90's Throwback Month - Armageddon (1998)
Hey guys, Chuck here. Well, as I said in my Twister review earlier this month, the 90's had a number of disaster films released to the big screen. So, today for 90's Throwback Month, I'm going to take a look at one of the more popular disaster films of the decade, which happens to be directed by none other than the one and only Michael Bay. This is Armageddon.
Released in 1998, the movie focuses on an asteroid the size of the state of Texas that is hurdling towards Earth, and will cause an extinction-level event when it hits the Earth's surface. After a massive meteor strike in New York, a group of NASA scientists led by Dan Truman (Played by Billy Bob Thornton) make a plan to land a team on the asteroid and drill a hole into it in order to use a nuclear warhead to split the asteroid in half. Truman seeks out the advice of Harry Stamper (played by Bruce Willis), who is the world's top oil driller. Harry, along with his daughter Grace (played by Liv Tyler), heads to Houston where he learns what NASA has planned, and they ask him to train a group of astronauts to use Harrys' drilling equipment. Harry, however, wants to go himself to drill, bringing his own drilling crew with him. His crew consists of Chick (played by Will Patton), Bear (played by Michael Clarke Duncan), Rockhound (played by Steve Buscemi), Oscar (played by Owen Wilson), AJ (played by Ben Affleck), Max, and Noonan.
Harry's crew agrees to join him for the mission, and they all go through twelve days of rigorous training by NASA experts and a group of military test pilots. After training is complete, and the crew has some time to relax and be with friends and family, another meteor strike hits Paris, and Harry and co. head to Florida for the launch. The two shuttles, Freedom and Independence, depart from Florida, enter space, and dock with the Russian Space Station to re-fuel. After a fuel leak in the station causes an explosion, both shuttle crews, along with cosmonaut Lev Adropov (played by Peter Stormare), return to the shuttles and head towards the moon, where they slingshot around the moon and land on the asteroid, albeit not a happy landing. While communication between both shuttles is lost, and the crew of shuttle Independence is presumed lost, the Freedom crew begins to drill, but they are drilling through what appears to be a plate of compressed iron ferrite, which puts the drilling team behind schedule. Due to this, the military initiates "secondary protocol," where they remote detonate the bomb from the surface of the asteroid, which will do nothing. However, Harry convinces Col. Sharp (played by William Fichtner) that he will make the 800-foot mark that they're aiming for. Sharp deactivates the nuke, and the crew begins drilling again.
The Independence crew, meanwhile, has survived, with a few casualties. The surviving crew heads out in their armadillo to meet up with the Freedom crew, who loses their armadillo, with Max inside. However as soon as the Independence crew arrives, however, AJ finishes where Max left off, and makes the 800-foot mark. While clearing out the bent pipe from the Freedom drill, a rock storm takes place, making remote detonation impossible. While the crew draws straws, AJ ends up being he one to stay behind. Harry, while heading down with AJ, takes his place, and give his blessing for AJ to marry Grace, admitting he always saw AJ as a son. The Freedom takes off, and Harry activates the nuke, splitting the asteroid in half. The crew, after returning safely to Earth, reunite with everyone they left behind, including Chick with his ex-wife and son, AJ with Grace, and so on. The movie ends with Grace and AJ's wedding, with photos of those who died on the asteroid placed at the front of the cathedral, including a picture of Harry.
Much like Twister, Armageddon is one of the few 90's disaster movies that still holds up, and much like with Twister, a big part of that is the main cast. Bruce Willis is great as Harry, Billy Bob Thornton is really cool as Truman, Ben Affleck is great as AJ, and even Liv Tyler is fun to wathc as Grace. But the likes of Michael Clarke Duncan, Steve Buscemi, Will Patton, and Peter Stormare are probably my favorite characters in the movie as Bear, Rockhound, Chick, and Lev. Owen Wilson as Oscar was great as well, and his scenes with Affleck are a lot of fun to watch. Now, obviously Michael Bay's directing is something that you guys, my readers, want m to really dig into and tear to sheds, However, his directing in this movie actually works. I personally think that, while the sophomoric humor and excessive amount of explosions don't work for films like Transformers, they definitely work here. In fact, along with the first two Bad Boys movies, I would list this as one of his better films. If not for the barrage of Transformers sequels, I think that, as a film going public, we wouldn't be nearly as hard on Michael Bay as we are. This is not me defending his work, this is just me saying that the bad in his filmography doesn't erase the good, and Armageddon is one of the good ones. Plus, both JJ Abrams and Jonathan Hensleigh (director of the 2004 version of The Punisher) worked on the screenplay, which I think is pretty awesome. So, I'm going to give Armageddon a rating of 4.5/5. This is Chuck signing off. Tomorrow, we conclude 90's Throwback Month with not only another 1998 disaster film, but what is quite possibly one of the biggest film disasters of the 1990's. See you guys then.
Released in 1998, the movie focuses on an asteroid the size of the state of Texas that is hurdling towards Earth, and will cause an extinction-level event when it hits the Earth's surface. After a massive meteor strike in New York, a group of NASA scientists led by Dan Truman (Played by Billy Bob Thornton) make a plan to land a team on the asteroid and drill a hole into it in order to use a nuclear warhead to split the asteroid in half. Truman seeks out the advice of Harry Stamper (played by Bruce Willis), who is the world's top oil driller. Harry, along with his daughter Grace (played by Liv Tyler), heads to Houston where he learns what NASA has planned, and they ask him to train a group of astronauts to use Harrys' drilling equipment. Harry, however, wants to go himself to drill, bringing his own drilling crew with him. His crew consists of Chick (played by Will Patton), Bear (played by Michael Clarke Duncan), Rockhound (played by Steve Buscemi), Oscar (played by Owen Wilson), AJ (played by Ben Affleck), Max, and Noonan.
Harry's crew agrees to join him for the mission, and they all go through twelve days of rigorous training by NASA experts and a group of military test pilots. After training is complete, and the crew has some time to relax and be with friends and family, another meteor strike hits Paris, and Harry and co. head to Florida for the launch. The two shuttles, Freedom and Independence, depart from Florida, enter space, and dock with the Russian Space Station to re-fuel. After a fuel leak in the station causes an explosion, both shuttle crews, along with cosmonaut Lev Adropov (played by Peter Stormare), return to the shuttles and head towards the moon, where they slingshot around the moon and land on the asteroid, albeit not a happy landing. While communication between both shuttles is lost, and the crew of shuttle Independence is presumed lost, the Freedom crew begins to drill, but they are drilling through what appears to be a plate of compressed iron ferrite, which puts the drilling team behind schedule. Due to this, the military initiates "secondary protocol," where they remote detonate the bomb from the surface of the asteroid, which will do nothing. However, Harry convinces Col. Sharp (played by William Fichtner) that he will make the 800-foot mark that they're aiming for. Sharp deactivates the nuke, and the crew begins drilling again.
The Independence crew, meanwhile, has survived, with a few casualties. The surviving crew heads out in their armadillo to meet up with the Freedom crew, who loses their armadillo, with Max inside. However as soon as the Independence crew arrives, however, AJ finishes where Max left off, and makes the 800-foot mark. While clearing out the bent pipe from the Freedom drill, a rock storm takes place, making remote detonation impossible. While the crew draws straws, AJ ends up being he one to stay behind. Harry, while heading down with AJ, takes his place, and give his blessing for AJ to marry Grace, admitting he always saw AJ as a son. The Freedom takes off, and Harry activates the nuke, splitting the asteroid in half. The crew, after returning safely to Earth, reunite with everyone they left behind, including Chick with his ex-wife and son, AJ with Grace, and so on. The movie ends with Grace and AJ's wedding, with photos of those who died on the asteroid placed at the front of the cathedral, including a picture of Harry.
Much like Twister, Armageddon is one of the few 90's disaster movies that still holds up, and much like with Twister, a big part of that is the main cast. Bruce Willis is great as Harry, Billy Bob Thornton is really cool as Truman, Ben Affleck is great as AJ, and even Liv Tyler is fun to wathc as Grace. But the likes of Michael Clarke Duncan, Steve Buscemi, Will Patton, and Peter Stormare are probably my favorite characters in the movie as Bear, Rockhound, Chick, and Lev. Owen Wilson as Oscar was great as well, and his scenes with Affleck are a lot of fun to watch. Now, obviously Michael Bay's directing is something that you guys, my readers, want m to really dig into and tear to sheds, However, his directing in this movie actually works. I personally think that, while the sophomoric humor and excessive amount of explosions don't work for films like Transformers, they definitely work here. In fact, along with the first two Bad Boys movies, I would list this as one of his better films. If not for the barrage of Transformers sequels, I think that, as a film going public, we wouldn't be nearly as hard on Michael Bay as we are. This is not me defending his work, this is just me saying that the bad in his filmography doesn't erase the good, and Armageddon is one of the good ones. Plus, both JJ Abrams and Jonathan Hensleigh (director of the 2004 version of The Punisher) worked on the screenplay, which I think is pretty awesome. So, I'm going to give Armageddon a rating of 4.5/5. This is Chuck signing off. Tomorrow, we conclude 90's Throwback Month with not only another 1998 disaster film, but what is quite possibly one of the biggest film disasters of the 1990's. See you guys then.
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