Violence/Gore: Massive destruction but not much blood.

Sex/Nudity: None to speak of.

Best Line: “Look on the bright side… we’ll all have high schools named after us.”

Score:

Every so often, a disaster movie so cosmic, so pivotal, so huge will come along, it will make 12-year-old boys run from the theater to buy action figures and comic book novelizations and trading cards from their local purveyor of such things. It will star all the hot young actors, have a flag waving somewhere in the background (if Michael Bay’s involved), and have a score by one of the big three: James Horner, or if he’s busy, John Williams or Jerry Goldsmith. And despite the mayhem, destruction, and stale popcorn, audiences will cheer, somehow everything will be miraculously rescued in the third act, and the movie will gross millions worldwide.

DEEP IMPACT is not that movie…well, except for the music by James Horner. But that’s not a bad thing. In fact, compared to the other big disaster movie of 1998, it’s actually intelligent, caring, thought-provoking, complex, and not at all the jingoistic steaming piece of tripe served up by ARMAGEDDON. And to tell the truth, I wasn’t expecting it. I was expecting something along the lines of INDEPENDENCE DAY or THE TOWERING INFERNO, but what I got was a moving drama with good special effects. Aiding this, perhaps, was the fact that I originally saw it on the big screen in Clayton, Missouri’s stunning Esquire theatre, one of the finest movie houses in the country. If you’re ever in St. Louis, I highly suggest you give it a try.

Emmy-winning ER director Mimi Leder directs a cast of strong talents (ok, Tea Leoni notwithstanding) in a movie that actually achieves some genuine emotional moments and is - surprisingly - convincingly scripted. Leder’s methodical, detailed constructions are the exact opposite of the Michael Bay tight-camera-wave-flag-clever-sound-bite school of directing. She allows a scene to develop, taking the time to focus on and comprehend the human situation in the midst of all the chaos. This results in an assortment of character vignettes that strike the heart in just the right way, without overwrought drama or pathos, but solely with the overwhelming gravity of the situation and the human condition.

That’s not to say that she skimps on the special effects, however. The comet scenes are fantastic, and the scenes with the tidal wave - particularly the scenes of the destruction of New York - are memorable and believable. The CGI doesn’t have that half-finished, rough look seen in so many movies lately. It looks smooth and perfect, allowing the suspension of disbelief to go off without a hitch.

This is not the kind of movie that ever had or ever will have action figures (although if you wanted to put Frodo on a pile of dirt next to a big puddle and heave a rock at it, that’s your business), nor is it the sort of movie that action-movie jocks will flock to see on DVD. It is what it is: an almost anti-action movie that offers a realistic spin on how humanity would react to a literally Earth-shattering event.

DVD Extras: This is the only bad thing about this movie - it deserves a better DVD. This edition is widescreen; it’s captioned; and it has a couple of trailers. Woo boy.

SS