The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow
Posted on | June 1, 2004 at 2:16 pm | 5 Comments
I’m on a vacation from work this week, as I need to start using up my vacation time in preparation for my work project going live later this summer. I don’t know when I’ll be able to take vacation again once that gets going. I can’t really afford to go anywhere right now, so this is pretty much a stay-at-home vacation. Gives me time to catch up on reading and movie watching among other things…
Today I saw The Day Before Tomorrow. This is one of those movies that makes me glad that I don’t know more science than I do, because I think that if I did, this movie would probably upset me. Or make me laugh. The insta-freezing storm seemed especially suspect to me, but what do I know? And there’s plenty of other problems to focus on besides the science, such as the characters. Much has been made of the Dennis Quaid character’s decision to trek from DC to New York to rescue his son (blank-faced Jake Gyllenhaal), and I must admit it’s a pretty lame central character/plot device. I just didn’t really believe it, but more importantly, I didn’t really care. So, science-wise and character-wise, there’s not a lot to recommend the movie. But man, those scenes of mass destruction were sure cool! Nice special effects.
One big innovation of this movie, and it’s one that to my knowledge was not even advertised, is that it has a new gimmick for really drawing you into the story. I wish I knew what it was called – some variation on “SenseSurround”, I suspect. The theater was so cold, that you actually felt like you were there with the characters on screen, freezing their asses off. I ended up having to sit on my arms for much of the movie, just to keep them warm. Thankfully I was not wearing shorts, though I had contemplated it when dressing this morning. So, be forewarned, take a parka with you if you go see this movie!
To be truthful, this seems to be problem with every movie I go to lately – they always have the A/C cranked up way too high in the theaters. Or maybe my metabolism is changing or something. And maybe the internal insulation I’ve lost lately is a contributing factor. But still, this latest one was ridiculous. I felt like setting fire to the seats.
Latre.
Comments
5 Responses to “The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow”
June 1st, 2004 @ 4:19 pm
Rog, I feel your pain re: movie theater AC. One of the great things about living in the SF Bay Area is that you are almost never exposed to air conditioning, because it’s hardly ever necessary* (in the Berkeley-Oakland-SF area, at least; once you go further inland, it’s another story). It’s ridiculous that when I’m visiting my parents in Florida, I have to bring a sweater or jacket when I go to the movies. I’ve long felt that going from 90 degrees outside to 65 degrees inside is unhealthy.
*There are maybe 5 days a year when the fog & wind miraculously disappear and you sweat, but somehow we manage to cope anyway.
June 2nd, 2004 @ 12:58 pm
Much has been made of the Dennis Quaid character’s decision to trek from DC to New York to rescue his son
Not sure if I’ve read anything about this, but I was slightly annoyed by this, too. Obviously it was a way to make the big plot more human, but it’s much like the film "Harrison’s Flowers"–you ever see that?
Wait, have to go to a meeting, will finish this thought later.
June 2nd, 2004 @ 10:37 pm
Sue, you are Rose are kindred spirits for sure. She loathes over-AC’d public spaces. Even I – who hates and despises humidity, and would be fine if the temp never rose above 75 or so – sometimes find public AC excessive. Difference is, Rose wishes it were 85 all the time – that would turn me into an axe-murderer for sure. Or more likely, an accidental axe-self-mutilator, since my hands would be sweating so much I’d probably slip and lop off my foot or something.
Sorry – I thought I was in a Tarantino movie for a moment.
June 5th, 2004 @ 11:13 am
Paula, I didn’t think I had heard of Harrison’s Flowers, but I looked it up in the IMDB and it sounds familiar. I think the DBT filmmakers could’ve thought up a better way to bring some human dimension into the plot, but I guess when you have so many implausibilities, what’s one more? When you’re characters have to outrun super-speedy glaciers, a little trek from DC to NYC to retrieve your son in the middle of the worst storm ever doesn’t seem so bad. Or something.
Sue & Jeff, I much prefer being too cold in a movie theater to being too hot, but even I have my limits. When my fingers turn blue, something’s wrong…
I’ve been noticing the same thing in restaurants lately.
June 14th, 2004 @ 3:04 pm
The fella and I saw it Saturday (and yes, it was freezing cold!) and came away with differing opinions. He: cool, at times genuinely scary desctruction scenes; wishes there’d been a warning about how, though the events depicted are fictionalized (and sped up drastically), the planet is still in danger. Me: terribly insulted to have my intelligence insulted (Oh no! Here come the timberwolves!) and heartstrings twanged (Yay, little Cancer Boy will survive, at least another month or two!) so blatantly. I know it’s a big flashy (no offense) Hollywood summer blockbuster, and I know I’m a terrible snob when it comes to such things. But the sheer dopiness I was being asked to swallow combined with the dull-as-dogfood characters made me way cranky.