Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6051 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-04-04
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Formats: PAL, Special Edition
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 116 minutes

Synopsis
A reporter believes that she has discovered a Congressman's affair. But as it turns out, Elle isn't a mistress, but something used to describe an event so cataclysmic that it could destroy the planet...
When it is discovered that an enormous comet is on a collision course with Earth, a handful of Americans make different preparations for the end of the world. While Leo Biederman (played by Elijah Wood), the fourteen-year-old amateur astronomer who discovered the comet, deals with the pangs of first love, an ambitious newswoman (played by Tea Leoni) attempts to reconcile with her estranged parents. A former astronaut (played by Robert Duvall) finds himself in the stars once again in an attempt to prevent the catastrophe from occurring. Mimi Leder directs from a script by Bruce Joel Rubin and Michael Tolkin.

Customer Reviews

Could have been perfect if ...
I love space stories, disaster movies and comet impact. I believe it is a man's tretory. The producers usually blend in some love story, sex scandal, and other feminine issues to make it appeal to non-scientific audiances, but they forget that the main reason why most men want to risk their life to go into space and face a baren empty space is to escape from these relational issues. A good producer does this seamlessly, but there were far too much contrasting stories in this one, taking a lot from the main disaster story. I am a real fan of Morag Freeman, he was brilliant here and save the movie. On the other hand Tea Leoni's spoiled it with her cold acting, she was very irritating, not the right person for the role.

Compare to most movies with similar stories that are completely inaccurate, the facts were believable and digestable.

The director did a brilliant job. I think it was the best it could be done with the story. Still gave me a buzz.

As a whole the movie was not too bad. I take one star away for imbalance story line and bad acting by Tea Leoni.

A disaster movie that's not macho!
Taking several parallel threads that do not all meet at the end, 'Deep Impact' gives a very human feel to a very big, and very possible, disaster scenario.
I watched this (again) the other day, after watching about 10 minutes of the relatively dreadful 'Meteor'. Yes, DI is centred around the US, but there is nothing macho or gung-ho in there at all, just lots of nice touches - the conversation that Jenny Lerner has with the President, where he thinks she knows what ELE is, and she thinks she knows too - 'It might seem that you have us over a barrel, but it just seems that way' - is brilliant.

A particularly good thing about this film is the careful use of CGI - sparing, so it makes a bigger impact (ha ha) - which helps to concentrate the plot on the important bits - the Beidermans, the Lerners, the shuttle crew, and the passage of time is carefully marked, not just with the time captions, but things like Jenny Lerner's passage from reporter to 'news anchor', and the slow reconciliation with her father. Indeed the most impressive piece of CGI happens when they are on the beach and the tidal wave from the Beiderman meteorite (its hit the ocean, remember) pulls the water back to reveal the continental shelf. Wow!

One of the best disaster movies
In 'Deep Impact" a meteor the size of New York is discovered heading straight towards Earth and civilization has one year to prepare for the collision which will most likely make the every living thing on Earth extinct unless it can be stopped.
The film is from America's perspective, lead by the US President (Morgan Freeman) who has set up a team of the best astronauts (including a fantastic performance by Robert Duvall) to drill some nuclear warheads into the meteor to hopefully break it up or change is course. The lead character (Tia Leoni) plays the news reporter who gives America the details of the mission as it happened.

The story is very similar to Armageddon which also came out in 1998, but instead of going for the macho, USA save the world (again) approach that Jerry Bruckhiemer gave his film, Deep Impact goes for a more emotional and realistic image, focussing more on everyday people and how this is going to affect their lives, rather than just following the "heroes".

I am a huge fan of disaster films (like The Day After Tomorrow, War of the Worlds, Independance Day, Twister etc) and although I did really like Armageddon I did feel that Deep Impact is definitely the superior film of the two. The acting is brilliant and believeable, the story is full of shocks and surprises, the special effects are extremely good for it's time and overall this is a hugely enjoyable film which I think will be still very re-watchable in years to come.