Armageddon Movie Review JPMN

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• Armageddon (1998) -- Preposterous story, but memorably thrilling, 8/10. • SIGN UP for your free Netflix trial: http://www.Netflix.com/Jogwheel • TWEET a review with the #JPMN hashtag, and have it featured! • WATCH full episodes, every Friday night: http://bit.ly/JogJPMN • ~~ Movie Night Reviews ~~ • Each Quick Review is an excerpt from a full episode. Incorporating viewer comments and tweets, your host and film critic Jonathan Paula reviews everything from opening day releases, recent DVDs, upcoming trailers, and classics from years past. Along with your votes, these films are scored on the Rate-O-Matic for a 1-10 ranking. A Five Word Summary quickly encapsulates each review while Factor Facts highlight the the best and worst features of a movie in each of ten key categories. New, full episodes of Movie Night air on the JPizzle1122 channel every Friday, (Nov. through May). • ~~ Links ~~ • Twitter --------------------- http://bit.ly/JonTW • Facebook ---------------- http://bit.ly/JonFBFan • Main Channel ----------- http://bit.ly/Jogwheel • 2nd Channel ------------ http://bit.ly/JonWorld • Movie Night Show ----- http://bit.ly/JogJPMN • FAQ Video --------------- http://bit.ly/JogFAQv • T-Shirts ------------------- http://bit.ly/JogStore • ~~ Technical ~~ • Created by ------ Jonathan Paula • Camera ---------- Panasonic HMC-150 • Microphone ----- Sennheiser ME 66 • Software --------- Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 • Computer ------- http://bit.ly/JAV010 • • Jogwheel Productions © 2012 • • ~~ Review Script ~~ • This science-fiction disaster drama directed by infamously ridiculous director Michael Bay, was released in July of 1998: and it's 553 million dollar take made it the highest grossing film of that year. It opened just months after the remarkably similar Deep Impact which many cite as the more scientifically accurate, but perhaps less enjoyable of the two. The fantastically absurd film opens with a CGI sequence of the 6-mile-wide asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs, narrated by Charlton Heston's booming voice who warns, it will happen again . Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck star as blue-collar oil drillers who are recruited by NASA to save mankind by rocketing to an incoming asteroid, landing on it, and destroying it with buried nukes before it collides with our pale blue dot. Their above-average acting, and pseudo father/son relationship between them drives the emotional aspect of this plot, which is rather decent, considering. Ultimately though: the big-budget thrills, special-effects, and mammoth action set pieces is what attracts audiences. Best if not examined too closely, this plot is only as realistic and believable as it needs to be, keeping things light by distracting with some truly funny moments. As outlandish as the larger story is, the attention to detail here is actually rather commendable, with many scenes shot on-location at real astronaut training facilities, the cast even wears real NASA spacesuits, the only civilians to ever be given that privilege. The impressively large cast features Billy Bob Thorton as the steadfast astronaut reject who is the only one that believes in Willis's crew, Peter Stormare as an eccentric cosmonaut full of ideas and energy, and Steve Buscemi as a hilariously suicidal stir-crazy genius, who would prefer to die in space, to avoid a gambling debt. Liv Tyler, Will Patton, Keith David, Michael Clarke Duncan, Owen Wilson and William Fitchner round out the supporting roles - all of whom, honestly, do a rather great job with the material: each and every one of them is given just enough screen time and background to truly flourish in their memorable characters. The lengthy montage of these rag-tag losers failing every physical and physiological pre-flight test is especially amusing. Armageddon holds up surprisingly well: it's precisely what you'd expect from a doomsday Michael Bay picture, and it certainly delivers the goods. This is a non-stop, edge-of-your seat adventure with terrific visuals, characters, and music: you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who lived through 1998 without knowing the chorus to Aerosmith's I Don't Want To Miss A Thing . Even at 151 minutes, this film doesn't overstay its welcome, thanks largely in part to Bay's frantic editing: which features a cut every 1.5 seconds. His style certainly isn't for everyone though, even as a pre-teen, I remember watching this picture with a sense of claustrophobia... far too many sequences are shot entirely in extreme-close-up, making a number of scenes disorienting when the action speeds up. Between the laughable premise, dozens of scientific inaccuracies (like fire in space), and a shoehorned romance sub-lot, this picture has plenty of faults... but it when it works, everything else is forgotten. Ending with a truly spectacular, and decently moving climax, this over-the-top thrill ride is a guilty pleasure I have no problem watching again and again. Armageddon , a Preposterous story, but memorably thrilling. • ~

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