Armageddon' [Blu-ray]
(Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck, Billy Bob Thornton, et al / Blu ray / PG-13 / (1998) 2010 / BVHE)
Overview: From the mega-hitmakers who produced and directed The Rock and Pearl Harbor comes Armageddon. And now, these mind-blowing action-adventure explodes on Blu-ray for the first time ever! Bruce Willis (Surrogates, Sin City) and Academy Award winners Ben Affleck (1997, Best Original Screenplay, Good Will Hunting) and Billy Bob Thornton (1996, Best Adapted Screenplay, Sling Blade) head an all-star cast that incudes Liv Tyler (The Lord of the Rings trilogy), Steve Buscemi (Con Air) and Will Patton (Gone in 60 Seconds).
Blu ray: Earth is in trouble once again. An asteroid the size of Texas is headed straight for our planet. Life will be extinguished once it hits. Every plan that NASA or any government agency from any country seems futile. Except one. The plan is to drill 800 feet into the asteroid and drop a nuke down there to blow up the asteroid from the inside and hopefully ejecting the pieces far enough from each other to completely miss Earth. Though NASA is trained in many things and are geniuses at many things, drilling is just not their forte. So they look for the number one driller in the country... Harry Stamper (Bruce Willis). Harry runs an oil rig out in the ocean with his rag tag crew along with his daughter. Wherever he goes, they go. So when NASA proposes/begs for Harry to help them, he says he'll do it as long as the rest of the crew comes with. With only 17 days until the asteroid hits, they have 12 days to train and then launch into space along with actual astronauts to dig a hole into a rock and blow it up.
Michael Bay, whether you love him or hate, can put some crazy action scenes together. Sometimes they are really good, and sometimes they are edited just enough to where you can't really see what's going on. I am a sucker for a Michael Bay film though. I'll watch them all. I might not like them all, but I will watch them all. I liked Transformers, yet I hated it also. And I'll definitely see Transformers 2. I know the man isn't the best director in the world but I'll go into his movies every time shutting my brain completely off and enjoy the heck out of some crazy intense action scenes.
The first time I saw Armageddon was about 5 months after I had joined the military. Group of us went to see this in the theaters, and every one of us sat back and enjoyed the ride. All the action, the funny lines, the military/NASA scenes, space, explosions, and hot women were everything us boys were looking for in a movie. Even today, while I've grown up over those last 11 years, it's still a fun ride. Eye rolling yes, but fun ride none-the-less. To really enjoy a Michael Bay movie, you really do have to throw reality out the window. I'll give just ONE example of what I mean. While watching this the other night, me and my friend were commenting on the `things that just aren't right' in the movie and one was fire. There was fire in outer space. One of the space shuttles crash onto the rock and pieces of it were on fire. Really? There's no oxygen, but it was burning like a camp fire. I said it, my friend laughed, and then said "let it go." And that's what ya gotta do with these types of movies.
Though you can constantly pick out the bad from a Bay movie, there is just a lot that is usually good also, but people tend to try and ignore it, or just plain out don't care and just want to bash it anyways. Bruce Willis plays, once again, a great apple pie eating American hero. He's just made for it. And it works 100%. From his funny lines, to his `I won't take no for an answer' attitude, and to his sweet and protective fatherly moments... he's just the man. Liv Tyler is great as the `sort of angry at her father daughter, yet slightly shows it in her eyes that she loves him' daughter. She's great at the water works and definitely tries to pull the strings on mine when lets it go. Ben Affleck is definitely funny, but sometimes a little over the top. But it's ok with me because I'm a fan of Ben. Yeah I said it. I think he's funny. Watch some commentaries with him, especially with Kevin Smith (Silent Bob), on some movies he does, and you probably will bust out laughing.
Steve Buscemi is a god, of course in just about everything he does and it's the same here. I didn't like the whole space madness thing at the end with him, but still, at least he's funny. It's not only the actors themselves that are funny, but the whole chemistry between them. Everyone just seemed like they were having a good time making this movie and it really shows when you see the groups of guys together doing whatever they are doing at that time. [MBC] This is a Widescreen Presentation (2.35:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs and comes with the Special Features of:
Trailers
Aerosmith Music Video — “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing”
Sneak Peeks
D-Box