The Day After Tomorrow (12)

A giant tidal wave swamps Manhattan. Britain becomes a frozen wasteland. Tornadoes strike Hollywood. Welcome to climate change and eco-awareness, Roland Emmerich-style. Letting a freshly discovered environmental concern deflect worries that you couldn't cinematically demolish cities in the wake of 11 September, the Independence Day director returns to wreak havoc once more.

Whether turning New York into a giant McFlurry or sending Americans fleeing across the Mexican border, the film's never less than thrilling when it's throwing money at the FX teams to endanger large casts of real and digital extras. And while the power of the set-pieces is diminished on all but the most spec-heavy tellies, there's still plenty of fun to be had.

But the reduction in size does make you notice the cast a little more. Predictably, decent characters and subtle plotting are frozen out, despite the German director's early claims that he'd hired co-writer Jeffrey Nachmanoff to punch up the human content. The result? Quaid, Gyllenhaal and co left high and dry as they try to make cliché-spewing sound like an attractive alternative to acting. They do their best with what's on offer, but let's face it: this is world-in-peril blockbuster land. Abandon script all those who enter here.

Very lightweight, then. But thanks to all those gobsmacking mother-nature-gone-nuts moments, it's chewy, sugar-rush-inducing candyfloss.

DVD Extras:

As is becoming standard for Fox's big releases, we're offered the choice between an extras-laden two-disc set or a budget one-disc (priced at £15.99) that features only a pair of commentaries. One has Emmerich and producer Mark Gordon; the other boasts Nachmanoff, cinematographer Ueli Steiger, editor David Brenner and production designer Barry Chusid. Neither gab-fest was available at press time but, given Emmerich and Gordon's chatty relationship, you can expect that to be the standout choice, with the technical bods sticking to drier production detail. A 28-minute selection of deleted scenes, meanwhile, offers glimpses at excised subplots (including some sort of dodgy share-trading scheme that gets derailed by the coming superstorm) and character moments that were - imagine our surprise! - cut for time. A commentary from Emmerich and Gordon explains the reasons for the snips and includes an interesting discussion on why a whole chunk was removed from the movie midway through the shoot.Top of the docs though is Eye Of The Storm, which traces the film's development and production. Most of it is a pretty standard Making Of, but it's still a thorough job. Among the highlights are the production team recalling their reactions to the first script draft (mostly variations on "they want to do what?"), and the revelation that the New Delhi sequences were shot in Montreal, just down the road from the New York soundstage.Refreshingly, it's not all just tons of press-kit praise (though there is lots of that, particularly from the actors). Apparently, Emmerich caused plenty of consternation by tearing pages out of the script and ditching those aforementioned subplots, which probably explains the messy, haphazard narrative. There are also tantalising insights into what happens when such changes are forced on a crew, the documentary team allowed access to a hushed, tense conversation about killing off the film's President (Perry King).Fans of the Discovery Channel will enjoy The Force Of Destiny, a huge documentary loaded with warnings for the planet's future. Then it's on to seen-it-all-before territory, with an "interactive audio experience" that lets you strip a scene down. Fun for all of 10 seconds...

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