Starring Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal, Ian Holm, Emmy Rossum, Sela Ward
Written By: Roland Emmerich & Jeffrey Nachmanoff
Directed By: Roland Emmerich
Studio: Fox
Buy on Amazon.com link

The Day After Tomorrow, the box office hit, is now available to own on DVD for the first time. The story of Jack Hall (Dennis Quaid), a scientist, who predicts that the world will succumb to a second Ice Age. Of course, everyone thinks he’s crazy and ignores his warning. Well, they start believing when massive tornadoes, hurricanes, and tidal waves start destroying cities around the globe. Huge amounts of destruction, focused character development and don’t forget about the excellent special effects, makes The Day After Tomorrow one of the best movies of the summer.

Jack Hall, a climatogolist, worked all over the globe trying to predict the newest weather patterns. He discovered the biggest one yet. Another ice age. Imagine the air outside being 150 below zero and freezing up right away. Talk about scary stuff. Well, he tries to tell the Vice President about the the upcoming distasters, and falls to deaf ears. Jack’s son Sam (Jake Gyllenhaal), is on his way to New York for an upcoming quiz bowl debate for school and becomes trapped in the city when all hell brakes loose. Flooding is an understatement as you see massive tidal waves drowning out the city of Manhattan and surrounding areas. People indoors were lucky enough to survive but then becomes the problem of food and overcrowded shelters. It only gets worse when the cold comes in and freezes everything and anything. All that was flooded is now frozen over and with lots of snow. It gets better for these people huh? While the story focuses on several main characters, it’s hard to not think about the substantial losses of life if such a tragedy were to occur. So, Jack decides he will travel from D.C. to NYC to save his son, Sam. Meanwhile, everyone in the north are doomed and the southern states are told to migrate south to Mexico. Somehow Jack travels with his two friends from his crew and makes it in the snow to almost PA. From there, they must hike from Philly to NYC. I mean come on, it would be a pain in the butt to hike from there in normal conditions but in a freezing blizzard conditions it’s highly unlikely they could make it. Sam, is a great character to watch because he’s very likeable and sincere. He could have easily left with all the hysteria going on around the city but sticks around for his friends and tries to help them survive as well. Sam is also pretty knowledgeable about weather just like his dad and helps the group he is with to hang in there. Held up in a library, they must face the task of staying warm. They decided they must do what it takes so they burn the books to stay warm. Ian Holm’s character is very good and not used enough for such an accomplished actor. His character is a scientest based in Scotland, who discovers the rapid water temperatures around the Atlantic Ocean and other bodies of water. Unfortunately, Holm and his crew are sitting ducks because England and Scotland suffer the brunt and first wave of the storms. About 4 different groups from several parts of the world make up the characters in the movie, and focus on how they deal with the impending disaster. As you see the characters on screen, you get caught up with their story and hope that they make it out of this disaster.

Looking at the extras, there were a few on here. First a full length audio commentary by Director/Co-writer Roland Emmerich and Producer Mark Gordon. Emmerich is also known for Independence Day, Stargate and Godzilla. Emmerich shines as a disaster-genre director and keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole movie. With the commentary, he discusses the various parts of the story and the decision making behind them. There is also another commentary by Co Writer Jeffrey Nachmanoff, Director of Photography Lieli Steiger, Editor David Brenner and Prod. Designer Barry Chusid. Also check out an Audio Anatomy, an interactive sound demo, deleted scenes, and a DVD-ROM behind the scenes, Making Of footage. I found that part to be very annoying. The footage could have been easily placed on the DVD only section and not the ROM section. Most of the time the links did not work properly and you had to cut and paste the links into a new window. Why not just place them on the standard DVD?

Overall, The Day After Tomorrow was quite the popcorn summer flick. Entertaining, exciting, and emotional. You had awesome special effects, characters you cared for, played well by a great cast and of course the disaster. The only thing I had a problem with in the story was those stupid wolves loose on the ship in New York. It’s nerve racking as it is, you don’t need to throw these dumb wolves into the mix. That could have been left out. Other than that, I really enjoyed The Day After Tomorrow.

Features:
n- Commentary By Director Roland Emmerich and Producer Mark Gordon
n- Commentary By Writer Jeffrey Nachmanoff, Cinematographer Ueli Steiger, Editor David Brenner and Production Designer Barry Chusid
n- Deleted Scenes
n- Interactive Audio Demo
n- DVDn-Rom Link to Hour Long Exclusive Material
n- And More!

Audio:
ENGLISH: Dolby Digital 5.1 CC
ENGLISH: DTS 5.1 CC
SPANISH: Dolby Digital Surround

Video:
Widescreen 2.35:1 Color (Anamorphic)

Subtitles:

Favorite Scenes: Hollywood Tornados, Flooding of New York, Trek From Philly, Burning Books
Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 0 minutes
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating: