Deep Impact (1998)

Director: Mimi Leder

Writers: Bruce Joel Rubin, Michael Tolkin

Composer: James Horner

Starring: Robert Duvall, Tea Leoni, Elijah Wood, Vanessa Redgrave, Morgan Freeman, Maximilian Schell, James Cromwell, Ron Eldard, Jon favreau, Laura Innes, Mary McCormack, Richard Schiff, Leelee Sobieski, Blair Underwood, Dougray Scott, Gary Werntz, Bruce Weitz, betsy Brantley, Kurtwood Smith, Charles Martin Smith

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Heaven and Earth are about to collide.

Plot: Unless a comet can be destroyed before colliding with Earth, only those allowed into shelters will survive. Which people will survive?

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again? No.

I know some of you are thinking, 7 out of 10?  Really?  I liked it.  It was a lot better than I expected and it's a hell of a lot better than ARMAGEDDON (1998) which came out the same year.  I've seen that one twice and I hated it both times (the second time was with a group of friends plus I had to know if it was me or Michael Bay...it wasn't me).  DEEP IMPACT has the cliches found in disaster films but the filmmakers at least try to do something a little different.  I liked how Jenny (Leoni in a somewhat bland performance...and I dig this chick a lot normally) discovers the secret the government's known about and how the whole first half hour unfolds.  We find out that the President (Freeman, who should be the real life President of the World!!!...I'd vote for him) and co. have known about this and have been feverishly preparing to prevent it and a strategy if we fail.  Then the second act is motion with getting to the comet.  And finally there's the third act when the drama is ratcheted up and the shit hits the fan.  That was neat.  I could have used some more disaster porn but what they showed was great.  Do you really think that a single skyscraper on the coast would still be standing?  I don't fucking think so.  For the most part the acting was pretty good and I actually dug on some of the characters...enough that I choked up a little at the end but that was mostly because it hit too close to home.  See, back in the late 70s I was an uppity astronaut in training and I ended up going on what was supposed to be a suicide mission into space to divert....shit, I've said too much.  I'm a modest man.  I didn't care for the thing with the kids (Wood and Sobieski) but I appreciated the filmmakers doing something different with their storyline.  The cast is all over the place with names and faces you'll recognize and they cram an awful lot into a two hour movie which is nicely paced by the way.  It's definitely a better than average modern disaster flick and I do appreciate what they did to try and keep it from being one big cliche like ARMAGEDDON.  The Paramount Special Collector's Edition has a nice anamorphic widescreen print with extras like a commentary, 4 featurettes (about 30 minutes in total) a teaser trailer and theatrical trailer (both non-anamorphic widescreen).