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List Price: $14.99 | | Label: Buena Vista Home Entertainment / Touchstone
Salesrank: 1573
Released: January 5, 1999 |
| Our Price: $4.92 |
| Used Price: $2.76 |
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MPAA Rating: Unrated
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
From the blockbuster-making team who produced and directed PEARL HARBOR and THE ROCK (Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay) comes the biggest movie of 1998 -- ARMAGEDDON! Starring the explosive talents of Bruce Willis (DIE HARD), Academy Award(R)-winners Ben Affleck (GOOD WILL HUNTING) and Billy Bob Thornton (SLING BLADE), Liv Tyler (INVENTING THE ABBOTTS), Steve Buscemi (CON AIR), and Will Patton (INVENTING THE ABBOTTS), ARMAGEDDON is a meteor storm of action-adventure moviemaking that has you on the edge of your seat forgetting to breathe! When NASA's executive director, Dan Truman (Thornton), realizes the Earth has 18 days before it's obliterated by a meteor the size of Texas, he has only one option -- land a ragtag team of roughneck oil drillers on the asteroid and drop a nuclear warhead into its core. Spectacular special effects, laugh-out-loud humor, great characters, riveting storytelling, and heartfelt emotion make ARMAGEDDON an exhilarating thrill ride you'll want to experience like there's no tomorrow.
Description of Armageddon:
The latest testosterone-saturated blow-'em-up from producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Michael Bay (The Rock, Bad Boys) continues Hollywood's millennium-fueled fascination with the destruction of our planet. There's no arguing that the successful duo understands what mainstream American audiences want in their blockbuster movies--loads of loud, eye-popping special effects, rapid- fire pacing, and patriotic flag waving. Bay's protagonists--the eight crude, lewd, oversexed (but lovable, of course) oil drillers summoned to save the world from a Texas-sized meteor hurling toward the earth--are not flawless heroes, but common men with whom all can relate. In this huge Western-in-space soap opera, they're American cowboys turned astronauts. Sci-fi buffs will appreciate Bay's fetishizing of technology, even though it's apparent he doesn't understand it as anything more than flashing lights and shiny gadgets. Smartly, the duo also tries to lure the art-house crowd, raiding the local indie acting stable and populating the film with guys like Steve Buscemi, Billy Bob Thornton, Owen Wilson, and Michael Duncan, all adding needed touches of humor and charisma. When Bay applies his sledgehammer aesthetics to the action portions of the film, it's mindless fun; it's only when Armageddon tackles humanity that it becomes truly offensive. Not since Mississippi Burning have racial and cultural stereotypes been substituted for characters so blatantly--African Americans, Japanese, Chinese, Scottish, Samoans, Muslims, French ... if it's not white and American, Bay simplifies it. Or, make that white male America; the film features only three notable females--four if you count the meteor, who's constantly referred to as a "bitch that needs drillin'," but she's a hell of a lot more developed and unpredictable than the other women characters combined. Sure, Bay's film creates some tension and contains some visceral moments, but if he can't create any redeemable characters outside of those in space, what's the point of saving the planet? --Dave McCoy
Armageddon Reviews:
Why? Why did Criterion do this? 
2009-11-09 - Criterion says that they do "important" films. This film is about as important as speck of dirt. If they're going for "worst movie ever" importance, then why not do Plan 9 instead?
Arrmageddon on with the film! 
2009-10-10 - This is one of my all time favorite films!
I only had the VHS and, because I watch it so often I'm certain the tape was wearing thin! I finally broke down and made the DVD purchase when I got a new player for the bedroom....How great to see this in a format that is so much better!
Yeah for the digital world...and Bruce Willis (with a great cast)!!!
A global killer - nothing survives 
2009-10-10 - 4 of 5 stars for this sci-fi movie. A global killer--nothing survives, not even bacteria. An asteroid the size of Texas is en route to the Earth. With only 18 days before impact what do you do? Some early arriving asteroids (basketball size) rake NYC doing extreme damage. The only choice? Nuke it. How do you do that? Send a crew to drill a hole into the asteroid, implant the nuke, blast-it to break the asteroid into little bits. OK, who do you get to drill the hole? How about a crew of rough-necks (lead by Bruce Willis)? Things get complex when it turns out the asteroid is solid metal and it breaks drill bits.
Very strong acting and characters. Willis really hits a home run with his character. Great special effects. The concept is a bit old, but, this is a fresh version. I do recommend this movie!
Fun, but Verbose 
2009-09-27 - Armageddon / B00000G3PA
*Spoilers*
If I were rating "Armageddon" based on the first 45 minutes or so alone, I'd probably give it a solid four stars, maybe even five. The movie starts strong, with a canny blend of immediate disaster and relevant exposition (as opposed to some disaster movies that force you to sit through 30 minutes of character set-up before you get a whiff of nature-turning-sour) alongside humorous character introduction. The triangle between father, daughter, and lover is an amusing one, and Tyler in particular shines as she balances a complex tightrope of emotions - distance and frustration, anger, worry, and a touch of amused contempt. The high note continues as the obligatory Introduction/Recruiting scenes start rolling, and the film is canny enough to drape everything in over-the-top humor - the men want to be reimbursed for their efforts by knowing "the truth" about JFK, having their parking tickets overturned, and being taken permanently off the IRS rolls. Even better, Billy Bob Thornton plays the straight man to all this and plays it well, highlighting the wacky fun and exposition.
Unfortunately, about the time after lift-off, the amusing chuckles become less frequent. Frankly, the movie's biggest failing here (in my opinion) is the decision to put so much focus on Affleck. I've got nothing against the man as an actor, but the entire set-up with him being sectioned off with the crazy Russian astronaut solely and specifically for the purpose of him (a) ramping over the moon Dukes-of-Hazzard style and (b) climactically showing up at the last moment when everything has conveniently broken is just so much tedium and is far too long. Frequent shots back to Thornton and Tyler on earth are included here to heighten the tension, but without Willis to play off of, the shots fall relatively flat and begin to occur too frequently.
Ultimately, "Armageddon" is a decent disaster film, and probably one of the best known, but I find I can no longer sit through the entire movie without fast-forwarding through a good deal of the filler middle. I can't help but feel that the final product would have been better if all the side stuff with Affleck had been cut - either such that he was never separated in the first place, or such that his trek back to the others takes place largely outside of the actual movie. I understand wanting to ramp off of moon cliffs as a director - after all, it's cool and it was also probably intended as comic relief - but ultimately I just feel that "Armageddon" is a little too long and a little too bloated at the middle, despite the strong beginning.
If You are a typical dumb american watch this very dumb movie !!!
2009-08-14 - This movie goes from bad to worse. It is not that funny. The cliched negative material against the russians is deplorable. Shots of people around the world trusting in America to save them from annihilation makes me want to vomit. There is a line in this trash that says all those wars we have engaged in were worthwhile because it enabled us to develop superior weaponry to blow a giant asteroid in two. A complete waste of time !!!!!!!
