big budget 'disaster' movies, (mid 90s to 2005-ish)

[zombie no.one]

I feel like this era of disaster movies is when producers and directors got to play out their wildest fantasies with CGI... I'm not that well versed in the genre though and I'm sure there's some obvious ones that passed me by

just watched THE CORE (2003) last night. random purchase, never heard of it till now... totally silly, in fact too silly (even though I prefer that to totally serious for this style of film)

what are the best and worst from this era?

[M.10rda]

I agree that THE CORE was too silly.

THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW remains a guilty pleasure for me. There were some nice satirical touches back in '04 (several at Dick Cheney's expense) and come to think of it the punchline about Mexico is more topical today than ever. I loved the scale of the destruction on the big screen, fun action w/ wolves trying to eat Jake Gyllenhaal, and of course Ian Holm doesn't hurt. Dennis Quaid sleepwalks through it, though.

I knew Jay O. Sanders a little bit some years ago - he plays one of Quaid's two scientist sidekicks. Nice guy and a good stage actor in New York. A decade back he told me he needed to sell his house in NYC and move. In the 90s and 00s, playing a supporting role in something like this or in JFK (where he's one of Costner's sidekicks) would've paid his mortgage and property tax for years. By the '10s the fee for these roles had fallen to low five figures. You might as well try to be a full-time high school teacher and own a house in NY.      If that's not a scarier and more catastrophic situation than any onscreen disaster, I dunno...

Anyway. ARMAGEDDON and DEEP IMPACT - the dueling meteor movies of summer '98. The first, completely cheeseball though entertaining once. The latter, better written and acted, though much less fun.

There were similar dueling volcano movies around that time, too - I don't remember the title of either! Quite forgettable.

Should A.I. count? NYC seems to be still recovering from THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW in that one, plus Spielberg's emotional manipulation at the end is completely disastrous imho.......

[zombie no.one]

not seen THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW... not sure I've even heard of it. wiki synopsis doesn't ring a bell. "ludicrous popcorn thriller filled with clunky dialog", sounds worth checking out!

ARMAGEDDON and DEEP IMPACT are 2 films which I genuinely have no idea if I've seen or not, or perhaps just seen bits of them. haha

the volcano films, I'm sure I know at least one of the ones you mean there. possibly both. Pierce Brosnan? I feel like a volcano doesn't pose the same kind of threat as an asteroid or a hurricane (on that note, TWISTER was okayish I thought)

[RCMerchant]

2012 (2009) was one of the lamest and stoopidest films I have ever seen.
ARMEGEDDON also sucked wind.
TWISTER (1996) was the only good one of the bunch.

[Trevor]

BEYOND THE POSEIDIN ADVENTURE was a really bad film.

[LilCerberus]

Three versions of War Of The Worlds at once.....

[zombie no.one]

2012 (2009) was one of the lamest and stoopidest films I have ever seen.

yeah and they gave it a shelflife of 3 yrs... not sure there's any nostalgia factor?

my favourite aspect of TWISTER was Van Halen - Humans Being on the soundtrack

BEYOND THE POSEIDIN ADVENTURE was a really bad film.

that's going back way before mid 90s... unless there was a remake?

Three versions of War Of The Worlds at once.....

don't know anything about this.




ok consulting wiki there's INDEPENDENCE DAY which again I have no idea if I've seen and I also think I confuse it with ARMAGEDDON...

there's the 2 volcano flicks M.10rda mentioned, DANTE'S PEAK and, erm, VOLCANO. (the first does indeed star Pierce Brosnan... maybe I've seen it?)

also HARD RAIN which hasn't come up yet

[claws]

1996-2008 Disaster films (according to wiki) I own:

Independence Day (1996)
Twister (1996)
Titanic (1997)
Dante's Peak (1997)
The Perfect Storm (2000)
Red Planet (2000)
Reign of Fire (2002)
Poseidon (2006)
Snakes on a Plane (2006)
Sunshine (2007)
The Mist (2007)
Cloverfield (2008)

[zombie no.one]

Poseidon (2006)

so there was a remake / sequel... not sure if that's what Trev was referring to. doesn't sound very good anyway from the critical response (but whadda the critics knoe?)

[M.10rda]

Pierce Brosnan was in one of those volcano movies, I think Tommy Lee Jones in the other. The volcanos do indeed f**k s**t up quite a bit...

If CLOVERFIELD counts as a "disaster" movie, well, it takes my top prize. Easily the best found footage/people in danger yet still pointing their camera at the threat movie I've ever seen, as it really commits to the implausible psychology of doing that exact counter-intuitive thing.......

I do think that RED PLANET and REIGN OF FIRE are pushing the definition. The former is astronauts having issues on Mars, thus if that's a "disaster" movie, basically every movie where astronauts have issues on an alien planet are disaster movies - heck, ALIEN. The latter is post-apocalyptic, w/ Christian Bale and company surviving for years in a world dominated by frickin' dragons. Again, if the disaster can last years or decades, that opens up the field miiiiiighty wide...

2012 was ridiculous - almost too ridiculous to be any fun.

[zombie no.one]

Yeah there’s a loose definition problem. Also what is the minimum number of people who need to be directly negatively affected by a disaster, in order for ‘disaster movie’ status to be achieved? All a bit vague.

I guess in theory you could have an asteroid movie, but only 1 or 2 scientists know about the asteroid , and they manage to neutralise it at the last minute without anyone else on earth being any the wiser… yet that could still be classed as a ‘disaster movie’

[Trevor]

Poseidon (2006)

so there was a remake / sequel... not sure if that's what Trev was referring to. doesn't sound very good anyway from the critical response (but whadda the critics knoe?)

My bad, I misread the title and didn't see that it was from a specific period. Beyond the Poseidon Adventure was a really bad movie in which Sir Michael Caine kept calling Sally Field "Monkey" 😳😳

[zombie no.one]

Not seen that sequel, but I know it occupies some ‘worst ever’ lists…

N fact I only saw the original POSEIDON ADVENTURE for the first time last year. Found it very creaky going but the capsizing scene was really well done

[M.10rda]

I suppose the original POSEIDON does depend on a certain nostalgia factor... the FX aren't much by modern standards. Still Hackman and Borgnine soaking wet and shouting at each other just delivers those nice Saturday afternoon TV matinee childhood vibes...