|
|
|
| ARMAGEDDON (1998) - PG-13
|
|  |
|
ReviewScore: 41 out of 100
SBD Star Rating:
by Lew Irwin
View Credits | See Other Reviews
| |
The nation's leading critics have rolled out their mostly deadly verbal ammunition in an effort to shoot down the latest asteroid movie -- even as they concede it will make a big smash at the box office. In the words of Jay Carr in today's (Wednesday) Boston Globe: "Armageddon is big and noisy and stupid and shameless and it's going to be huge at the box office. ... [It] isn't really about an asteroid attack. It's about a testosterone attack." Or in the words of Steve Murray in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "It's huge, destructive, unstoppable, and it's certain to blast a hole in the United States -- at the box office, anyway." Or Liam Lacey in the Toronto Globe and Mail: "It's big, it's loud, it's brainless, and the lineups will probably stretch around the block." Stephen Hunter in the Washington Post lays it on: "So predictable, it could have been written by a chimp who's watched too much TV, ... it's craven, sniveling self-degrading in its mercenary need to be a hit. It leaves no stone unturned in its search for the perfect cliché, for the lowest common denominator." "Movie isn't actually the best word to describe Armageddon," comments the New York Times' Janet Maslin. "More accurately it's a product, a feat of salesmanship." Writes Elvis Mitchell in the Dallas-Fort Worth Star-Telegram: "This may be one of the most aggressive movies ever made. [But] this kind of bravura, pumped-up filmmaking is the stuff of great trailers. ... It's exhausting, and you begin to feel that the movie runs on a special clock in which every minute lasts 90 seconds." Jami Bernard in the New York Daily News suggests that if Armageddon is a prophecy of the future, then "the end of the world is going to be very noisy and filled with some of the worst dialogue ever." Or as Desmond Ryan puts it, "No one with an IQ higher than the temperature outside the theater could sit through it five minutes without crying, 'Hey, wait a minute!'" The film does have a handful of admirers. Rod Dreher in the New York Post calls it "a barreling badass testosto-fest that's like being strapped onto a screaming Fourth of July bottle rocket for 2 breathless, head-banging hours. ... It's a lollapalooza." And columnist Liz Smith cheers: "What a movie! The most nail-biting meteor-hitting-Earth film ever. The absolute best disaster movie in eons. Incredible tension, cinematography and editing."
|
|
|
|
