kottke.org

...is a weblog about the liberal arts 2.0 edited by Jason Kottke since March 1998 (archives). You can read about me and kottke.org here. If you've got questions, concerns, or interesting links, send them along.

The Day After Tomorrow

At the theater the other day, I saw a trailer for a movie called The Day After Tomorrow. The trailer doesn't give any of the plot away, but the movie is about the aftermath of global warming, basically an audiovisual depiction of the direst of effects of massive global climate changes. A flooded-and-then-frozen NYC seems to be one of the featured locations, as does a tornado-ravaged LA. I have a soft spot for this genre of movie (I don't know that the genre has a name...it's part sci-fi, part disaster flick, but not really entirely either). Take all of humanity, add a global catastrophe/event of some sort (the event doesn't have to be negative, just global), and see what happens.

Unfortunately for me, movies of this type are rarely done well. Off the top of my head, the only good representative film I can think of is Dr. Strangelove (ooh, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind). The not-so-good ones are easy to name: Independence Day, Godzilla, Armageddon, Deep Impact, The Core, etc. etc. It looks like The Day After Tomorrow will also be of the not-so-good variety. Schlockmeister Roland Emmerich is writing and directing, the guy behind such films as The Patriot and Stargate as well as the aforementioned Godzilla and Independence Day. I've (unfortunately) seen all of those movies and I haven't groaned that much since....well, you know.

By Jason Kottke    Dec 4, 2003 at 05:19 pm

kottke.org, quickly...

The best way to get a sense of what kottke.org is all about is to head to the front page or check out some random entries from the archives. Follow kottke.org via RSS or Twitter.

Want to share your something special with kottke.org's readers? Sponsor the RSS feed for a week!

Looking for work?

Recommended sites

evhead    Vulture    Omit Needless Words    Morning News    Q Daily News    FlickrBlog    tecznotes    nickbaum.com    scoboco    I did not know that yesterday!    Typographica    Play with the Machine    onfocus.com    Heavy Backpack    plasticbag.org    Cynical-C Blog    Capn Design    gladwell.com    Blackbeltjones/work    NYT Science