combatreview

(2012-04-30 19:37:26)

THINGS EXPLODING 2: MORE THINGS EXPLODE!!!

There is a point in this film where Mr. Steve Buscemi's characterRockhoundopines 'this is like a goddam Greek tragedy'.I would suggest a contrary argument, which basically runs 'No it's not.'Unless one is perhaps comparing it to an unhappy love affair with aCephalonian Fishwife, and while that sounds altogether more believable Idon't think I can be forgiven for dismissing this as the most likelyintended meaning of the comment.(To be entirely fair, one could argue that the principal relationships inthe film, between Tyler, Willis and Affleck display a certainElektra-complex quality, but this is frankly about as Greek as it gets.Unless one counts the relationship between 'fellow warriors' Willis andAffleck)However, I am distracted from the meat of the matter. Another line,spokenthis time by Willis, claims that he has never aimed for a depth he hasnotreached. Armageddon certainly proves this. It is a remarkably bad film,even by the standards of the Hollywood blockbuster in which inanitymasquerades as dialogue, and overblown special effects shouldereverythingelse out of the picture.Indeed, it is at times difficult to believe that this film was not meantasa joke - it comes across as a grotesque parody of the MTV-style actionfilmpioneered by Tony Scott when his leash was still held by Simpson andBruckheimer. With Armageddon, Michael Bay cements his position asdirectorial Dark Apprentice to Tony Scott's Emperor Palpatine, andproducesa work which fulfils all of the brain-damaged potential that layunexploitedin such restrained and considered exercises as Top Gun.For example, why does everything in this film explode? Everythingexplodes!I'd seriously be worried if I was related to Bruce Willis in this film -hecan't go anywhere without the place exploding.Which is not to say that I totally disliked this film, believe me. Ithas acertain reckless enthusiasm which sweeps you along all the time you don'tattempt to think or anything; Peter Stormare is enormous fun and ends upstealing the show as Crazy Comedy Russian, and there is a certainamusementto be gained from the variously ludicrous degrees of seriousnessdisplayedby the other cast members. Bruce Willis also delivers a performance thatisby far his most layered and effective, if one discounts for a moment histurns in The Jackal and Hudson Hawk.To speak personally for a moment, Armageddon will always have a specialplace in my own heart; watching it in the cinema I found myself laughingoutloud in an extremely obnoxious manner, so much so that I later realisedmyselfish treatment of other audience members and wrote and complained tothecinema. They should not, I argued, allow individuals to spoil the cinemaexperience for everybody else, and while I didn't exactly mention that itwas I who had behaved so appallingly, I did demand that they do theirbestto prevent it from happening in future. They very kindly insisted that Iaccept a voucher which allowed me and three friends to attend anothershowing of any film I wished absolutely free, where I was assured therewould be no further disruption from unruly patrons (and indeed, I wasquitepacified on this occasion). You may count it as a mark of just how badArmageddon truly is that even after this experience I felt that I hadbeen alittle bit cheated for having to pay for the privelege of seeingArmageddonin the first place.It's fun, don't get me wrong - but the fact is that, like having a BigMac,taking Class A drugs, or consorting with East European women who insistongetting married in a hurry, this is a rather likeable experience - butextremely bad for you.Armageddon, as many of the intended audience for this film doubtlessknow,is said to be the location of the last battle against the forces of theAntichrist as predicted in 'Revelations'. There is little of this in thefilm 'Armageddon', but the very fact of this film's financial successmightlead us to suppose that at least in cinematic terms the battle has nowbeenlost.

cpto

(2012-04-30 02:11:07)

It blew!

"It's gonna blow," the characters said many times in the movie. And itdid.Armageddon blows. MTV-style edits, loud, LOUD special effects.Suspend belief. Suspend everything. Armageddon still blows.One-word summary: Sucks!

(2012-04-29 04:13:00)

The best movie I've ever watched

Great movie to watch. I watched it twice. You can't watch it without tears.

anonymous

(2012-04-28 16:56:05)

Action-Packed Fun!

Armageddon was filled with Action and Fun! Some scenes were so funny andthrilling. I really feel like it was one of the better movies of 1998. Worth Seeing! 8 of 10.

jdoan-4

(2012-04-27 03:42:17)

Hollywood drivel

I hated this movie. I hated the absurd plot. I am confident in sayingthat not one complete minute of this film is plausible, or evenremotely believable. Some sci-fi films are far-fetched (i.e. "TheMatrix" or "Blade Runner") that still retain at the very least internallogic. I hated the crappy sentimentality. Not for a second did I buyany of the emotional content of this film. I hated the ridiculouslyunnecessary camera-work. The camera is never static, and there is nolegitimate reason for it to be so. I hated the fact that the filmcontained good actors (Thornton, Willis, and possibly Aflac) that wereplaying silly roles. To say that they were cardboard cutouts is toinsult cardboard cutouts. The Care Bears have more emotional depth thanthese characters. In other words, I hated this movie.

theconstantdvdcollector

(2012-04-26 12:51:50)

A study of Michael Bay

Dear Readers,I've found in my studies of movies that whenever Michael Bay makes amovie, people pan it and hate it, yet they still go to see it and itmakes somewhere around 100 million dollars. Why? Because Michael Bay isone of the top five directors of all time. Standing alongside RidleyScott, Spielberg, Kubrick, and Miyazaki, Michael Bay has cementedhimself as Hollywood's best action/adventure director. That point isproved with his most panned film, Armageddon.An Asteroid the size of Texas is hurtling towards the planet and theonly way NASA can think to take it down is to land a team of men on theasteroid, drill to its core, and drop a nuclear warhead inside thenblow up the asteroid. Only one person is qualified enough to do it:Bruce Willis. Willis portrays Harry Stamper, a grizzled hardened oildriller trying to keep what's left of his family together. Not helpingthat fact is his daughter, Grace (Liv Tyler), having an affair with hisbest driller, AJ (Ben Affleck). Hired by Dan Truman (Billy BobThornton), the head of NASA, Stamper and his team of roughneck drillerstrain to become astronauts and save the world.Armageddon is a two part movie. First there's the funny parts where wemeet the gang and wackiness abounds. Then they get into space and allthe comedy gets sucked out the window and is replaced by mind-blowingspecial effects, cool music, and great serious acting. Murphy's lawgoes insane in the second part, meaning that everything that can gowrong, does in fact go wrong, increasing the tension of the film tooutstanding levels.With a cool cast and crew (Michael Bay as Director, Jerry Bruckheimerand Gale Anne Hurd as Producers, and J.J. Abrams as one of thescriptwriters.), tons of special effects, great humor, awesome music,plus an intro done by Mr. Ben-Hur himself, Charlton Heston, Armageddonrocks big time.Signed, The Constant DVD Collector, Matt MacleodParental Warnings: This is not a film for kids. The F-bomb is used afew times and lots of other swear words are used as well, plus there'sa Strip bar scene and the extremely intense second part might be toohard for a kid to handle.

Lorenzo_von_Matterhorn

(2012-04-24 11:17:11)

Michael Bay's Armageddon

Plot: A huge Comet is headed for earth. As it does not consist of onebig piece, but of a cloud of rather small pieces plus a main rock thesize of Texas, little impacts are recorded long before the big one isscheduled for collision with earth. Harry S. Stamper and his drill teamare selected to land on the main comet as they are the only ones whocan work the special drill Harry developed. Their mission is to drill800 ft. into the comet to place a nuclear explosive device. Theexplosion of the bomb will break the comet in two, and the two pieceswill pass earth on both sides. This task has to be accomplished beforea certain "dead" line, or the comet parts will not fly by, but hitearth.The movie, has its few pros and cons. The pros are that the visualswere stunning. Seriously, I have never seen New York like that before.Raining meteorites the size of a basketball, a 150mph flamingbasketballs for that matter hits New York and destroys almost half ofthe city. Flaming cars go flying everywhere and the Empire StateBuilding crumbles to the ground. hmmm. The destruction of Paris was asight to behold. A very huge asteroid about the size of Vatican (thisisn't the main asteroid, its still in space, this is like the one thatgot off earlier) hits right in the middle of Paris and *poof* one flickof the finger and Paris was blown to bits. You can see the famousEiffel Tower collapse and be reduced to rubble. Some Asian countryunfortunately got hit also by the meteorite shower. It hits all theplaces it can possibly hit. But, that's not it. Wait until you seetheir perilous journey through space. The effects were outstanding. Ihave to say, though I am not a scientist, the planets, asteroids,comets, meteors and all that Heavenly stuff were accurately visualized.Another pro is that they blended all the genres successfully. One scenegives you a taste of intense action, another gives you a tearful ofdrama and on the other hand you'll laugh at the witty comments andone-liners. It was blended well. The actors were very good too. BruceWillis gives an excellent portrayal as the leader of the ragtag crewHarry Stamper. Billy Bob Thornton was great too. Though he is not inthe frontlines, I can feel his character's feelings through hisemotions. Other casts include Steve Buscemi as 'Rockhound', the geniusof the team. Michael Clarke Duncan as 'Bear', the big, husking brutethat's a force to reckon with. Owen Wilson's character (Oscar Choi, theGeologist) though died earlier than I expected gives off some wittyone-liners that I can't forget. Ben Affleck, gives a good acting. Someparts of him in the movie were great, some were not. I dunno. I can'tfeel him in some of the scenes. But, that was SOME parts only. All inall great choice for a cast list.Sound score were top-notch. It gives you the mood that you are in spacewith them. The only con I noticed is a major plot loophole: Isn't iteasier for NASA to train professional astronauts to drill than trainexpert core drillers to be astronauts? My 2 cents.Anyhoo, 7/10. Overall, job well done.

tangoandcash

(2012-04-24 00:30:39)

A brilliant mix of Bay, Buckhiemer and Willis

A brilliant movie at any cost from producer Jerry Bruckhiemer (CrimsonTide,Pearl Harbor, Top Gun, The Rock) and director Michael Bay (The Rok, PearlHarbor). With a brilliant cast including Bruce Willis (The Die HardTilogy,The Fifth Element, Bandits, Unbreakable), Ben Affleck (Pearl Harbor, JayandSilent Bob Strike Back, The Sum of All Fears), Billy Bob Thornton(MonstersBall, Bandits, The Man Who Wasn't There), Liv Tyler (The Lord of TheRings:The Fellowship of The Ring), Michael Clarke Duncan (The Green Mile), SteveBuscemi (Big Daddy, The Wedding Singer, Billy Madison) and Will Patton(ThePostman, Gone in 60 Seconds). A meteor, the size of Texas, is heading forEarth and NASA executive director Dan Trueman (Thornton) has only onechoice, to the worlds best oil driller Harry Stamper (Willis) and his gangof Rough necks (Duncan, Buscemi, Patton, Affleck), into space to hole 800ftand drop a bomb in it. Liv Tyler (Daughter of Aerosmith lead singerStevenTyler) is brilliant as Willis' Daughter.****

spikethevamp77

(2012-04-23 06:23:03)

Best film ever

This film has action, comedy, romance, and heartache. What more could youask for. The acting is excellent from all involved, most of all BruceWilliswho yet again comes up with the goods. Not many films are as good as this,and the CGI is possibly the best I have seen. All in all a great film thateveryone needs to see.

formala44

(2012-04-22 11:38:10)

5 words: terrible, bad, idiotic, predictable, garbage

Warning; this comment may contain spoilers.I wonder why they chose the name Armageddon. They would do this moviemore justice by calling it 'The movie where Ben Afleck does a lot ofdangerous stuff, survives them and then gets married'. Its also way toopredictable and has laughable plot twistings that make you wanna laughor yawn. Or both. The story is about a big asteroid thats about tocrash into the earth and end all life. Willis and Affleck and pals aretasked with saving the earth by blowing it up. Will they be able tomanage it? Usually a movie does its best to provide reasonable andbelievable quests but Armageddon has more seemingly unsurpassableproblems than all the Indiana Jones movies together. An asteroid needsto be blown up by oil drillers turned astronauts. Will they be able tomake it? A bomb is about to go off with the timer counting down. Willthey be able to dismantle it in time? A shuttle crashes into theasteroid, will Ben Affleck survive? The asteroid surface is very hard.Will they be able to drill a hole in it? The space station has a fuelleak and the crew needs to escape. Will they be able to make it? Whilstdrilling into the surface a rain of meteorites slams in. Will they beable to survive? Etc, etc, etc, etc. The sheer number of problems makesthis story very hard to believe and the endless shouting and mayhembecomes simply irritating.Then there's the background music. Which is without any fantasy andyoul probably could imagine what the scenes where like by justlistening to it. dramatic when Afleck and Tyler say goodbye before hisvoyage. Heroic when he comes back and she flies into his arms.Suspencefull when they have to fight yet another problem. So verypredictable.Then there's the directing and editing. I cant believe anyone thinkshighly of Michael Bay. The editing was so fast that at times you simplyhad no clue what was happening and why. The depiction of a flattenedParis uninspired and not very believable. The carnage in New York toomuch and grossly overdone not to mention way too long. The movie lackspace in some parts and has too much in others. This is an importantaspect for a director and if he cant understand this the movie isdoomed, which it is.Then there's the acting. The dialogs between Affleck and Willis whereawful. The action unconvincing. Affleck does his best to look bored andhas a flat display. Willis was not much better. Liv Tyler was not badbut played the - obligatory in these kind of movies - love interest ofAffleck with the only purpose in her life twiddling the engagement ringbetween her fingers. Owen Wilson was like a child so bad. The onlyactor who got to his usual standards was Buscemi but granted, thedialogs where simply terrible for everybody.I've seen some bad movies in my life, notably the Seagal or Van Dammemovies, but this one really tops everything I've ever came across.After about 10 minutes of watching i predicted the end would be Tylerjumping in Afflecks arms under cheers from onlookers with a hugelyheroic music back ground. And duly that happened. Not one moment was asurprise. It wasn't entertaining at all. A black spot on the careers ofgreat actors like Willis and Buscemi. If you wanna waste 140 minutes ofyour life, then go watch this movie.

(2012-04-09 12:56:21)

Technical Review

I own the LD version.В  Studios often use the same print and soundtrack materials to master the LD. Anyone concerned about Buena Vista's poor DVD track record and weak support for the format (i.e. no anamorphics) can breathe a sigh of relief.В  The print is immaculate, the transfer pristine (as were other Bruckheimer films like THE ROCK (also by Michael Bay), CRIMSON TIDE and CON AIR). Incredible detail, colors fully saturated, and amazing contrast-- even on the asteroid scenes which were shot in murky blues.В  The DVD version will be 20% sharper and more detailed (though I'm wondering how that could be possible, this picture was amazing and indistinguishable from even my best DVD's). The 5.1 Dolby Digital track, which is certainly to be the same one used on the DVD, tops even FACE/OFF in its brilliant, inspired use of split surrounds, fiery depth, and broad front sound stage.В Take back 1/2 a star for some initial level surfing in the center channel; the mix kept me guessing where to put that center level, and is occasionally (and intentionally) overwhelmed by the pyrotechnics and ongoing rock concert. Otherwise, the film is exhausting. В Reference quality.В While I still wish for an anamorphic DVD and more extras, I've placed my order for this beauty, as I'm confident this is a reference quality disc, in spite of Buena Vista's DVD policies.В Jump on this like it was a hand grenade.

anonymous

(2012-04-09 00:40:10)

WAKE UP!!!!

Hello! Wake Up! Forget what critics say, forget what people say. This is adamn good movie no matter what. It's better than "Deep Impact" (which is adrama) I hate dramas. Deep Impact's comet is the size of Mt. Everest butArmageddon's astroid is the size of Texas which it's big enough to destroyearth. The bigger! The better!

Quentin

(2012-04-05 02:18:52)

An astronomic waste of time

Oh dear, we go again, experiencing the usual Americans-can-walk-on-watersyndrome all over again and again. This is the stuff of the old and verybadAmerican war movies, in which American heroes of the piece are able tocomethrough any kind of danger and predicament virtually with their hairunruffled, just because they happen to be American and the script heroes.Only this time it's in space, so it's even more unlikely unbelievable,tediously and boringly repetitive. Our buddies are kitted in space suitswhich seem to be able to come through just about any kind of explosion andabuse unscathed, unpunctured, undamaged. The same thing can be said of theone vital space craft needed for bringing home our earth-bound heroine'sboyfriend, while her dad sacrifices himself instead for humanity. Even thespecial effects become boring, trite, confused and unconvincing.Otherwise,a typical Bruce-Willis-do-and/or-die feast of machoism. Out of 10, I'dgiveit maybe two to three.

~Mandy~

(2012-04-04 16:32:02)

"The United states Government just asked us to save to world....anybody wanna say no?"-Bruce Willis(In Armageddon)

Armageddon, is not only a great movie, in my eyes it is the greatest movie.I have watched it near 10 times, and everytime, I manage to cry my eyes out.It is a movie that is action packed, funny, and sad at the same time. It'swhat I would call a perfect movie. Bruce Willis, Liv Tyler, and Ben Affleckare excellent performers in this movie. A real tear-jerker, that warms theheart at the end.

Brian Meidell

(2012-04-03 18:07:18)

They should have given the budget to cancer research

This is the movie that made me realize how absolutely packed full ofclichesand lame one-liners a movie has to be to appall me.I am a very easy guy when it comes to movies. I take them for what theyare,and rarely think they are lame.I rarely see movies I don't like - specially not Hollywood blockbusterslikeArmageddon.Armageddon even features Bruce Willis, Steve Buscemi and Ben Affleck -threeactors that I really like.I don't want to spoil the movies intricate plot (note the heavy use ofsarcasm) by disclosing what happens in those crucial scenes where the bombis counting down towards zero, or the guy has fallen down the deeptrench.But I don't have to - it's EXACTLY what you will expect tohappen.The only element of surprise would be that you keep thinking "no way... itcan't be THAT lame", and then it proves you wrong.This movie is not only clichГѓВ© ridden - there are also several things inthemovie that suddenly happen for no apparent reason. Like Steve Buscemischaracter going space-crazy, as if only to tell you that "in space itdoesn't matter if you are intelligent enough to solve a rubikscube".On the positive side, the special effects are of course awesome, and thecinematography is good (regular good, not out of the ordinary). The budgetwas clearly a big one for this movie, but considering the awful result, Ithink the money should have been given to charity or cancerresearch

(2012-04-03 04:33:34)

Its what I've been looking for since ID4

Simply put, a great movie. Don't get me wrong, I love a good plot like anyone else, but that is not why I got this movie. I went to see this movie because of the special effects! The plot was good too, better then ID4! Come on people, enjoy the eye candy and go see some other movie if your looking for the great plot...

mentor397

(2012-04-02 15:54:39)

Has anyone seen this movie without a chip on their shoulder?

Sometimes I wonder about the people who watch movies and those whocomment on them. This movie was never meant to be the end-all scientificquestion/debate/answer on the subject of asteroids. I find it interestingthat many of the people who complain about the movie either find fault innonexistent problems (cups of coffee falling in space - that was back atNASA!) or they assume things they know nothing about. The solar system is abig place, and asteroids four times the size of Texas are found at regularintervals much less "just" the size of Texas. It's true, this movie jumps around a lot. But they have a lot of storyto cover. And, i'll say this for the movie, unlike Deep Impact - which isjust as cheesy, this movie does keep your attention riveted. From it'scomedy to it's music, to the shifting scenes, to the actors themselves,everything happens right after another. This movie fulfills in some part a fantasy of many people. Being calledto save the world because they know something other people don't. Sorry toruin your theories guys, but NASA astronauts don't know everything. Oftenthey are trained and trained and trained on specific tasks for years - justto eliminate mistakes. When you've only got eighteen days to train someoneto do something important, you want to pick someone who's good enough tohandle unforeseen problems that might arise. Drilling a hole in space isn'tlike rock collecting, it's something that requires skill andpractice. Some science critics apparently haven't watched the movie before theycomplained about it. The moon is far more than a thirty minute trip. Truman tells the astronauts good morning. That means a day has gone by. Gravity, even if it is far less, still works in space. "Heavy" - i.e.massive objects will still "fall". I admit the sounds was extraneous, butwho complains about sound in Star Wars? And for people who argue that NASAwould never run a mission like this, think about it. How many times hasNASA had to identify, plan, and execute a mission in 18 days? How manytimes has the Earth truly been in danger of existence-threateningevents? My only complaint was the scope of the movie. It tried to do too muchwhile still keeping it exciting to the average viewer. As a result, scenesare cut until they're only on a shot for a few seconds and then the camerais off to the next scene. It's hard to believe how much they actually do insuch a short time, but its effect is measurable. This movie just keeps ongoing.

Jason Davis

(2012-04-02 04:01:13)

Special Effects Extravaganza - I LOVED it!

Okay - everyone says it was a horrible movie because it was overloaded withSPFX. They are blinded (and deafened) by them. I see it differently. Iliked the small sub-plots throughout the movie. No, the main plot was nothingoriginal, but what of the rest? AJ and Grace's love, Chick's ex-wife andkid (which makes me cry every time I see it), Rockhound's $100,000 that youwonder how he'll repay (not to mention his stripper friend played by LaylaRoberts (and some said Liv was the window dressing! YOWIE!)). Don't lookat the main plot - look for all the subs and add them together. And expectLOTS of action. Only God could create more. I give it THREE thumbsup!

Andy

(2012-03-26 00:23:03)

A Framed Picture that would make Norman Rockwell proud...

If Norman Rockwell and Orson Scott Card had a child, in a bizarre newworld, they would have written the screenplay for "Armageddon". Anuncompromising look at what goes into the word Americana, Michael Bayhas crafted a story that is pumped full of so many clichés that itbecomes an entertaining, full-throttle action film that can be watchedagain and again. With a surprising cast and superb special effects, Bayuses the camera to create powerful artistic images coupled with thestaples of what makes films of this nature unique. In this reviewer'seyes, "Armageddon" is one of those films where Bay has tricked thecommon audience. It is a typical summer blockbuster in every sense ofthe word, there are explosions, there are great lines, there areout-of-this world scenes, but he does this while incorporating hiddenmessages throughout. Perhaps I am looking a bit too deep into justanother science fiction action film, but when "Armageddon" came throughthe DVD player, I wasn't ready. I was a nay-sayer to Criterion foradding this film to their collection, but now – in 2008 – it makesperfect sense. Michael Bay has created a picture-perfect image ofAmerica. He has taken our desire for the inanimate, our non-perfecthero, slices of us through images of the Midwest (or of a time that wemay have forgotten), and our religion to be the best and transformed itinto a film. Yes, this is a science fiction film, yes this is the filmabout the big asteroid that only Bruce Willis can stop, and yes – BenAffleck does attempt to act – but it is perfection. If our country waseliminated, and we needed a film for our history books – I wouldn'targue with "Armageddon". Now, let's let the argument begin.The acting, come on, it's "Armageddon" people, but Bay is notorious forat least creating enjoyable characters. Buscemi is always worth thescreen time, while Will Patton rounds out the voice of reason. Thelooming voice-over by Charlton Heston seemed to suck me into the story,while Willis and Affleck's banter seemed over the top, and at timesannoying. They played their parts perfectly, yet it still had me on theedge of my seat. Liv Tyler gave it her all, and the way Bay filmed her(less words more emotion) was perfect. She carried the weight of herfather and soon-to-be fiancé well into the asteroid. Compliments shouldbe handed to Mr. Thornton as well, the man has a pair of chops on him,and if he could avoid the angry comedian films, he could remember thathe has the talent. He was the epitome of NASA, the genius that had towork on the worst budget to save the world. Rewinding back to thenotion that this is America in all of it's glory, these characters workperfectly. Willis' character reminded me of a mortal superhero. Hisability to drill anywhere was his power, and his sense of nationalism,his idea of patriotism, bled from the screen. "Armageddon" played likea comic, with your muscling characters, cheap jokes, picture-esquirelandscapes, and simple fix to a big problem. Again, it was cliché – allof these characters can be seen in any other film close to the samenature or entitled "summer blockbuster", but with Bay, he seemed to besaying more. Affleck was the only downfall on the character side. Hewas Ben playing Ben; there wasn't that sense of anything outside ofcomic timing and love interest needed. He wasn't Bruce, he wasn'tanyone except filler.The story was simple. Bay simply used the K.I.S.S. method to compilethe script (the Keep It Simple Stupid), asteroid headed to Earth,nobody saw it, and it is up to Bruce to surrender to the beast. It isMr. Michael Bay that must be complimented for this film. While othercritics will argue that this isn't anything but drivel, I found it tobe symbolic, surreal, and honest all at the same time. While otherfilms will show America in a way that only the educated will see it,Bay throws it right in our face and we are unable to stop it. Golf on acruise liner, Willis portraying this "everyman", the types of cars thatour characters drive, the fact that upon completion of this taskeveryone want inanimate objects (power, sex, money), one cannot helpbut wonder what Bay is attempting to say about our culture. Michael Bayis the director of gluttony. I can attest that I couldn't stand thisfilm upon viewing it the first time. I was horrified to see it in theCriterion gambit, but watching it again – older and wiser with film – Iam happy to see it in the collection. "Armageddon" is America. It isthe birth of the superhero, it is the cliché Americana that we faceeveryday; it is exactly what makes American cinema – well – American.Bay, in this film, has captured the truth. What makes this summerblockbuster even more enticing is that there is just a sprinkling ofexplosions, and most don't happen until the final third of the film. Hehas tricked us, made us believe that this is a no-brainer of a film,when it is in fact chalk full of symbolism that the faintest of filmaficionados can smile under their breath.Overall, as I begin to sound more and more repetitive, "Armageddon" -the Criterion release - blew my mind for the first time although it wasmy second viewing. I am eager to re-watch again Bay's "The Rock" whichalso found a Criterion release, with skeptics on both sides. The NormanRockwell vision, the lack of any real science fiction until the thirdact, and the detail of the characters without devoting hours upon hoursto them, made for strong – unparalleled cinema. Grade: ***** out of *****

boycrzydsilver

(2012-03-25 17:35:55)

Entertainment at its best!

"Armageddon" is entertainment at its best. I just saw this movie last weekfor the very first time, and I cried. This movie is probably one of thebestI have ever seen. It has so much emotion. I think it is a good movie foreverybody. There is a love story (for the girls who are into that),there'shumor (Bruce Willis' first scene, Ben Affleck and Liv Tyler's animalcrackerscene, and Steve Buscemi cracked me up), and there's special effects."Armageddon" is very entertaining, but it's also a VERY GOOD movie. I'veseen it three times in the past week, and I can't get over it. Sure, atfirst I saw it only because of Ben Affleck, but after I saw it the veryfirst time, I realized that this was truly a movie I wanted to watch allthetime, and now I realize why my dad likes it so much.