Blu-Ray Review: Armageddon

Armageddon was the top grossing worldwide movie of 1998 and the movie to see that summer. The film came from producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Michael Bay, and stars Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck, Billy Bob Thornton, and Liv Tyler.

Armageddon sees an asteroid the size of Texas heading towards Earth and will destroy all life if it isn’t stopped. So does NASA get the top specialists to man a mission to land on the asteroid; set up several nukes to detonate that will cause the asteroid to break up into smaller pieces that will then burn up once they hit the atmosphere? No, they get a rag-tag bunch of oil drillers, led by Harry Stamper (Bruce Willis) which includes (A.J. Frost) Ben Affleck, Owen Wilson, Steve Buscemi, and Michael Clarke Duncan. The cast also includes Billy Bob Thornton as head of NASA Dan Trumanis and Liv Tyler is Harry’s daughter Grace who has been sleeping with A.J. This causes Harry to go through the roof as he wants a better life for Grace and for her not to end up with someone that Harry sees as a younger version of himself.

The movie was (and still is) a fun popcorn movie; no, not everything makes sense, but it has the explosions and action that we’ve come to expect from a Bruckheimer/Bay production.  Willis is great as the grizzled driller who wants a better life for his daughter; Affleck is the brash upstart who Harry likes but not as a partner for his daughter; Tyler plays the rebellious daughter very well (possibly drawing from real life situations with her dad Aerosmith lead singer Steve Tyler). The other drillers all are quirky, especially Buscemi as Rockhound who owes the mob a good deal of money and sees this mission as a way of getting out of repaying the debt.

Article Author: Blake Matthews

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