Armageddon 1998, Rated PG-13 Buena Vista Home Entertainment

Buy it from

Starring Bruce Willis, et al. Released to DVD on November 13, 1998.

And that's pretty much the plot of Armageddon as well. Willis stars as Harry Stamper, the world's foremost expert on deep core drilling. When NASA learns that an asteroid the size of Texas is on a collision course with Earth, they have no choice but to recruit Willis' team of renegade oil drillers that includes Ben "Hot Ass" Affleck, Steve Buscemi, Will Patton, and Owen Wilson among others. The plan is for the drilling team to fly to the face of said asteroid and blow the damn thing up with a nuclear bomb the size of Rhode Island. Then Willis and company proceed to do just that.

Prior to screening Armageddon, I wasn't particularly enthusiastic about screening this picture. Bruckheimer/Bay productions tend to be exercises in loud, quickly edited, action films dripping with testosteroneÖ and while Armageddon doesn't necessarily escape these confines, Bruckheimer and Bay chose to include a sense of urgency, tension, and humor in this movie that didn't appear in their previous films, Bad Boys and The Rock. There is a good-natured rivalry between Willis and Affleck stemming from Affleck's hobby of choice, parading animal crackers around on Willis' daughter's (Liv Tyler) chest, but it is Buscemi who, again, steals the picture.

Buscemi has been criticized for his performance in Armageddon for merely being comic window dressing, existing only to deliver one-liners and to supply humorous observations to situations wrought with pressure. When you get right down to it, this seems a fairly accurate description of his character and performance, but my take on it was as follows: who the hell cares, the man is funny. Buscemi's role of Rock Hound in Armageddon is quite removed from the quality of his other performances in independent features ranging from Trees Lounge to Reservoir Dogs, but this isn't to suggest that Buscemi fails in any capacity. It was his off-beat remarks and untimely loss of his mental capacities that gave Armageddon just the right amount of humor to balance nicely with the action Willis brought to the film and the romantic effervescence that 'Hot Ass' exudes.

Like Lethal Weapon 4, I found Armageddon to be immensely entertaining. While the plot wouldn't appear realistic standing side by side with the script of Lost in Space, the actors, directors, producers, and screenwriters never took themselves too seriously in the context of this film, being content at creating enjoyable on-screen action, and consciously decided not to include any forced messages about expressing love for our fellow human beings. This was the major difference between Armageddon and Deep Impact. Where Deep Impact's screenwriters Michael Tolkin and Bruce Joel Rubin chose to delve into the emotional core of the leading characters, focusing on their pain and suffering that was being caused by the approaching comet, Armageddon screenwriter Jonathon Hensleigh basically said, "screw that", and wrote a screenplay with more cartoonish characters and situations that were specifically designed to amplify the humor, suspense, and edge-of-your-loveseat terror the audience members were feeling. Investigating one's own feelings about family members and friends is a noble plot focus, but this is better showcased in movies starring Meryl Streep set in Iowa, than in a $100 million, summer blockbuster about a huge, freakin' comet heading at the Earth.

Bruckheimer and Bay hit box office gold with Bad Boys and The Rock, but entered the stratosphere with Armageddon. This cost a reported $140 million to make, but every penny of that amount can be seen on-screen. This will be the standard against which all other mega-budgeted action films will be compared for some time to come. Of the Two Big Pieces of Rock Hurdling Toward Earth Movies, see this one.