Disaster Films

The Day After Tomorrow (Widescreen Edition)

A climatologist and his family must find a way to survive the devastation caused by an extreme shift in the global climate.
Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 12-JUN-2007
Media Type: DVD

Supreme silliness doesn't stop The Day After Tomorrow from being lots of fun for connoisseurs of epic-scale disaster flicks. After the blockbuster profits of Independence Day and Godzilla, you can't blame director Roland Emmerich for using global warming as a politically correct excuse for destroying most of the northern hemisphere. Like most of Emmerich's films, this one emphasizes special effects over such lesser priorities as well-drawn characters and plausible plotting, and his dialogue (cowritten by Jeffrey Nachmanoff) is so laughably trite that it could be entirely eliminated without harming the movie. It's the spectacle that's important here, not the lame, recycled plot about father and son (Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal) who endure an end-of-the-world scenario caused by the effects of global warming. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the awesome visions of tornado-ravaged Los Angeles, blizzards in New Delhi, Japan pummeled by grapefruit-sized hailstones, and Manhattan flooded by swelling oceans and then frozen by the onset of a modern ice age. It's all wildly impressive, and Emmerich obviously doesn't care if the science is flimsy, so why should you? --Jeff Shannon

Twister

Formerly married but still involved scientists pursue violent tornadoes in an effort to launch sensors which might help them predict future storms.
Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 14-SEP-2004
Media Type: DVD

Twister was a mega-million-dollar blockbuster--helmed by a director (Dutchman Jan de Bont) hot off another scorcher hit (Speed)--that flaunted state-of-the-art digital effects and featured a popular leading actress (Helen Hunt) who would win an Academy Award for her next film (As Good As It Gets). But ask anybody who's seen it and they'll tell you who the real star of Twister is: the cow. Not to give anything away, but the cow is one of those inspired little touches (like, say, Bronson Pinchot's career-making cameo in Beverly Hills Cop) that adds a touch of personality to a gigantic Hollywood production. The story is blown out the window after an impressive prologue in which Hunt's character, as a little girl, witnesses her daddy being sucked into a tornado. Basically, Hunt and Bill Paxton are thrill-seeking meteorologists chasing twisters in order to study them (and help warn people of them, of course) with a new technology they've developed. If you thought the Kansas tornado in The Wizard of Oz was every bit as scary as the Wicked Witch of the West, then this may be the movie for you. --Jim Emerson

Fail-safe (Special Edition)

It's Dr. Strangelove, but without the laughs. Fail Safe, made within a year of Strangelove and at the height of cold war atomic anxiety, posits a similar nightmare scenario. A U.S. bomber is accidentally ordered toward Moscow, ready to drop its load. The U.S. president (Henry Fonda) and various military and congressional leaders must then scramble to deal with the disaster. The built-in suspense is well maintained by director Sidney Lumet, working from a script by former blacklisted writer Walter Bernstein. The solemn, serious approach doesn't begin to touch the brilliance of Strangelove's inspired take on the nuclear nightmare, but Fail Safe is absorbing and well acted (a memorable role for Walter Matthau, for instance). The movie enters unexpected territory in its final minutes; conditioned for feel-good endings, viewers are still genuinely shocked by the plot turns in the final reels. The climax comes as a sobering slap in the face, intriguingly staged by Lumet. Now that the cold war has passed on into history, Fail Safe stands as--thank goodness--an interesting period piece. --Robert Horton

One of the greatest anti-war thrillers ever Fail-Safe stars Henry Fonda Walter Matthau Dan O Herlihy Larry Hagman and Fritz Weaver (in his film debut) as a group of military men on the verge of World War III.When a military computer deploys a squadron of SAC bombers to destroy Moscow the American President (Fonda) tries to call them back. But their sophisticated fail-safe system prevents him from aborting the attack so he must convince the Soviets not to retaliate. In desperation the President offers to sacrifice an American city if his pilots succeed in their deadly mission over Moscow. A four-star techno-thriller that builds tension and suspense with every tick of the nuclear clock.System Requirements:Starring: Dan O Herlihy Walter Matthau Frank Overton Ed Binns Fritz Weaver Henry Fonda Larry Hagman and William Hansen. Directed By: Sidney Lumet. Running Time: 111 Min. B&W. This film is presented in "Widescreen" format. Copyright 2000 Columbia TriStar Home Video.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: G UPC: 043396054240 Manufacturer No: 5424

Deep Impact (Special Collector's Edition)

A great big rock hits the earth, and lots of people die. That's pretty much all there is to it, and most of that was in the trailer. Can a major Hollywood movie really squeak by with such a slender excuse for a premise? The old disaster-movie king, cheese-meister Irwin Allen (The Poseidon Adventure, Earthquake), would have made a kitsch classic out of this, with Charlton Heston, rather than a resigned and mumbly Robert Duvall, as the veteran astronaut who risks several lives trying to blow up the comet that's headed right this way! As stiffly directed by Mimi Leder, this thick slice of ham errs on the side of solemnity. It may the be most earnest end-of-the-world picture since Stanley Kramer's atomic-doom drama On the Beach. There are a couple of classic melodramatic flourishes: an estranged father and daughter who share a tearful reconciliation as a Godzilla-sized tidal wave looms on the horizon; and an astronaut, communicating on video with his loved ones back on Earth, who follows whispered instructions from a buddy lurking just off camera--so that his little boy won't realize that he's been struck blind. With Morgan Freeman as the president of the United States. --David Chute

In DEEP IMPACT, Leo Beiderman (Elijah Wood), joins a field study for his high school's Astronomy Club and discovers a new comet that unfortunately is headed for Earth. While scientists build a cave to prevent the extinction of the human race, they estimate that only 800,000 people can be selected to survive the "Deep Impact." The threat of a comet ending the world quickly sends Americans into a panic until the president announces a plan to send astronauts on a mission to destroy the comet before it reaches earth.

Outbreak

When Warner Brothers was unable to secure the rights to Richard Preston's terrifying nonfiction book The Hot Zone (purchased by a rival studio), they took the basic idea of a fatal virus on the loose in the U.S., added Dustin Hoffman and director Wolfgang Petersen (Das Boot), and produced an unusual thriller--a surprise hit--called Outbreak. The other picture, slated to star Robert Redford and Jodie Foster, fell through. The premise of Outbreak, which owes something to Elia Kazan's 1950 plague-scare movie, Panic in the Streets, is as terrifying as it is timely. As developers slash their way deeper into the previously unexplored tropical rainforests, they are exposed to radically new forms of life, including diseases, that in these days of commonplace international travel could turn into deadly epidemics almost before we know it. Hoffman's character and his estranged wife (Rene Russo) are disease experts called in to identify the unknown killer, which was carried into the country by an illegally smuggled monkey. The best sequence shows the disease spreading--through recycled air on a passenger jet, or a sneeze in a crowded movie theater. The final chase is pretty conventional, but the cast is terrific, including Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey, Donald Sutherland, Cuba Gooding Jr., J.T. Walsh, and Zakes Mokae. --Jim Emerson

Catch the fever of "one of the great scare stories of our time" (Roger Ebert) as Dustin Hoffman, Rene Russo and Morgan Freeman race to save life on earth when an unstoppable killer virus hits our shores.

The Sum of All Fears (Special Collector's Edition)

It's not easy replacing Harrison Ford as a beloved screen hero, but Ben Affleck brings fresh vitality to The Sum of All Fears, reviving Paramount's Tom Clancy franchise in the role Ford made famous. As CIA agent Jack Ryan, Affleck is a rookie in the covert ranks, unraveling a plot that lures Russian and American superpowers into a nuclear standoff, while a neofascist faction turns most of Baltimore into an atomic wasteland and holds the world in the grip of a terrorist nightmare. Affleck combines sharp intelligence with a new-guy's perspective, while a senior agent (Morgan Freeman) passes the torch of back-channel authority. The result is one of the best Clancy films to date, ably helmed by Phil Alden Robinson (whose comic thriller Sneakers was sorely underrated) with a stellar supporting cast, and adapted with abundant humor, humanity, and thrills by Donnie Brasco screenwriter Paul Attanasio and cowriter Daniel Pyne. Even the typically reticent Clancy would approve. --Jeff Shannon

The Perfect Storm

Setting out for the one last catch that will make up for a lackluster fishing season, Captain Billy Tyne (George Clooney) pushes his boat the Andrea Gail out to the waters of the Flemish Cap off Nova Scotia for what will be a huge swordfish haul. While his crew is gathering fish, three storm fronts (including a hurricane) collide to create a "perfect storm" of colossal force, and Billy's path back to Gloucester, Massachusetts, takes them right smack into the middle of it. Wolfgang Petersen's adaptation of Sebastian Junger's seafaring bestseller is a faithful if by-the-numbers true-story account of a monster storm that rocked New England in 1991, specifically Tyne's commercial fishing boat and its crew. Junger's tale fashioned a compelling if staid narrative out of seemingly disparate events, but this film adaptation tends to flatten out the story into a conventional if absorbing story of man vs. nature, as the crew fights for survival against the awesome waves the storm kicks up. The central part of the film, which cuts between the Andrea Gail's fight to stay afloat and the attempts of the Coast Guard to rescue a yacht in peril, is suspenseful action of the first degree, aided by some awesome computer-generated waves.

Still, it's a long way to that action, with an extended first act that consists mainly of stoic men, crying women, and a fair amount of "don't go out into the sea" dialogue--in other words, a compelling story has been shoehorned into standard summer movie fare. It's too bad, as Peterson assembled an excellent cast--including Mark Wahlberg, Diane Lane, John C. Reilly, and William Fichtner among them--but seems to opt for only a surface exploration of these characters, though Clooney seems to have a touch of Captain Ahab in him. You may still be won over by the movie, but for a more in-depth portrait, go to Junger's book for the missing details. --Mark Englehart

It's Halloween, 1991. Near Gloucester, Massachusetts, the six members of the Andrea Gail, a swordfishing boat, head out to sea for their last trip of the season. Unbeknownst to them, a shockingly brutal storm is slowly gaining steam. Before the National Weather Bureau has a chance to inform the crew of the impending danger, it's too late. The resulting battle with three merging weather fronts--an unheralded natural disaster--is grueling and tragic. Based on the true-life best selling novel by Sebastian Junger, The Perfect Storm stars George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Diane Lane and is directed by Wolfgang Petersen.

DVD Features:
Audio Commentary:Commentary with Wolfgang Peterson Commentary with S. Fangmeier and H. Elswit Commentary with Sebastian Junger
Documentary
Featurette:James Horner Featurette
Filmographies:HBO First Look Special (29:30)
Gag Reel
Other:"Whitness to the Storm" (4:30)
Photo gallery:"Yours Forever" Photo Montage
Production Sketches:Storyboard Art with W. Peterson Commentary
Storyboards
TV Special
Theatrical Trailer

Speed (Widescreen Edition)

No Description Available.
Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: R
Release Date: 8-FEB-2005
Media Type: DVD

Everything clicked in this 1994 action hit, from the premise (a city bus has to keep moving at 50 mph or blow up) to the two leads (the usually inscrutable Keanu Reeves and the cute-as-a-button Sandra Bullock) to the villain (Dennis Hopper in psycho mode) to the director (Jan De Bont, who made this film hit the ground running with an edge-of-your-seat opening sequence on a broken elevator). This is the sort of movie that becomes a prototype for a thousand lesser films (including De Bont's lousy sequel, Speed 2: Cruise Control), but Speed really is a one-of-a-kind experience almost anyone can enjoy. --Tom Keogh

The Day After

The countdown has begun! Against the real-life backdrop of the US deployment of WMDs in Europe during the escalating cold war this dramatically involving [and] agonizingly graphic film (The Hollywood Reporter) about nuclear holocaust detonated a direct hit into the heartland of America. Starring Jason Robards JoBeth Williams Steven Guttenberg John Cullum and John Lithgow this controversial potent drama (Leonard Maltin) remains one of the most talked-about programs in history (Newsweek)! When cold-war tensions reach the ultimate boiling point the inhabitants of a small town in Kansas learn along with the rest of America that they have less than 30 minutes before 300 Soviet warheads begin to appear overhead! Can anyone survive this ultimate nightmare or the nuclear winter that is sure to follow?System Requirements: Running Time 127 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR UPC: 027616911254 Manufacturer No: 1006987

Few American movies have dealt as graphically with nuclear holocaust as The Day After, which accounted for the controversy that surrounded the telefilm at the time of its initial network broadcast. In previous films, nuclear warfare was a matter for crusading politicians or military might, but here, both are kept in the background (the airman played by William Allen Young is more concerned with returning to his new wife than his duties) and the focus is fixed firmly on middle America--literally so, as the setting is Lawrence, Kansas, the near-center of the country. Audiences are briefly introduced to a representative cross-section of American life, including a doctor (Jason Robards), a young bride-to-be (Lori Lethin), a graduate student (Steve Guttenberg), and an academic (John Lithgow), before the Bomb hits nearby Kansas City. The ensuing destruction is utterly horrific, but a few manage to survive to struggle vainly with rising radiation levels and the slow, inevitable collapse of society. As a protest vehicle, The Day After is a triumph--its scenes of nuclear devastation remain the most powerful statements against nuclear armament ever depicted. It's buoyed by strong direction from Nicholas Meyer, who previously specialized in fantasy (Time After Time), and a capable cast who weather the material with grim determination. Edward Hume's script occasionally stumbles into sudsy territory, but the end result compares with equally moving British efforts like The War Game and Threads. The original network broadcast ran 120 minutes (edited from three hours); this is the 126-minute European theatrical cut. --Paul Gaita

Category 7: The End of the World

Who doesn't enjoy watching big things fall to pieces? Category 7: The End of the World wreaks havoc on the Eiffel Tower, Mt. Rushmore, the Pyramids, and a midwestern trailer park, among other things. More or less a sequel to Category 6: Day of Destruction (presumably the latest in a series that began with Category 1: Don't Forget Your Umbrella), Category 7 offers the reassuring sight of Gina Gershon, skilled with disasters like Showgirls, taking control of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Confronted with city-destroying weather, she calls in rebel meteorologist Ross Duffy (Cameron Daddo, star of such classics as Pterodactyl and Anthrax), who runs the Extreme Weather Lab and harbors theories that threaten the political status quo. Ross brings in Tommy Tornado (Randy Quaid, the sole returning actor from Category 6), Faith Clavell (Shannen Doherty, Charmed), and Col. Mike Davis (Tom Skerritt, Alien) to gather data...which isn't the most dramatic of activities (even when it involves souped-up cars and superjets), so the movie adds a subplot about a religious zealot (Nicholas Lea, The X-Files) who wants to unleash the plagues of Egypt so that everyone will realize it's the End of Days. What does it all add up to? A lot of over-the-top hooey (and that's not including the assorted family turmoils), but pretty entertaining nonetheless. It's like a lesser Michael Crichton novel: Take an inflammatory vaguely scientific premise, add two-dimensional characters, cheesy but spectacular effects, and a full-throttle if nonsensical plot, and presto! Over three hours of silly yet utterly watchable television. For added fun, drink a shot every time one character tells another "You're the most important person on the planet right now." --Bret Fetzer

The Ultimate Superstorm is Back -- And This Time it's Deadler...The hair-raising sequel to the highly-rated TV event, "Category 6: Day of Destruction".