DEEP IMPACT

INTRODUCTION: It's always the same isn't it, you wait twenty million years for another comet to hit the Earth, and then three come along at once, actually Cameron/Hyam's "Bright Angel Falling" has already burnt up in pre-production, but "Deep Impact" and "Armageddon" are still on their way to a screen near you. This is the first to arrive, and as bitter experience has shown us ("Volcano"/"Dante's Peak" and "Independence Day"/"Mars Attacks") the first film out always gets the advantage at the box office. 

SYNOPSIS: Alone one night, studying his student's astronomical photographs, at the observatory Dr. Wolf discovers a comet on collision course for Earth. Rushing back to warn the authorities, he is killed in a car crash. One year later (you see why Wolf was in such a hurry now), TV reporter Jenny (Leoni) uncovers the oncoming comet (another year away) and the Government cover-up, ostensibly by searching for it on the net. From here on in the action starts to slow down a bit to let you catch your breath. 

REVIEW: Another filmic attempt to cash in on that 90's phenomenon of Pre-Millennial Tension by reviving the disaster genre, and just as "Independence Day" had its 'scene' with the destruction of the White House and "Mars Attacks" had its with the elimination of the senate, so "Deep Impact" has the destruction of the Statue of Liberty by a thousand foot tidal wave. The effect are impressive, you would expect nothing less from Hollywood's newest studio Spielberg and Katzenberg's DreamWorks SKG, but Leder's direction is slack when what is required is slick. 

It is the complete lack of action and urgency that is the fatal flaw in this film. The film charts the events of two years and at times it seems longer. People wonder around aimlessly, at the height of the tension Duvall re-reads "Moby Dick", and in the most offensive piece of emotional manipulation I've seen since last Christmas everyone gets to do a touch-feely monologue to camera before dying. 

The 'all-star' cast all put in average performances. Leoni is perhaps better known for being Mrs David Duchovny than for her own acting career (ie American sit-com "The Naked Truth"), and this, her first movie lead, demonstrates why. Duvall is disappointing, both for agreeing to be in the movie in the first place and for his performance. Presumably he was saving himself for his Oscar nominated performance in forthcoming "The Apostle". Freeman is wasted, in a minor role, as president of the US. Elijah Wood also appears. Veteran actors Maximillian Schell and Vanessa Redgrave turn up as Jenny's parents and there is a brief appearance from the woman who I spent much of the 80's lusting after Dennise Crosby. 

"Deep Impact" has been marketed as a thoughtful disaster movie in an attempt to distance itself both from Bruce Willis' forthcoming action flick "Armageddon" and Irwin Allen's blockbuster disaster movies of the seventies. It succeeds. Completely devoid of any humour or action you can't get much further from 'The Master of Disaster's' star studded extravaganzas. For the creators of this toss to infer that Allen was an inferior film maker just adds injury to the insult of this years "Lost in Space" movie. This film actually owes a lot to Allen. It was in fact originally developed back in the 70's by Richard Zanuck and David Brown for Spielberg, but has been languishing on the back-burners until Bruce Joel Rubin revived it for Spielberg's new studio. 

Call me a paranoid conspiracy theorist if you will, after all I am one, but surely it can be no coincidence that just before this film's release the papers break the story that a comet is on collision course for Earth (just as prior to the release of "Independence Day" the papers broke the story of the discovery of life on Mars). These films are, after all, a potential boon to the Military-Industrial Complex which has been searching desperately for an enemy to justify its existence since the collapse of the cold war and what could be better than such a vague threat as alien invasion or comet collision? Although I am somewhat confused as to the advantages of being hit by a thousand smaller radioactive rocks as opposed to one big non-radioactive one. 

Wait around for "Armageddon". It couldn't possibly be worse. 

Mutt's Rating: ** 

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