Customer Reviews

Armageddon

5 star:		(537)
4 star:		(212)
3 star:		(111)
2 star:		(90)
1 star:		(356)

 

 

The Criterion Collection release of Armageddon is a treat. It offers 2 commentary tracks, one featuring the director Michael Bay, actors Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer has comments on several interesting things. Affleck's commentary is sometimes very funny. The other commentary track features the Director of Photography and special effects people.

The commentary includes interesting details, including background information on the characters and filming locations. Note: The commentary is raw and sometimes laced with profanity, although the movie itself is rated PG-13, for reasons explained in the commentary.

Although it's not much, this collection is also a Director's Cut and has a couple scenes added, notable of which is Harry Stamper's character visiting his father before launch. Some other scenes are cut slightly differently, adding some depth to the story.

The Gag reel on the second disk is extremely funny, raw, and not your typical "behind-the-scenes" documentary.

The second disk also features a tremendous amount of information on the special effects and includes many different trailers and promo material. The Aerosmith song video is also included.

While the story can be nit-picked, it's still very exciting and enjoyable.

Overall, if you liked the movie, the Criterion Collection release is the DVD to have.

Hey, lighten up, oh puckered product reviewers who can't seem to blast this flick enough. Can we all agree the very premise of this movie--along with all the wacky, physics-defying pseudo-science--requires a suspension of disbelief the size of, say, the Milky Way Galaxy? Can't we all just get along?

ARMAGEDDON isn't a scientific treatise on how to successfully stop an asteroid the size of Texas from destroying the earth; it's a white-knuckled, strap-it-on and strap-it-up, grit your teeth and enjoy the ride roller coaster. This movie delivers nonstop action like a law firm cranking out past-due statements; ARMAGEDDON's got it all, from a slingshot lunar ride, to thrills and chills with a nuclear weapon, to even one spaced-out Russian cosmonaut.

All viewers please check quantum physics at the door.

Bruce Willis, a cantankerous leader of a bunch of renegade roughnecks (roughnecks who must fly to the asteroid and drill through 800 feet of solid metal and drop a nuke in the hole, mind you), is solid. Ben Affleck reminded me of a whiny, annoying teenager; Liv Tyler had me more solid than the meteor itself. Billy Bob Thornton. . .yeah, okay. The rest of the cast works well together--they look like they had fun making this movie. Which is only fitting: I dang sure had fun watching it.

--D. Mikels, Author, WALK-ON

Although I think the movie is an over-loud, completely illogical and fairly disorienting piece of Hollywood claptrap, as far as big Summer blockbusters go it's hard to beat Armageddon. But I wanted to add a large, hairy and potentially sales-limiting aside to all the other reviews. If you're upgrading to a widescreen TV thinking this DVD will showcase the new technological wonders of prograssive scan and 16x9 flat screens you'll be sorely disappointed when you find that there is no anamorphic version on this disc. That's right, friends, even with all the other extras, they couldn't be bothered to include the one feature that truly showcases the cinematography and special effects (which are, let's face it, this film's halmarks cuz it sure ain't the acting and script). On a widescreen TV, Criterion's Armageddon provides black bars above, below and side to side yielding a postcard view of the "big screen" action.

This is one of the lamest movies I have seen. Lame story. Lame acting. Lame actors. Willis at his worse. Tyler should stay being famous because of her father and give up her acting career before we all see how lame she can really be. The only saving quality of this movie is the special effects and they are great. I give it 2 stars based on this fact and only this fact. If you are like me and enjoy watching movies for the sfx then you will like this. If you are deeper and need a good story, pass this one--with a wide gap.

watch this movie if u absolutely have no intention of using ur brain and u just want to see mindless unrealistic action for an hour and a half. under those situations, this is an amazing film. otherwise this is difficult to sit through. its ur typical american patriotism action sappy film. throw in unlikely heroes, in this case oil drillers sent to space to drill a meteor, (that idea in itself is just ludicrous). throw in a difficult decisions between the cast. throw in ur sappy manipulative dialougue. the list goes on, but apparantly this is what entertains the public. if u want to see a disaster movie like this, ur better off with the mediocre deep impact. how many times can u really watch bruce willis and his typed casted hero role?

This ranks right up there...as one of the all time over-rated movies ever. I usually don't go along with critics, I prefer to see a movie and make my mind up, but this is one time I wish I had listened to them. This film is a corny, stereotypical overwrought potboiler. Michael Bay's roots in directing commercials show in the obvious attempts at emotional manipulation. He cops his moves from films like The Right Stuff and Hellfighters with none of the flair or style. Of course in the trailer for Pearl Harbor he actually rips his own movie off.

Bruce Willis gives a fine performance, he's been in so many stinkers he makes it look easy. Billy Bob Thornton on the other hand does a poor job of delivering his corny lines with any authority. The rest of the cast is typical of this genre, all stereotyped single dimensional characters. They do have funny moments occasionally.

The action is tiresome and after awhile I felt like Michael Bay was literally beating me with a tire iron... .

Though not a big fan of the action genre like Die Hard and such, I have always liked Bruce Willis and appreciated his work. Here again, he gives a very good performance of decidedly mediocre material. Now, the special effects are exciting and awesome, so far as they go -- though there's not enough of them. (The "opening shots" sequence of the minimeteors hitting NYC was beautifully done, both exciting and also delightfully humorous at times; the all-too-infrequent bits that follow, such as the destruction of Paris and Hong Kong, are also fine.) But the "story" is not only improbable, but tired as well. And of a rather juvenile mindset. The whole long, loud, annoying oil rig scene, supposed to establish 1) how coooollll Willis' character is 2) Affleck's predictable relationship with Willis' daughter 3) how rrreally cooollll Willis's character is and 4) how cool all the other driller misfits are -- is one that I peremptorily fast-forward through. And some of the scenes are ruined (for me) by the frenetic rock soundtrack which is, especially for people who aren't big fans of that style, PARTICULARLY grating. In short, I wondered if Advil or Tylenol sponsored the film because it is capable of generating whopper headaches. A good film for an afternoon or evening, on a multiple bill with DEEP IMPACT and one or two George Pal films like WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE or THE WAR OF THE WORLDS -- but don't lose your remote!

My complaint is not with the movie, which I knew ahead of time to be shallow and far fetched but with the Criterion release. I have been buying their Laser Disc releases for years and if nothing else they always had the best video transfer available. So here is a wide screen action film on DVD and they don't even bother to obtain an anamorphic video transfer. I should be able to see every crystal in the asteroid and every hair on Ben A's face. I'm not, after all, viewing this for the scintilating dialog.

And I quote "...the Criterion Collection is a large and growing selection of classic and contemporary films that have been singled out for the red carpet treatment..."

Ugh!

Just when I thought "Criterion Collection" meant they chose nothing but the best movies.

The movie had much to be desired - though I must admit I'm a Bruce Willis fan, and Liv Tyler is quite a peice of, era, ehem.... Anyhow, it was still a disappointment.

If you took all of the impending world disaster movies made during the last half-century and mixed them all up in a giant vat, the result would be this big-budget loser; the cinematic equivalent of that organic chemical substance that suposedly produced the earliest lifeforms about two billion years ago in the Pre-Cambrian era. The fate of the world is left in the hands of a bunch of undereducated oil drillers who appear to be World Wrestling Federation rejects. How could these flesh and blood versions of the Transformers complete astronaut training in less than two weeks when in reality, it takes the brightest of candidates many months? Just put aside your education, logic, and common sense for about two and a half hours and try to stay awake to see this film whose only qualities that earned two stars are its special effects (they appear to be borrowed from Independence Day) and its musical score.