Review of The Day After (1983) by Matthew F — 12 Oct 2004

Here we have 5 films. In which 4 of them are pretty new, and 1 is as old as the first laptop computer.

Ladder 49, a movie about firefighters and their lives and the things around it, is an interesting drama, with plenty of action. But the ending of the movie is a sort of a let down, although it is unexpected, which we hardly have from movies today. Ladder 49 is a unique blockbuster.

The Bourne Supremacy. I have never, EVER, been this dizzy. The car chases are simply put: awesome. And the intensity has never been this high. The beginning of the movie feels like a lackluster ending on a season finale of a TV show, which leads on to the next season and really surpasses it's past performance. (Example: 24.).

Spider-Man 2. God, who doesn't like this one? I have heard of a boy who saw it almost 22 times ALREADY. Is it really that good? Yes. I actually looked for a box of kleenexes during certain scenes. And the web-slinging looks a lot more realistic this time, rather than a cartoonish looking approach. Sam Raimi as finally perfected something we wanted perfect. A Comic book.

The Day After Tomorrow...special effects are the main premise of success here. Seeing Los Angeles being englufed with tornados is worth more than the ticket price, and New York City being submerged is just as good. The plot is cornballed though, and things can become really boring. But the images of a frozen New York will haunt you, and when new york city begins freezing, (which is something I would never think that would happen) you are going to be picking your jaw off the floor.

Another film I was attracted to by it's very cool DVD cover, was "The Day After". Believe me, it just wasn't because I liked The Day After Tommorrow. It was only $8 bucks and it was about nuclear war. When I looked into the film more, I discovered it was a made for TV movie, and then I thought, "It's worth only $4." But after reading the reviews and the contriversy this movie caused, I had to see what was the deal with it, and why 1983 everyone was in panic of nuclear war. NOW I KNOW. This movie is the most graphic movie of the 1980s I have ever seen for TV. It not only shows a giant large explosion--mind you, it shows the whole package. When it blows, expect to see people burning, people literally becoming vaporized from an explosion, and alot more. And don't think just because it's a made for TV movie it won't pack suprises and leave you thinking it was scientifically wrong...this film does not miss out on the details. After the explosion, a Kansas City doctor returns to a nearby city to help those hurt from the explosion. The after effects of the nuclear blast are the least to say...horrorific. Fallout settles in to nearby cities causing radiation sickness (which is shown graphically, I won't forget the girl who's dress had a blood stain on it near her pubic region), the loss of hair from many people, the people charred to death but not vaporized by the blast, and the unsettling image of buildings ripping apart near ground zero, and also the image of Kansas City with gas lines still burning, and a man returning to his home, where the only thing left is debris. A doctor returns to Kansas City to see his home before he dies... "Get out of my home..." the doctor says to a family settled on the remains of his home. The father of the family holds the Doctor and the two cry, and the camera pans up to reveal of what hardly remains of downtown Kansas City. The end. A dark and political film...not only was it contriversal, but it was a very emotional and unbelievably sad experience. This is one of the films that needs to remade and shown even more graphically...to impact the world again and show that nuclear war is not the solution, even in the given time we are in.