Deep Impact is “the other asteroid movie” of 1998, even though it was released before Armageddon. Sporting a smaller budget and a bigger cast, it is the more restrained of the two, though not necessarily a hugely superior picture. Personally, I do like this one better, even though it is severely underdeveloped in the disaster scene department.
A big hit at the box-office, Michael Bay’s Armageddon certainly doesn’t score many points for subtlety or realism. Nor is it very successful as a disaster movie.
Snakes on a Plane was massively hyped before its arrival, mainly due to its funny title. Having finally seen it, I’m kind of glad that I didn’t spend a bunch of money on seeing it in the cinema, since the actual movie is nowhere nere as fun as it ought to be.
How about a bona fide Oscar winner? When Worlds Collide, produced by George Pal and directed by Rudolph Maté, who also made the classic noir D.O.A., won the special effects category at the 1952 Academy Awards. And there’s no doubt that the miniature work featured in the film’s climactic catastrophe sequence is the absolute highlight of this minor sci-fi classic.
As a modernisation of the disaster movie genre, Cloverfield is interesting and thrilling, with quite a bit of spectacular destruction going on.
Destination: Infestation is a Canadian made-for-TV ripoff of Snakes on a Plane, but with ants. It’s stupid. It’s crap. It’s fun if you’re drunk or just in the mood for something ridiculous.
Roland Emmerich’s The Day After Tomorrow has taken quite a bit of flak for being scientifically preposterous. But if you want a well-reasoned and credible discussion about climate change, may I suggest An Inconvenient Truth or something similar? Meanwhile, if you want to see giant waves drench New York City and equally huge tornadoes ripping Los Angeles to shreds, here’s a movie for you.
The final of the four Airport movies is a disappointing end to an entertaining franchise.
The third entry in the Airport series is in some aspects the quintessential disaster movie.
Airport 1975 is the first of three sequels to the very successful Airport, and offers more catastrophic bang for your bucks.