ARMAGEDDON (1998) *** You have to admit that it has genuine drama and suspense. It's also fairly entertaining and it also has too many unnecessary faults. Don't they have editors in Hollywood ? They do, and you get the idea that they're targeting the lower half IQ demographic, a little bit. But OK! Still… even though he blows a few scenes, badly, Bruce Willis is entirely believable as the king of the oil drillers. The plot necessitating him becoming an instant astronaut…ok, I go along, ok? One problem is that as much as I often enjoy Bruce' work, he's not who I'd turn to if I needed to carry Greek tragedy-magnitude emotional drama. Not that he couldn't ever do it, just that… So, who do they throw in there to elevate his game? Supermodel Liv Tyler. So those parts don't work, and to make matters worse they litter the first half of the film with little snippets of a bad Aerosmith ballad, apparently to remind the MTV generation that they're hip. The effect is like burying Dagwood Bumstead in Mantovani. Trevor Rabin's compositions for the climactic half of the film are more appropriate, but relentlessly omnipresent. The best parts, then, are Bruce's multi-directional buddy movie efforts with the likes of Ben Affleck, Steve Buscemi, Owen Wilson and Billy Bob Thornton (impressive as NASA head). Buscemi and Peter Stormare compete for wittiest in a photo finish. There are lots of good throwaway lines, and the boys delight everyone involved by throwing them away. All in all, it's a totally believable drilling team. But did they have to get shot into outer space? Wal, given what little passes for high drama these days, and the target audience, yuh. So it hadda be like this? Then there ain' nuthin' wrawng widdit!
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