I just started laughing this morning at Rox's post that starts "I refused to stand in line all night to see a movie." I figured that was inspiration enough to put up this review that I was slacking off on since yesterday.

Taking Fridays off is a good thing - taking Fridays off and going to the movies at 4pm is a really good thing. And if the turnout at the 4pm showing of "The Day After Tomorrow" is saying anything, then it'll make some serious loot this weekend. This whole hype fest started six months or so ago. I've been talking about this flick ever since I came across its ultra-cool website. The reason I got a kick out of it? The funny (phony) weather ticker running at the top. Some of the photos were fantastic, and having a countdown to destruction of life as we know it - can't beat that.

Director Roland Emmerich did a great job of continuing to destroy major cities (both Godzilla and Independence Day seem to have it in for New York City, by the way), and some of the filming was downright amazing. The main characters are played by Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal, Sela Ward (who make up a broken up family unit), and a group of younger actors including Emmy Rossum and Arjay Smith. [more details here at IMDb]

The gist of the film is that Quaid's character, climatologist Jack Hall, seems to be right on when predicting that a major climate shift is on the way for the world - but no one believes him, including the Vice President, played by Kenneth Welsh (who played "Doc" in the ice hockey film "Miracle" of late). So, the U.S. goes about doing nothing, and soon after, major storms start hitting stateside. Tornadoes devastate the city of Los Angeles. Huge rainstorms hit New York City, where Gyllenhaal's character, Sam Hall, happens to be at the moment with some other students. There were some excellent exchanges here, and I was happy to see that the film let everything happened in a decent amount of time, and tried to focus more on the personal side to the story. I'm sure some folks will complain and say there wasn't enough destruction in this film, but I think those folks have probably never read a book - where you have to imagine what is happening outside the narrator's point of view in order to get a "big picture" of the situation at hand.

Without giving up a lot of the plot, Quaid goes on the hunt from Washington, D.C. all the way to New York to find his son, while numerous weather fiascos show up in his path. Some decent foreshadowing is used, creating obstacles for any character who hasn't frozen, gotten hit with a bus, or had a hailstone the size of a brick land on their head just yet. Line of the film - Arjay Smith's character, Brian Parks: "There's a whole set of tax code books down here - I don't think we need them anymore."

This film had a decent amount of humor, considering the topic on display. The characters you were interested in knowing about, you learned a little bit about as the film progressed. All in all, I was pleased with the movie, and think it was definitely worth waiting months and months for. Science aside, it was fun to watch and interesting to hear how the characters explained away things that didn't seem feasible - but, in a way, I think that was the point. Folks in the media and scientists are spending so much time trying to say that the film isn't "scientifically proven" - I only have three things to say about that. 1. It's a movie. Relax and get some popcorn. 2. Just because *you* can't prove this doesn't mean it's not feasible. You sound just like most of the people in the flick. 3. Bumblebees can't fly - on paper - if I remember that correctly.

Last night, I saw Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill Vol. 2" with a friend, as I was informed that my wife was banning it from her personal viewing after seeing the first one. That being said, I think she would have actually enjoyed the second film.

Those of you looking for a bloodbath of a film will be a little disappointed. Those of you who were looking for more storyline and less mayhem will be pleased. And those of you who just want to finish the series - you'll be happy too. The story continues where the first volume left off. Uma Thurman's "Bride" character is still on the hunt for David Carradine's "Bill" character. As you can see on "Death List Five" here at the official movie site, she has Bill's brother, Budd (Michael Madsen) and the Daryl Hannah character, "Elle" left to take care of. In my opinion, Daryl Hannah makes a great impression in this film. Her character is pretty slick, she has some great dialogue, and she plays this hitmistress very well. I'd expect to see more of her on the bigscreen in the coming years.

While there's a little less blood in this film, there is no lack of action. You can see Elle and the Bride (whose name you learn, btw) go at it in a fantastic battle that leaves you curious, the background of the training Bill's crew went through is shown, and it's all wound together in a fantastic bit of foreshadowing and memory sequences. I've heard rumor that a third installment is due for this series, but hope that it just sticks where it is.

The best part of this movie was that I think you could actually have seen it without seeing the first flick and gotten along just fine. Two thumbs up from me.

I'm sure all of you haven't come here to get your "hot" movie reviews and commentary, but that's okay. I just thought it would be a good addition to the site to keep things fresh and full of variety.

Tonight my wife and I went to see Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ at our local multiplex. I purchased my tickets last night for a showing this evening, as they were all sold out early yesterday for last night's shows. Thought that was an interesting sign. WFAN's Mike Francesa, one half of the "Mike and the Mad Dog" drive-time show, gave his commentary on the whole movie experience he had over the weekend, and I'd have to say mine was somewhat similar. I went to Catholic elementary school, so I'm pretty much familiar with the areas of the Bible covered in the film, and was able to go into the movie just expecting to see the passages as they are interpreted by some - and I wasn't disappointed at all.

As filmmaking goes, this was definitely top shelf. The actors were fantastic, the use of subtitles was not bothersome at all, even adding some integrity to the film, and the images shown were nothing less than powerful. A lot of the discourse floating around recently in the news and on the 'net is about blame. The movie had nothing to do with blaming anyone for anything. Fault isn't an issue. You can look at this movie from two perspectives: First off, think of it as Mr. Gibson's portrayal of how he believed the last twelve hours of Jesus' life went. The thoughts to the past he might have had, the pain he went through, and the effect he had on the people around him. Go in objective, and you'll come out objective. Don't go looking for things that your friend might have told you was there, or that you heard on television. Just watch the film and form your own opinion. Reviews are great - but they're just reviews. Like this. If you find salient points in what I'm writing, then that's great. If not, c'est la vie.

The second way to look at this is to view this film if you weren't necessarily a Christian or Catholic, more specifically. If you were Jewish, Muslim, Taoist, whatever - and you watched this movie, perhaps it would give you reason to see why Christians can be so dedicated to their beliefs, just as you might be with yours. Think of it as an expression for the purpose of greater understanding. Religious or not. Don't go looking for how Gibson portrayed the Jewish leaders of putting Jesus to death. Don't fault the Romans for the scourging and relentless beatings. That's not the point. You're supposed to see someone who had the ultimate faith in himself and what he believed in give everything up for those beliefs - the same way you might do so for a family member or spouse. I don't mean to sound base about it, but stepping down to a different denominator sometimes makes things a little easier to grasp.

I have to say that I've never been to a film where no one said anything on the way out of the theatre. I've never seen such a varying degree of emotion - from outright tears to shock and awe to utter fascination - caused by a movie. And I've seen a whole lotta movies.

I thought people were kidding when they said shows were selling out at all timeslots since last Wednesday. They weren't. Sometimes you go to a movie and it's a lot of young people or older people or folks in a majority from any various ethnic background. My wife pointed out on the way out that she had heard you would see people from all walks of life there - and she heard Russian, English, Spanish, and Chinese all being spoken in the theatre. As films go, it definitely gets a thumbs up from me. Fantastic adaptation, or better yet, almost to the letter placement of written word into something to be seen. Whether you are "grossed out" by blood and violence or not, I think you can get something out of this film, it's just that well done.

[update] Cobb comments on the film, with some terrific thoughts and explanations which I didn't even come close to.