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Deep Impact

Deep Impact

List Price: $14.99
Your Price: $13.49
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Storyline, acting, and presentation make this movie great.
Review: Deep Impact is a compelling story of 4 people, Jenny Lerner, a low-rate reporter for MSNBC (Tea Leoni), Leo Biederman, an average teenager who discovers the comet (Elijah Wood), President Tom Beck of the United States (Morgan Freeman), and Spurgen Tanner, the last Astronaut who walked on the moon, who, with a team of young astronauts, has been sent to stop the comet (Robert Duvall). The story of these four develop quite nicely, as it starts out with Leo in astronomy club, and when his teacher asks what an object is in the sky, he does not know. This of course, is the comet. It is sent to a lab, where it is found. From then the story shifts gears to Jenny, and remains with her until the president tells the world of the event. From then it is to Spurgen Tanner, and in some brief glimpses throughout the movie, President Tom Beck. The ideas and progression of the story is amazing. The directing is superb. The action is wonderfully done. It is a must see movie.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: *snore*
Review: Why can't people make entertaining asteroid movies for once? This movie is very boring, and the only good part is a 2 minute disaster at the end. Armageddon was a stupid romance movie, Deep Impact was a boring drama and Asteroid was a boring romance movie! Spend more time on the disaster seens!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: More Moving Emotionally Than Armageddon, Less Action
Review: This movie was released within a month or two of Armageddon. They both deal with the same issue, an asteroid that's bearing down on the Earth. If the asteroid impacts the Earth, all life will be destroyed.

The film follows several interlinked plotlines. One involving an aging astronaut played by Robert Duvall, and quite well I might add. He adds the spice of age and wisdom to the group of astronauts who try to avert the disaster by placing nuclear warheads on the asteroid (Comet actually) and break it apart into pieces small enough to be burned up in the atmosphere.

Another plotline involves a reporter played by Tea Leoni who stumbles across the the truth of the comet's existence and threat to the earth. She is practically estranged from her father, who recently divorced her mother for a much younger woman.

Still another plotline involves a young boy named Beiderman, who actually discovers the comet in an amateur astronomy club. The young actor eventually became Frodo Baggins in Lord of the Rings, so his acting skills are quite respectable.

This film tugs at the heartstrings throughout, and is a good film to have on the shelf. I've watched it a number of times, and still get a tear in the eye each time I do. If you want testosterone-induced action, watch Armageddon, but if you want a good storyline with lots of emotion, as well as some action, get this one.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: I liked it, but some of you may like Armagedon more
Review: Not enough time and too many plot lines killed this movie.

First we have the plot line of a High School student that discovers a comet that will kill us all
Second we have an ammeter reporter that blows the cover on the whole thing
Third we have the reactions of a president and how he deals with the coming crisis safeguarding his people and suchlike
Fourth we have a mission in space to go and destroy the big bad comet before it kills us all.

While individually these plot lines are good and the ending is satisfying I thought that they all rushed together sometimes the action was too quick sometimes it was too slow.
This is one of those movies that could have been great if it could have known what it wanted and had an actual plan of attack. As it is the film sort of stumbles about haphazardly with moments of real insight breaking in often.

Overall-Good movie if you like drama, but don't confuse this with Armageddon it is not a comedy.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Men are from asteroids, women are from comets.
Review: Having been released just 8 weeks apart in the early summer of 1998, "Deep Impact" and "Armageddon" are inexorably linked ("Deep Impact" was released first). Since they are both cosmic-object-threatens-Earth stories that invoved huge ad-hoc NASA missions to bore holes and drop nukes, it just makes sense. Oh, yea, and New York gets trashed in each movie, too. However, the films are are essentially flip-sides of each other.

This might sound sexist, but it is fairly easy to tell that this movie was directed by a female (Mimi Leder). To quote a previous reviewer, "This is a great SF movie by a woman director who focuses on the emotional aspects rather than the hero dynamics." While Jerry Bruckheimer certainly acheived the hero dynamic with his testosterone-laden "Aramgeddon", Mimi Leder's "Deep Impact" attempted to hit the emotional mark, but just about completely missed it.

Although, refreshingly, one can watch this movie without totally suspending one's concept of reality, as is required with "Armageddon", there is still the feeling that something isn't quite right with this film. The elements are certainly here, such as Morgan Freeman's unremarkable, but dignified protrayal of the President. The biggest problem is that the movie tries to set up the emotional moments in the various storylines, but then never really delivers them.

If "Armageddon" was an overdose of amphetamines, the "Deep Impact" was certainly a large quantity of Valium. The epitome of this was Tea Leoni, whose playing of a news reporter was remarkably void of any real humanity whatsoever apart from a feeble attempt at the end. As a matter of fact, she gave a complete sense of detachment, which I'm sure was the opposite of what was intended.

None of the other principals did anything to overcome this, except for Robert Duval, who was the veteran astronaut proving that old dogs can indeed learn new tricks, but even so, it was too little, too late. It is just about impossible to really connect with either the story or characters. It's akin to the soft-spoken announcer of a chamber music radio station trying to describe a riot; it just doesn't work.

"Deep Impact" composer James Horner, who did a masterful job with the music of "Titanic", unfortunately misses the mark, too. "Titanic" fans will find a lot of familiarity in the film score, as some of the themes bear a striking resemblance to James Cameron's epic. The music here though, instead of reinforcing the emotions (as it did in "Titanic") seems to further add to the sense of detachment. This is suprising, being a James Horner score, but it didn't fit in very well.

Despite it's faults, and they're big ones, there is still a lot to like about "Deep Impact".

In last half-hour of the film, things actually start getting a little interesting hour of calamity arrives. There is action without overblown antics. The special effects are all tastefully done and reasonably realistic, which is refreshing to the heavy-handed ones in "Armageddon". The comet of "Deep Impact" looks like it should, just merrily Hale-Bopping along and minding it's own business (until Earth just wanders into its path). This is opposed to the "Armageddon" astroid's actively stalking, menacing appearance. I am admittedly no expert on tsunamis, but the one in this film seems to be the most realistic one I've seen. The explosions are kept to a minimum, and makes it all the more believeable.

Although nowhere near the magnitude of the whoppers in "Armageddon" there are a few technical errors worth noting:

- The comet certainly looks a *lot* bigger than it's advertised size (7 miles) in the landing and drilling scenes.

- Exactly how was the comet's initial path calculated based on a single picture?

- Those familiar with the lay of the land in New York City probably realize that the only way the wave could hit where it did was for it to have originated in NEW JERSEY and not the actual ocean.

- The part of the comet that impacted in the Atlantic did so while moving east at a high velocity. How could that produce such a powerful westbound wave?

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Will Earth Survive?
Review: A few years ago, two movies were made that dealt with asteroids hitting the earth. One was "Armageddon", the other was this fine film, "Deep Impact". This movie stars Tea Leoni as Jenny Lerner, a reporter for CNBC who discovers news about an "E.L.E", Extinction Level Event. Apparently, a comet "the size of Mt. Everest", according to the film, is on a collision course with earth. Under orders from the President, played superbly by veteran actor Morgan Freeman, construction on a space vehicle has started. Built by the United States and Russia, the "Messiah" will deliver eight nuclear warheads, place them inside the rogue comet, and blow it off course. The Messiah is commanded by astronaut Spurgeon Tanner (Robert Duvall).

The comet has a rotation period of fourteen hours, and the crew of Messiah can only work during darkness due to the escaping compressed vapors and extremely high temperatures when the comet is in daylight.

After detonation of the warheads, the comet splits into two pieces, and both are still on a collision course with earth. Meanwhile, people are hoarded to Missouri's limestone hills to live underground until its safe to start over. The people have been randomly selected by a computer.

A plan is devised to fire missiles at the comet to see if they can alter its course, but this ultimately fails as well. Finally, the crew of Messiah decides to crash their ship and four remaining nukes into the large section of the comet, as its too late to stop the smaller piece from hitting the earth.

The special effects in this movie are awesome, especially the entry of the smaller comet into the atmosphere and the ensuing tidal wave that envelops New York City. Maximillian Schell, Vanessa Redgrave, and Elijah Wood do excellent jobs in their roles as well.

I feel this movie had a more "human" side to it than "Armageddon". I enjoyed both movies, but Armageddon seemed to be a little more "on the edge" than Deep Impact. In this movie, you could really relate to the characters and the urgency and utter hopelessness of their situation. I didn't get that feeling with Armageddon.

Both of these movies are good in their own right. I recommend both, but Deep Impact focuses on the plight of the characters more. I think action movie fans would enjoy them, but perhaps for different reasons.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: zzzzzz boring and hardly compelling
Review: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz thats my reacion to this film. I expected a lot more from this movie then some depressing borefest. Its hard to believe that they refused to send nukes up to hit this rock as contigency plan C through Z. Obviously a politically correct self righteous narrow minded film crew made this movie. Not to mention that the special effects [were bad]

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Gospel according to DreamWorks
Review: The way I see it, there's a lot of Biblical stuff woven into this film.
(1) The comet that's supposed to destroy the earth could symbolize the Fallen Angel. The ancient Hebrews sometimes referred to angels as stars, comets or other heavenly bodies.
(2) The crew that's supposed to save the earth could symbolize the Messiah Himself. Just as the original Messiah died so that the world might live, these astronauts sacrificed themselves for the future of our planet.
(3) President Morgan Freeman affirms his belief in God and blesses the nation with a prayer.
(4) Reporter Tea Leoni makes peace with those who have hurt her before she dies.
Whether or not it was director Mimi Leder's intention, this is a story with a very Christian theme.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Heart Wrenching Tale of Global Doom
Review: Possibly the finest end of the world film ever made. The only competition might be George Pal's When Worlds Collide. The manner in which the Director, Mimi Leder fashions this tale is unique. This film is not a fast paced, slam bang action thriller. There is no hyped up rock score, ala Bruckheimer, to keep the film at an artificial pace. Instead it reaches down into the human heart and draws us into characters and events that are at times thrilling, at times heart breaking. The scenes of destruction are terrifying, made more so by the depth of the characters that get swept up in the cataclysm. And by the fact that special effects are there to enhance the story, not carry it. This is a beautiful, spiritual, and elagic tale of humanity on the brink. You will be rewarded in many ways by the experience of this film. It is a true classic.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: great cast and believable story
Review: The story was not so far out that it couldn't happen. Great cast and kept attention.


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