by current standards, Paramount and Leder remembered that audience identification with characters can have enormous pull. So many people, for example, are still mesmerized by the first "Star Wars" trilogy, but in thinking about them, we always remember Luke Skywalker, Hans Solo and the Princess, as well as the visuals. For that matter, had it not been for the story of Jack and Rose, it's probable that "Titanic" would have sank almost as fast as the ship itself. As an "ER" veteran, Leder certainly knows which heart strings to pull. It certainly helped that she had a battery of veteran performers in the cast. Robert Duvall is especially compelling as an aging astronaut, who is sent into space with a bunch of youngsters to attempt to blow the asteroid into harmless fragments. Morgan Freeman walks through his role as President of the United States, but he walks nicely. Vanessa Redgrave and Maximilian Schell shine as the divorced parents of Jenny, a TV reporter, who is quite well portrayed by Tea Leoni. Elijah Wood shows his usual intensity in his role as a stereotypical teenage genius. Since the seventeen year old Wood is now working on his 18th film, I imagine he qualifies as a veteran. Through its emphasis on emotional issues, "Deep Impact" overcomes a plot which is both full of holes and seriously flawed scientifically. In defense of the screen writers, I'll add that any attempt to make a two hour movie which depicts the possible annihilation of life as we know it is doomed to come off as trite. The only possible s exceptions I can think of are "On the Beach", made way back in 1959, and "The Day After", made, ironically, for TV. There are two aspects of "Deep Impact" that perplexed me. James Horner's musical score is his most uninspired in ages. The main reason I bring this up is that the music is the one component that can equal the film's theme. Since the soundtrack is one of the last things done in making a movie, I imagine he might have already been dazed and confused by his "Titanic" success when he tackled this project's even grimmer subject. The other complaint is over the final scene in the picture. I have a gut feeling the director would agree with me because it is counter to the mood she strove to achieve in the rest of it. This could have happened simply because she has not worked on the big screen long enough to have any control over the final cut.
|
