Day After Tomorrow

While the big-budget special effects of "The Day After Tomorrow" can make New York City freeze over instantaneously, they cannot salvage a weak story line and implausible ending. Plus, if you've seen any of the previews, you've seen all the best special effects. There are very few big-moment scenes that haven't been included in the marketing of this natural disaster flick.

Dennis Quaid plays climatologist Jack Hall, a man who has been proclaiming the dangers of global warming for years. Little does he know that what he has predicted to happen in a few hundred years is actually going to occur in only a few days. Massive storms wreak havoc all over the Northern Hemisphere, yet it takes a couple days for anyone to figure out that these are not random events. Something is effecting the ocean currents. The end result will be another ice age.

The bigger concern for Hall, though, is to get to New York City to rescue his son Sam (Jake Gyllenhaal) who is trapped in the public library with a few others who manage to survive -150 degree temperatures. The implausibility of "Tomorrow" comes not from the climatic changes, but from the improbable happy ending. Yes, millions die, but you won't be surprised by who lives. There are no surprises here, a few laughs (intentional or not), and better acting from hungry wolves than from real people.

Should you see this one? I'd keep waiting until the day after tomorrow. I give it a C.

"The Day After Tomorrow" is rated PG-13 for "intense situations of peril" and has a running time of 124 minutes.