Deep Impact (Collector's Edition)

Rating:
Summary: i prefer armageddon because...
Review: ...if you are gonna have a film about an ELE, with the slightly
more serious approach that covers the sort of lottery in this
one (which all seems perfectly believable), you ought to have
some emotional impact to the story

maybe it's been been too long since i saw it, but it just seemed
like no one in the film really cared about what was going to
happen. seemed a little odd to me...

Rating:
Summary: DEEP IMPACT Definitely Makes A Deep Impact
Review: ARMAGEDDON may have gotten most of the glory at the box office, but for me DEEP IMPACT was the better "space-rock" disaster film of 1998. It had more humanity, a sense of awe and fear, a far more realistic plot, and better acting.

The space rock in this case is a seven mile-wide comet on a collision course with our planet. A joint US/Russian team, led by Robert Duvall, is given the unenviable task of drilling nuclear bombs into the comet to either destroy it or send it off course. Their attempt is only partly successful, and creates a new problem--two different pieces on the same course, one a mile and a half, the other five miles. Either one would strike with enough power to create an Extinction Level Event.

Director Mimi Leder, who made her feature film debut with THE PEACEMAKER in 1997 and directed numerous episodes for the TV series "E.R.", keeps the focus on human issues, which makes the final destruction scenes truly awesome. Morgan Freeman makes for one of the better film presidents of recent times, and James Horner's score is extremely well done. Duvall, of course, is as fine in his role as any he has ever done; he is one of those actors that can often be relied upon in virtually anything.

One of the best pure science fiction movies of the last ten years, DEEP IMPACT is more than a standard-issue disaster flick, and it is leaps and bounds ahead of ARMAGEDDON as a movie in general.

Rating:
Summary: Storyline, acting, and presentation make this movie great.
Review: Deep Impact is a compelling story of 4 people, Jenny Lerner, a low-rate reporter for MSNBC (Tea Leoni), Leo Biederman, an average teenager who discovers the comet (Elijah Wood), President Tom Beck of the United States (Morgan Freeman), and Spurgen Tanner, the last Astronaut who walked on the moon, who, with a team of young astronauts, has been sent to stop the comet (Robert Duvall). The story of these four develop quite nicely, as it starts out with Leo in astronomy club, and when his teacher asks what an object is in the sky, he does not know. This of course, is the comet. It is sent to a lab, where it is found. From then the story shifts gears to Jenny, and remains with her until the president tells the world of the event. From then it is to Spurgen Tanner, and in some brief glimpses throughout the movie, President Tom Beck. The ideas and progression of the story is amazing. The directing is superb. The action is wonderfully done. It is a must see movie.

Rating:
Summary: it's ok
Review: Deep Impact is a good disaster movie, it has a scene where
they pick those who would be save, Similar to the old
1951 movie (when Worlds Collide)they called the ark but there are remakes of some these old george pal movies like the
time machine,ok now I like to see them do a remake of the 1951
(when Worlds Collide).

Rating:
Summary: A Thriller With 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: A monumental movie despite some flaws
Review: Here is a good and moving film, based on a significant amount of legitimate science, about the implications of an Earth impact of a large meteor or asteroid. Its best performances include those of Morgan Freeman as US President and Robert Duvall as leader of a crew of astronauts trying to destroy the giant meteor. The rest of his crew includes some impressive members as well. Minor detractions include something of an overdosing on the strong-headedness of a news reporter played by Tea Leoni. That overdosing gets grating at times, though her performance is not without its bright and moving moments as well. Her mother is palyed by Vanessa Redgrave, who seems to be a jinxed actress in recent years. For all her imressive array of worthy past performances, she's hasn't seemed able to land a worthy role for some time. It would have been nice if this movie could have broken that jinx for her, but it doesn't. Her character's ex-husband and father of the reporter is played by Maxmillian Schell, about the most bland of major characters, neither highly memorable nor particularly distracting. But the younger members of the cast are perhaps the biggest surprise. Elijah wood plays a young amateur astronomer who discovered the menacing meteor. He's as major a character as any others, and proves altogether up to task of playing a crucial role. His girlfriend is played by Leelee Sobieski (oh, that all her performances could be this grand). She's not even listed in most short enumerations of the cast, but her radiant performance is a show-stealing one.

Rating:
Summary: Made an Impact on me
Review: Many people tend to compare this movie to armageddon, as they are both about the idea of a celestial body (in this case a comet, in the case of armageddon an asteroid) on a collision course with the earth, and seeing as how they were released in very close proximatey to one another. I think this has a lot to do with some people's lack of love for Deep impact, but the reality is these were two very different movies.

While "Armageddon" was a great movie in it's own rate, it was more of an action-romance movie that was meant to apeal to a braoder audience and satisfy movie-goers' typical demands of a major release. But with Deep Impact a much different aproach was taken, following in the way of the traditional Disaster Movie Genre.

From the beginning we are introduced to one of the main Characters, an upstart reporter investigating your run of the mill political love affair scandal, but stumbles instead upon the biggest story of history, that there is a monstrous comet on a collision course with earth. And so unfold's the American government's plan to send an team of asteronauts to intercept the comet and plant enough nukes on it to deflect it off course. The movie handles the plot from a much more epic, and at the same time much more personal level than armageddon.

The romance angle of the story is provided by the young boy who unwittingly discovered the comet and his girl neighbor. As counter measures fail, and plan B, C and D are called into action the terrible reality that only so many can be saved, and that it has to be decided who lives and dies sets in. A national lottery determines who will get passage to a special fallout shelter-like cave complex that was built in secret to house 1 million people. The rest are left to fend for themselves.

I really found deep impact to be more emotional, though not as romantic as armageddon. Characters will die, babies will be deperated from parents, young people will be asked to carry burdens that they shouldnt have to deal with and cities are destroyed as part of the asteroid hits the atlantic and causes a massive tsunami. Watching all this really had a more realistic and more message-orientated feel to it than Armageddon. I liked that the movie seemed to follow closer to the science and horrow of what a comet impact could cause, and how that affected the characters and our society. This made the movie much more interesting to me in many ways, and much realer as well.

The special effects are well done enough for the time period, and actually the tidal-wave scene where you watch a city massive wall of water inundate the city, hills and forests was quite ae inspiring. This is well done and will make your jaw drop when you see it.

The only problems are some inconsistant acting, and the fact that this movie is a bit slow and might not appeal to some viewers as much as armageddon because it's not an action movie.

All in all this was a great disaster movie and I thought it did a better job than armageddon in many ways of dealing with the actual plot scenario, though I like that movie as well just for different reasons. But if you're looking for a good sci-fi based disaster movie that will touches on many deeper levels than similar movies than this is your best bet. You're better off renting Deep Impact than you are going to the theater to see "The Day After Tomorrow".

Rating:
Summary: Sappy
Review: Of the two asteroid films of the past summer, I feel that Armaggedon was more entertaining. Sure it is filled with cliched characters, outrageously unbelievable action, too many slow motion shots of old people and kids running around Smalltown, USA, and that irritating and uninspired Aerosmith song, but it was still a fun popcorn movie. I don't think the creators intended to make a very serious film. With Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay at the helm, you know the film is going to be a pretty, action packed feature with little story but lots of explosions. This film is Space Mountain meets a Nike commerical.

However the creators of Deep Impact have attempted to make a more mature and serious film, looking at the affect of such a global catastrophe not only on the small band of heroes trying to save the Earth, but the common citizen as well (not just with beforementioned slow mo shots reminiscent of long distance service TV ads - see Armaggeddon). It is a different and refreshing approach. The film starts off well, showing the government's response to such an event. And when the news goes public, the film effectively touches on the panic and chaos that would result. But as the day of reckoning approaches, the film starts the downward spiral. You would expect more chaos in light of such an event, where every person is fighting to live. In real life tragedies, sadly, more often than not a person will step over another to save him or herself, rather than stop to lend a hand. In Deep Impact it felt like no one wanted to live. Everyone was so noble and self sacrificing. Not very realistic.

Perhaps I am taking an overly pessimistic view of people, but I imagine many people would claw another's eyes out if it meant a chance at getting to see another sunrise.

Like many films of today, the director can't just present the story as it is, without forcefeeding spoonfuls of sappiness down the viewer's throats. If the events surrounding such a catastrophe as a collision with a comet were presented as it is, that alone would be enough to touch the viewer's emotions. You really don't need extended shots of middle aged couples embracing in the face of certain death (how many of these were in this film?). A good idea, that could have been executed much better. As for the story, well, what is there to say really? A comet on a direct collision with Earth. The acting? Morgan Freeman was is usual boring self, playing wise, calm men in the face of adversity. He needs to take on some different and more challenging roles. The rest of the cast is equally forgettable.