Armageddon: A dirty secret.

bigslick

I know this may come as a surprise to alot of you, does to me to, but im rewatching this and must say it has everything IMO, and is one of my favourite films.

I know i may well get slated for this, but i love it. Humour, lots of action and an ending that no matter how many times i watch pulls my strings.

Great cast, with bruce doing as best a job as he may have ever done, and Billy Bob having some great scenes and moments.

I think too many ppl fob it off as just another OTT action film well really i see it as having a little more substance to it.

Any of you out there feel the same, or am i all alone here?

Anakin.S

I've only ever watched it once and I enjoyed it for what it was, good old fashion fun.
I really like Steve Buscemi going mental with the nuke

faceman

bigslick wrote: »

I know this may come as a surprise to alot of you, does to me to, but im rewatching this and must say it has everything IMO

Everything except:

A decent script
Decent performances
More appropriate use of slow motion.
Decent plot
Believable story within the physics of the movie

Guy:Incognito

faceman wrote: »

Everything except:

A decent script
Decent performances
More appropriate use of slow motion.
Decent plot
Believable story within the physics of the movie

Do not like button needed for posts like this.

Karl Hungus

Honestly, I really like the film as well. Quite frankly, I really quite like a few of Michael Bay's films, it's only his later work that I have true distain for, Pearl Harbour onwards. The Rock is a great example of how Bay could get it right. Armageddon might not be a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination, but it is a very cheesy romp and it's plenty of fun if you pack your brain away into an airtight, soundproof container and leave it at least 20 feet from where you're watching the film.

podgemonster

faceman wrote: »

Everything except:

A decent script
Decent performances
More appropriate use of slow motion.
Decent plot
Believable story within the physics of the movie

Fine its not up there with Hamlet, Gone With the Wind or Face/Off but its extremely entertaining.

Decent Plot: Blue collared oil drillers sent by NASA to stop a meteor from colliding with Earth! Nuff said!

Decent Script: Im sorry but the script is serioulsy witty and the OP is right the final few moments between Harry, AJ and Liv Tyler are very believable and well scripted performances!

Decent Performances: Billy bob, Steve Buscemi, Bruce and yer man from prison break all gave excellent performances!

Physics: It's a fictional film!! if that was the case with every film, Peter Parker would have died of cancer when bitten by a radioactive spider and James Bond would have been captured and shot in the head decades ago!

Its not Art but that doesnt mean it isn't AWESOME!!!

Hank_Jones

I enjoyed it alright, it certainly doesn't pretend to be something it's not.
If it didn't star Ben Affleck I think people would hold it in much higher regard.
I think people hating him so much give the film a bad rep.

Galvasean

I have seen Armageddon a few times and have enjoyed it each and every time.
As for those "It's stoopid because tehre are explosions in space" naysayers, i have two words for you: 'Star Wars'

Hank_Jones

Galvasean wrote: »

I have seen Armageddon a few times and have enjoyed it each and every time.
As for those "It's stoopid because tehre are explosions in space" naysayers, i have two words for you: 'Star Wars'

Jesus man,don't be comparing Star Wars to Armageddon!

I did like Armageddon, but lets not go overboard here.
Next thing you know, you'll be mentioning 2001: A Space Odyssey.. :cool:

Galvasean

Hank_Jones wrote: »

Jesus man,don't be comparing Star Wars to Armageddon!

I did like Armageddon, but lets not go overboard here.
Next thing you know, you'll be mentioning 2001: A Space Odyssey.. :cool:

They're all in space :P

Nah, what I was getting at is how people are quick to ignore such a 'mistake' in certain movies, but equally quick to point it out when they don't like a movie/director etc.

youcancallmeal

Deep Impact ftw!

Morlar

It's not supposed to be a thinking mans movie - it's just a big-budget popcorn flick but it is good because it's one of the best of it's kind.

The bit were the kid comes running out to returning Will Patton. It actually brought tears to my eyes.

This movie has everything

krudler

I love, as in truly love the first hour or so of it, but when it gets into space it just becomes a mess, the editing is all over the place, especially in the seqeuence where they try to land the shuttles on the asteroid, its nearly impossible to tell whats happening in places, and the old "everything that can go wrong will go wrong" plot device wheeled out is annoying, that being said tho, the script is great in places "here we are, the fate of the world is in the hands of a bunch of retards I wouldnt trust with a potato gun!" "I wanna name it Dottie after my wife, she's a vicious life sucking bitch from which theres no escape" Thornton, Willis and Buscemi are all brilliant in it, and even tho its cliched as hell its still a lot of fun. It also has an awesome training sequence, which every movie should have

I'm a big Bay fan and really do enjoy Armageddon. No one will ever mistake it for high art but take it for what it is and it hits all the right marks. It's funny, thrilling, well mad and above all its fun, pure and unadulterated Friday night fun.

Bay's been talking about scaling back a little and doing a small film which is something I'm really looking forward to. I would love to see him combine his visual style with a small story driven piece. Then again as bad as Bay can be he's always said story first, everything else second. All his films have entertaining stories which may not be the most original but work for what they are. Transformers 2 is a bit of a mess story-wise but I don't blame Bay for that, it was the studios decision to set a release date before the first was even in cinemas/. I can see Iron Man 2 suffering from the same problems.

Anakin.S

Hank_Jones wrote: »

Jesus man,don't be comparing Star Wars to Armageddon!
:cool:

'Drill the hole, you must. Save the world, you will'

Skerries

it has to be one of the best popcorn movies out there and certainly puts a lot of other big blockbusters to shame especially in the last few years such as The Matrix sequels, Star Wars 1 - 3, Indy and the WTF!? Aiens!?,Spidey 3, PotC 3, G.I.Joe and Avatar

irishh_bob

bigslick wrote: »

I know this may come as a surprise to alot of you, does to me to, but im rewatching this and must say it has everything IMO, and is one of my favourite films.

I know i may well get slated for this, but i love it. Humour, lots of action and an ending that no matter how many times i watch pulls my strings.

Great cast, with bruce doing as best a job as he may have ever done, and Billy Bob having some great scenes and moments.

I think too many ppl fob it off as just another OTT action film well really i see it as having a little more substance to it.

Any of you out there feel the same, or am i all alone here?

i cried the 1st time i watched armagedon , granted i was only 21 and not the most mature of people at the time but still , its a movie i always enjoy , what i would call a big swinging mickey of a movie

irishh_bob

youcancallme>al wrote: »

Deep Impact ftw!

deep impact is the wimps armagedon or as it was called in america , the democrats armagedon

BopNiblets

Michael Bay and Ben Affleck = I double hated Armageddon.

Not even Bruce, Buscemi or a cheestastic Aerosmith rock ballad could endear it to me.

Galvasean

Skerries wrote: »

it has to be one of the best popcorn movies out there and certainly puts a lot of other big blockbusters to shame especially in the last few years such as The Matrix sequels, Star Wars 1 - 3, Indy and the WTF!? Aliens!?,Spidey 3, PotC 3, G.I.Joe and Avatar

I hope you mean the Alien Versus Predator movies...

Handsome Bob

Never saw the problem with Armageddon, sometimes you just have to let yourself go and embrace a simple action film. Right now, if you gave me a choice between watching Armageddon or Avatar again I'd go with the former. I ain't ****ting you.

deathstarkiller

faceman wrote: »

Everything except:

A decent script
Decent performances
More appropriate use of slow motion.
Decent plot
Believable story within the physics of the movie

Boo to this post. It's awesome!!!

Sleazus

I can't watch this movie without thinking of the Robot Chicken sketch where the US discovers an asteroid heading to earth, so asks the public who they'd trust to head into deep space to stop it.

They pick Harrison Ford. And the remaining four seats on the shuttle are filled with Aerosmith to provide a catchy themesong.

Yep, Deep Impact made the mistake of believing that any subject Michael Bay chooses to make a film about could be prestige drama material, if filmed and cast appropriately. Nobody wants to see a ponderous drama about an asteroid heading to destroy civilisation.

They want to see Steve Buscemi ride a nuke.

Duggy747

Except for his latter films (Transformers 1 being the exception) I always enjoy Bay's movies. Armageddon was excellent and dumb, and it doesn't try to be make itself be more than an OTT movie. The cities being obliterated (New York & Paris epecially) is an action junkie's wet dream.

Buscemi going nuts on the 'roid is always fun to watch, who wouldn't want to shoot the shìt out of an asteroid with a gattling gun?...................which also raises the question of why you would bring a gattling gun into space!! Still awesome, though. :pac:

krudler

I really want to live in Michael Bay's version of the universe, where everyone gets out of cars in slow motion, its always either sundown or sun up, fans ALWAYS have a shaft of light coming from them and a bur bur bur sound effect, even in someones apartment

Duggy747

krudler wrote: »

I really want to live in Michael Bay's version of the universe, where everyone gets out of cars in slow motion, its always either sundown or sun up, fans ALWAYS have a shaft of light coming from them and a bur bur bur sound effect, even in someones apartment

Plus standing up never looked cooler! (In slo-mo as the camera spins around you )

Even eating some cereal would be cool:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXGWZxI9lAs

Pepe LeFrits

It's one of my favourite movies.

It looks great, sounds great, barrells along at a perfect pace, blatently pulls at the heart strings but gets away with it and has a stellar cast. Some of the scenes I could watch again and again (Billy Bob telling Bruce Willis & Liv Tyler about the asteroid, the President's speech as they go to the shuttle, the shuttle crash, BW taking responsibility for detonating the nuke, BW saying goodbye, and a load of others).

Colonel William Sharp: It takes two people to fly this thing. Either we all stay and die, or you guys draw straws.
Rockhound: I say we all stay and die.
[pause, everyone looks at Rockhound]
Rockhound: But that's me.

Max: Something's wrong.
Rockhound: Yeah, it's all wrong, man. We shouldn't even be up here!

Tommy: Mom, that salesman's on TV.
Denise: That man's not a salesman. That's your daddy. (So corny...)

johnny_ultimate

I really enjoyed the film when I was younger, but the Transformers films (the most deplorable rubbish yet produced by Hollywood, totally up there with anything by the Wayans Brothers) have reminded me that his directorial style is the equivalent of a man coming up and kicking you in the face, only to come back and do it ten minutes later in case you didn't get the point. Armegeddon has lighthearted appeal, but that damn Aerosmith song is horrific. When it begins to play, the scene seems cheesy even for a cheesy action movie. It blatantly manipulates the audience, basically telling them 'feel sad now'. OK, the rest of the film is a relatively fun action movie, but the I Don't Want to Miss a thing ending is a perfect example of why I despise Michael Bay.

I will say it isn't quite as outright offensive as his later movies, which is probably a compliment. It still has that America conquers all message he is so fond of, but the rest of the film is relatively harmless compared to the sexist, conservative agenda he has pushed more vocally since.

I like stupid action movies, when they're done well, and Armageddon is by no means the worst, but it does show many signs of why Michael Bay has become the most objectionable mainstream director working today. Luckily, there are also a lot of fun scenes on an asteroid, an enjoyably corny story that makes sense, and Steve Buscemi, which is far more than Transformers has going for it.

Karl Hungus

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

but it does show many signs of why Michael Bay has become the most objectionable mainstream director working today.

It certainly does, but I think it's just about at the right level of OTT stuff-blowing-up, and didn't go over into farce like Bay did in Pearl Harbor and onwards. He seemed to lose any and all sense of scale after Armageddon.

uncleoswald

Armageddon can't really be a dirty little secret because, as this thread proves, people really like it and its held up as something of a classic actioner.

Me I think its sh*t and the asteroid sections contain the ugliest art direction ever put on film. But I think I'm in the minority.

Soccertainer

Its not the worst (deep impact was better, sorry). Also, its no Avatar! It would make my top 500 sci fi films.

super_furry

Bruce Willis is Jesus.

Jesus died so he could save the world, Bruce Willis died so he could save the world.

Think Affleck is John the Baptist.

Penn

It's like Con Air. It's definitely not a great film, it's not going to win any awards for anything.... but it's enjoyable. It knows what it is and it does it well

krudler

Soccertainer wrote: »

Its not the worst (deep impact was better, sorry). Also, its no Avatar! It would make my top 500 sci fi films.

Armageddon is better than Avatar

paddyismaddy

top film

faceman

podgemonster wrote: »

Fine its not up there with Hamlet, Gone With the Wind or Face/Off but its extremely entertaining.

Decent Plot: Blue collared oil drillers sent by NASA to stop a meteor from colliding with Earth! Nuff said!

Decent Script: Im sorry but the script is serioulsy witty and the OP is right the final few moments between Harry, AJ and Liv Tyler are very believable and well scripted performances!

Decent Performances: Billy bob, Steve Buscemi, Bruce and yer man from prison break all gave excellent performances!

We will agree to disagree on all these points, but I am going to pick up on your next point!

wrote:

Physics: It's a fictional film!! if that was the case with every film, Peter Parker would have died of cancer when bitten by a radioactive spider and James Bond would have been captured and shot in the head decades ago!

Its not Art but that doesnt mean it isn't AWESOME!!!

I have no issue with any fictional film or sci fi with that matter. But what I was referring to in my original point was that if a film maker is going to make up his owns laws of science/nature/life, then he must stick to them and not leave holes or gaps in his own story. It only serves to alienate the audience and demonstrates poor storytelling.

For the record, Con Air is far more enjoyable than Armageddon :pac:

krudler

For the record, Con Air is far more enjoyable than Armageddon

And The Rock is better than both of them

JP Liz V1

i cried at this film

RoadKillTs

i cried at this film

Me too. (a little)

Its a great movie. Must watch it again.

bnt

Just to pick up on something said earlier: what would stop explosions from happening in space? Conventional explosives (including gunpowder) don't need air to work, they carry their own oxidants in the explosive. The biggest bang in Armageddon was, of course, unconventional: a nuke, which needs no oxygen at all.

Two things turned me off Armageddon: that bloody song, and the bulk load of all-American jingoistic flag-waving. OK, one more: it had only one main female character, played by Liv Tyler, who was reduced to waiting around for her man to come back. Compare that to Deep Impact, which had a more balanced cast, with Tea Leoni in a more active leading role.

bnt

bnt wrote: »

Just to pick up on something said earlier: what would stop explosions from happening in space? Conventional explosives (including gunpowder) don't need air to work, they carry their own oxidants in the explosive. The biggest bang in Armageddon was, of course, unconventional: a nuke, which needs no oxygen at all.

Think it was more to do with the flames than the actual explosion.

Galvasean

bnt wrote: »

Compare that to Deep Impact, which had a more balanced cast, with Tea Leoni in a more active leading role.

You say it like it's a good thing!

Dempsey

I have seen Armageddon several time, enjoyed it everytime.

It hit with the force of 10,000 nuclear weapons. A trillion tons of dirt and rock hurtled into the atmosphere, creating a suffocating blanket of dust the sun was powerless to penetrate for a thousand years. It happened before. It will happen again. It's just a question of when.

The opening sequence really set the mood for the film :pac:

F.B.I. Agent: We have a national security matter.
Rockhound: Good for you.

That line should have won an oscar :pac:

tech77

faceman wrote: »

Everything except:

A decent script
Decent performances
More appropriate use of slow motion.
Decent plot
Believable story within the physics of the movie

Bit harsh?
As a "leave your brain at the door" movie, it's not bad at all.
And it does tug at the heart strings a bit.
Willis is always watchable.
Also any film that has Peter Stormare in it is OK by me.

Granted, he did play a deranged, alcoholic cosmonaut (fulfilling a Hollywood cliche) but still- he played it so well.

micosavo

This movie is like having America! America! shouted in your face for two and half hours...

Much prefer Team America: World Police!

faceman

tech77 wrote: »

Bit harsh?
As a "leave your brain at the door" movie, it's not bad at all.
And it does tug at the heart strings a bit.
Willis is always watchable.
Also any film that has Peter Stormare in it is OK by me.

Granted, he did play a deranged, alcoholic cosmonaut (fulfilling a Hollywood cliche) but still- he played it so well.

Just because its a "leave your brain at the door" movie doesnt mean we have to accept poor standards.

Die Hard is a "leave your brain at the door" movie yet its ossim. Do we put both movies in the same league?

Galvasean

faceman wrote: »

Die Hard is a "leave your brain at the door" movie yet its ossim. Do we put both movies in the same league?

Definately the same league. Die Hard is competing for a top table finish. Armageddon is in contention for a Euefa Cup place. :pac:

JP Liz V1

bnt wrote: »

Two things turned me off Armageddon: that bloody song, and the bulk load of all-American jingoistic flag-waving. OK, one more: it had only one main female character, played by Liv Tyler, who was reduced to waiting around for her man to come back. Compare that to Deep Impact, which had a more balanced cast, with Tea Leoni in a more active leading role.

i think the casting was spot on for all i wouldnt recast any of them

tech77

faceman wrote: »

Just because its a "leave your brain at the door" movie doesnt mean we have to accept poor standards.

Die Hard is a "leave your brain at the door" movie yet its ossim. Do we put both movies in the same league?

Die Hard (the early ones especially) is a better film.
I'm just saying for what it is, it's an enjoyable romp, that's all.
That's despite/because of it's cheesiness; it has a decent enough story; good action sequences; i generally like the actors involved; they've some decent one-liners.
The flag-waving is a bit yawnsome, but that's kinda part of the cheesiness and can be laughed at knowingly (it's been a while since i've seen it, but did they take themselves too seriously?- i can remember Bruce Willis pulling a few steely grimaces but still).

As i said, an enjoyable romp.

irishh_bob

Dempsey wrote: »

I have seen Armageddon several time, enjoyed it everytime.



The opening sequence really set the mood for the film :pac:



That line should have won an oscar :pac:

or , billy bob thornton = our budget only allows us monitor 3% of the sky and with respect sir , its a big ass sky