Deep Impact Review
by Steve Rhodes (srhodes AT ricochet DOT net)May 13th, 1998
DEEP IMPACT
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 1998 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ** 1/2
Okay moviegoers, dust off your old balance scales as you try to decide whether DEEP IMPACT is worth recommending. (DEEP IMPACT is the first of this year's big-rock-hits-earth movies. The Bruce Willis one doesn't hit until July.)
On the plus side of the scales you will probably want to include the marvelous acting by such veterans as Morgan Freeman and Robert Duvall as well as younger star Tea Leoni from FLIRTING WITH DISASTER. Also on the plus side are some remarkable special effects in the third act - the first has some cheap looking ones straight out of an old Buck Rogers movie. Finally, the outline of the story, as opposed to the details of the script, is fascinating, so you'll want to put it on the positive side.
On the negative side, Mimi Leder's direction and Michael Tolkin and Bruce Joel Rubin's script is so confusing and so riddled with holes that you'll spend the hour after the movie discussing all of its problems with your date and friends. The large array of needless subplots and unnecessary characters goes on this side. The biggest weight on the negative side of the scale is the long second act in which the movie loses all momentum and tries to turn from a big budget action adventure to a maudlin soap opera.
Of course, you may want to balance the scales differently.
The story has three distinct acts and a short prologue. The prologue about a government cover-up of a comet on a collision course with earth, which has great potential, is given needlessly short shrift. The first act is a fascinating science fiction story with astronaut Spurgeon Tanner (Duvall) and Co. attempting to nuke the comet off course. The second act is an excruciatingly long and slow weeper full of lugubrious mini-dramas about people lamenting the end of civilization as we know it. The final act tries to pick the action back up with the comet approaching and people heading for shelter.
So we have a sleep-inducing action picture - now there's an oxymoron - that is bracketed with some great scenes. (When the tidal wave washes over the top of the World Trade Center, for example, the visuals are tremendous.)
Tea Leoni plays a young CNBC reporter named Jenny Lerner, who breaks the biggest story in this millenium. "I know you're just a reporter, but you used to be a person, right?" Secretary Alan Rittenhouse (James Cromwell) complains when she first confronts him about the cover-up. With some great scenes reminiscent of BROADCAST NEWS we go into the inner workings of a television newsroom. Jenny has a pair of divorced parents, played by Vanessa Redgrave and Maximilian Schell, and every time they come on the scene the movie loses all momentum. Elimination of both of their characters would be a huge improvement. If their characters belong in a movie, it's not this one.
Morgan Freeman plays the wise President Beck. He's the sort of president you can trust even if he did hide the comet's existence for a year. And he's honest. Name any president that would have the guts to go on national television and tell the nation that now is the time to panic.
If you can only see one earth in peril movie this year, this is not the one to choose. There's no guarantee that Bruce's will be any better, but hope springs eternal in the land of popcorn and candy.
DEEP IMPACT runs 1:55. It is rated PG-13 for intense disaster- related elements and a little profanity. The picture has the potential for scaring the living daylights out of impressionable kids, but in general it should be fine for kids around 10 and up.
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
