Reviews

Most of my review is in the summary. There are aspects of the story that don't make any sense, even when making a stretch to take context into consideration. The story is a long, dull, cliché- filled way to go for two small twists. Every character is a shameless cliché.

In addition to the problems with the story itself, at times the computer graphics are too obvious (people, scenery, backgrounds), and this becomes a distraction. An omnipresent detail: in telling a post-apocalypse story where food and water are supposedly very scarce, there could have at least been an effort to hide everybody's well-fed chubby cheeks with make-up.

The sole purpose of this movie seems to have been to provide endless opportunities for close- ups of Denzel Washington looking like a grizzled action-hero. It gets tiring very quickly.

I am having a very difficult time thinking of a positive comment for this movie. At times the scenery looks okay.

Before seeing this, I had read many reviews and was given the impression that this movie was a work of genius. While it is a fun movie worth watching, it is not as good as some reviewers would lead you to believe.

Taking a jab at popular sci-fi (with a very obvious poke at Star Trek), this movie is full of cliches, but they are presented with a wink and a grin - they are there to be laughed at. There are plenty of jokes, many of them clever, but there's not much that is hysterically funny; I'd say most are worthy of a chuckle or a grin.

The ending is predictable, but then that's part of the genre's cliche, isn't it? Still, the neat and tidy finish, with everything being set right at the end, could have used a bit more punch; the movie coasts to a finish, when a more spectacular climax could have elevated this movie to 'great'.

One cliche which this movie manages to swerve away from a little bit, perhaps pointing out tv-sci-fi's shortcomings in this department, is that the aliens are not simply humanoid with lumpy foreheads (although the bad guys are big mean-looking bipeds). Even more interesting is that the good guys are the ugliest ones, although we don't see them in their normal state very much (probably a budgetary concession).

Should you see this movie? Yes. It's worthwhile, light and fun. It pokes obvious fun at television sci-fi, but don't expect gut-clenching hilarity.

There is some good acting in this movie, but not much. I wouldn't put all the blame on the actors though; they don't seem to have much to work with, as far as dialogue goes. The script is fairly weak and uneven overall - this movie is not funny and not enough of a satire to justify its implausibility, and not serious enough to make a hard social statement.

Maury Chaykin's presence is the best part of this movie (despite his working with poor dialogue). Unfortunately, although he plays a major character, that character seems to take a back seat most of the time, his actions being mostly inconsequential, despite his role as the Prime Minister's apparent right-hand man, therefore making the best part of this movie a relatively unimportant part.

I found this movie to drag and be quite boring, actually. I didn't get a sense that a whole story was being told, but instead there are a series of situations which come to some vague conclusion or attempt to be funny, and for the most part they are very predictable. Peter Falk's make-up looks very plastic, and is bad enough at times to be distracting.

I can't believe this nonsensical piece of visual diarrhea isn't on the IMDB Bottom 100 list. With its nonstop parade of movie cliches (and not obscure cliches - major eye-rollers), its terrible dialogue, absolutely complete lack of logic, disregard for basic laws of physics and common sense (and yes, I kept in mind that it is a science fiction film and the suspension of disbelief - to a degree - is inherently required). Not five minutes of this movie can pass without a moment of tremendous wretchedness occurring. I could easily list many specific examples of why this movie is so insultingly bad, but the space limitations for reviews makes this impractical.

This movie is not even worth watching as a novelty, whether a rental or television broadcast. I sat through Armageddon, having nothing better to do on a sunday night, and I deeply regret wasting that part of my life.