Armageddon *** (1998, Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler) – Classic Movie Review 1098

In a plot very similar to the simultaneously made Deep Impact, oil-riggers Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck and co are recruited to head for space to drill a hole and place a bomb to explode a meteor heading for Earth. NASA has discovered that an asteroid the size of Texas is going to hit the planet in under a month, so it puts its faith and the future of the world in the hands of a team of misfit deep-core drillers.

Producer-director Michael Bay’s silly 1998 action-adventure disaster movie is without a single brain cell in its head, but it’s quite fun and exciting, even if very over-long and ludicrous. An unconvincing, uncomfortable-seeming Affleck is surprisingly stiff and iffy as an action hero, romancing his boss Willis’s daughter Tyler. He seems to need more thoughtful material. But Willis, in his heroic element, is excellent, though that didn’t stop him winning the Worst Actor Razzie award.

Snotty critics at the preview theatre said: ‘A’m-a-geddon outta here.’ Well, they would, wouldn’t they?

It helps a lot that a very fine cast is assembled: Liv Tyler, Billy Bob Thornton, Will Patton, Peter Stormare, Keith David, Steve Buscemi, Michael Clarke Duncan, Ken Hudson Campbell, Owen Wilson, William Fichtner, Udo Kier, Jessica Steen, Chris Ellis and Jason Isaacs. Charlton Heston provides the voiceover.

It cost an astounding $140million, but came home safely with a more than $200million gross at the US box office alone, with a worldwide total of $553million.

The screenplay is by Jonathan Hensleigh based on a story by Robert Roy Pool.

The original US cinema release version is 144 minutes and the Director’s Cut version runs 153 minutes.

At the Cannes Film Festival, Willis walked out of the press conference after the film’s bad reception and what he saw as a hostile question from a journalist. With its lack of artistic pretentions, you could say it was an odd film to present at the Cannes Film Festival anyway.

The film was nominated for four Oscars at the 1999 Academy Awards: Best Sound (Kevin O’Connell, Greg P. Russell and Keith A. Wester), Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Effects Editing, and Best Original Song (I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing performed by Aerosmith).

It was also nominated for seven Razzie Awards: Worst Actor (Bruce Willis), Worst Picture, Worst Director, Worst Screenplay, Worst Supporting Actress (Liv Tyler), Worst Screen Couple (Tyler and Ben Affleck) and Worst Original Song. But only Bruce Willis won, as the Worst Actor award for Armageddon, Mercury Rising and The Siege.

The film is on the list of Roger Ebert’s most hated films: ‘The movie is an assault on the eyes, the ears, the brain, common sense and the human desire to be entertained.’

According to the Book of Revelation in Christian mythology, Armageddon (from Ancient Greek Ἁρμαγεδών Harmagedōn and Late Latin Armagedōn) will be the site of gathering of armies for a battle during the end times, variously interpreted as either a literal or symbolic location. The term is also used of course in a generic sense to refer to any end of the world scenario.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1098

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