day after tomorrow

THE FLICK: Director Roland Emmerich is the sort of guy who “supersizes” every movie he makes. And as part of a healthy cinematic diet, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. In fact, his films have been the most consistently satisfying popcorn fare of the past decade; even the bastardization of Godzilla delivered a lot of bang for the buck. So it’s only fitting that he finally tackled the “disaster” genre, a category Irwin Allen made famous for scenes of elaborate destruction and painful overacting. But on The Day After Tomorrow, Roland Emmerich tops the master with help from updated technology and some hilarious political posturing. Dennis Quaid stars as a well-meaning scientist, passionate about his predictions of global change due to the melting of the polar icecaps. However, even he couldn’t foresee the rapid pace of said change, resulting in an all-encompassing weather system that unleashes tornadoes on Los Angeles and tsunamis in New York while the rest of the world is literally hell frozen over. There’s a sub-plot (that actually becomes the main plot) concerning Jake Gyllenhaal stuck in New York as he does battle with the elements and a pack of bad CGI wolves, but the real star is the threat of worldwide apocalypse courtesy of Industrial Light and Magic (or whoever). There’s nothing more life affirming than watching millions of extras die in the comfort of a movie theater. And The Day After Tomorrow lets you pick your poison: drowning, blunt head trauma, or my personal favorite, freeze drying! Even separated from producer/writer partner Dean Devlin, Emmerich is a master at stretching out the impending doom, starting with basketball size hail in Tokyo, wicked winds in L.A. and the eventual engulfing of NYC under a wall of water (that wave crashing over the statue of liberty is just too cool!). The only acting required of the main players is a good pair of lungs and bug-eyed reactions in front of a blue-screen, which they all do quite well. Even the political subtext is uproariously enjoyable, with Emmerich casting Bush / Cheney look-alikes who get their comeuppance from the angry hand of God, a moment I’m sure every wacked-out liberal on the coasts applauded with gusto. There’s no point in ridiculing a movie like this as it’s immune to serious criticism. It exists simply to entertain with shock and awe, something The Day After Tomorrow does with adept special effects dexterity. THE FEATURES: The end of the world never looked so pretty! This is a seriously world-class transfer on Blu-ray from Fox, complemented by a DTS HD 5.1 lossless audio track (although a standard Dolby Digital 5.1 track for those of us in the cheap seat would have been appreciated). Every pixel is razor sharp with zero compression artifacts. It could be quite simply the best looking Blu-ray I’ve ever watched. The special features include two audio commentaries, deleted scenes, a global warming trivia track and interactive game (great for parties), along with the theatrical trailer. Do I have to tell you it’s worth the upgrade? Fine...it’s worth the upgrade.