Writer/director Roland Emmerich, King of the Empty Calorie Action Blockbuster, always at his worst when trying to be serious, is worried about Climate Change in this would-be pulse-pounding cautionary that’s largely old-school ‘70s disaster pic. Think EARTHQUAKE meets THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE ON ICE!* Seems Global Warming has triggered a New Ice Age . . . overnight! Confused? Don’t be. Heroic Paleo-Climatologist Dennis Quaid explains it all to you before dashing thru a wintry hurricane to save college whiz son Jake Gyllenhaal (and pals) stuck in the main Manhattan Public Library Building (the one with the stone lions out front). How he can help left unexplained. But we gotta give the guy something to do. More than can be said for marquee names Sela Ward (Quaid’s doctor wife) or Ian Holm’s Climate Prognosticator. Mostly it’s all anonymous spectacle: riots in the street; helicopter crashes; ships floating down Fifth Avenue; 12-yr-old Scotch for gallant farewell toasts; 12-yr-old generic kid with cancer who can’t leave his hospital bed. More fun watching those weather reporters being blown to pieces by the storm. Too bad the special effects in the first half try mixing scale models and digital imaging to tinny effect. Better results once the Big Chill covers all tracks with snow. In the end, just look at how many minds were changed! Oh, . . .
DOUBLE-BLL/LINK: *Shop and compare! Twenty years since TOMORROW; Fifty for EARTHQUAKE and POSEIDON. EARTHQUAKE looked pretty lame even on release (Universal’s usual crappy 1970s tech work). On the other hand, with the exception of the big tidal wave, POSEIDON’s practical effects still lookin’ pretty good. Bigger surprise, so’s the pic . . . in its corny way. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2014/10/earthquake-1974.html https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2008/05/poseidon-adventure-1972.html
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