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By
NICK ZEGARAC
Yet another variation on the
"we're all doomed" philosophy that Hollywood en
masse loves to embrace "Deep Impact" is the story
of how various people (all from the United States)
cope with the imminent disaster of being wiped off
the face of the planet. It stars Tea Leoni as
Jenny Lerner, a precocious White House reporter
who accidentally stumbles across secret
information about a natural disaster of
cataclysmic proportions. It seems that Earth is in
direct line with a giant asteroid. If the asteroid
strikes Earth, it will bring about the next ice
age. Maximilian Schell (Jason) and Vanessa
Redgrave (Robin) costar as Jenny's divorced
feuding parents. Because no one over the age of
forty is being considered for the massive rescue
and life preservation effort that is sweeping the
country (presumably because future society won't
require any intelligence, just a host of sexy
youth to help in the procreation phase of mankind
volume 2) Robin decides to take her own life. This
makes the riff between Jenny and her father almost
unbearable. Meanwhile, on another part of the
continent young astronomer, Leo Beiderman (Elijah
Wood) is preparing to take refuge in the woods of
California to save himself and his girlfriend,
Sarah (Leelee Sobieski) from certain death.
Finally, there's Spurgeon Tanner (Robert Duvall),
a NASA man and widower who's been pulled out of
retirement to front a space mission which will
attempt to blow up the asteroid in outer space
before it reaches the earth.
Director, Mimi Leder is unequal to the task of
formulating a cohesive narrative from these bits
of life in peril. Instead we're treated to
incredibly sappy moments of melodrama which,
rather than tugging at our heart strings, serve as
glaring reminders of just how awful this sort of
disaster epic can be in less skilled hands.
There's no consistency to the plot, just bits of
chaos buttressed by a lot of tears and some really
poor acting. Only Morgan Freeman escapes the
deluge of B-movie oblivion, as the very
Presidential voice of reason. As though a happy
ending confirms some vain attempt at the life
affirming message that "we shall overcome,"
Leder's flick ends on a high note that reads more
like a tack on than an exaltation of the human
spirit.
Paramount's previous DVD was not anamorphically
enhanced for widescreen televisions and I imagine
if you're a fan of the film, this is the primary
selling feature of this Special Edition reissue.
There's also an audio commentary on this edition
in which director Leder sounds rather bored by the
experience. Three all too brief featurettes that
superficially cover the production of the film
round out the extras. As for the overall picture
quality of the film on this disc -- it appears to
be the identical image quality as the previous
transfer. Colors are vibrant and rich. Black and
contrast levels are quite deep and solid. There's
a considerable amount of film grain during some
sequences while the space segments betray their
blue screen and computer compositing by being
overly smooth and perfect. The final sequence of
this film must have been the inspiration for
Roland Emmerich's misguided weather channel
disaster epic, "The Day After Tomorrow." The audio
on "Deep Impact" is 5.1 Dolby Digital and delivers
an aggressive sound field that will surely give
your speakers a work out. |
