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Amazon.co.uk Review
This 1998 testosterone-saturated blow-'em-up from producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Michael Bay (The Rock, Bad Boys) continued Hollywood's millennium-fuelled fascination with the destruction of our planet. There's no arguing that the successful duo understand what mainstream audiences want in their blockbuster movies--loads of loud, eye-popping special effects, rapid-fire pacing, and patriotic flag waving. Bay's protagonists--the eight crude, lewd, oversexed (but, of course, lovable) oil drillers summoned to save the world from a Texas-sized meteor hurling toward the earth--are not flawless heroes, but common men with whom all can relate. In this huge Western-in-space soap opera, they're American cowboys turned astronauts. Sci-fi buffs will appreciate Bay's fetishising of technology, even though it's apparent he doesn't understand it as anything more than flashing lights and shiny gadgets. Smartly, the duo also try to lure the art-house crowd, raiding the local indie acting stable to populate the film with guys like Steve Buscemi, Billy Bob Thornton, Owen Wilson, and Michael Duncan, all adding needed touches of humour and charisma.

When Bay applies his sledgehammer aesthetics to the action portions of the film, it's mindless fun; it's only when Armageddon tackles humanity that it becomes truly offensive. Not since Mississippi Burning have racial and cultural stereotypes been substituted for characters so blatantly--African Americans, Japanese, Chinese, Scottish, Samoans, Muslims, French ... if it's not white and American, Bay simplifies it. Or, make that white male America; the film features only three notable female characters--four if you count the meteor, who's constantly referred to as a "bitch that needs drillin'". Sadly, she's a hell of a lot more developed and unpredictable than all the other women characters combined. Sure, Bay's film creates some tension and contains some visceral moments, but if he can't create any redeemable characters outside of those in space, what's the point of saving the planet? --Dave McCoy

DVD Description
DVD Special Features:

Disc 1:
Audio Commentary featuring Michael Bay, Jerry Bruckheimer, Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck
Audio Commentary featuring Cinematographer, NASA Consultant, and Asteroid Consultant

Disc 2:
Deleted Scenes
Storyboard and Production Design Drawings
Analysis of Special Effects
Featurette by Production Designer
Theatrical Trailer
Aerosmith Music Video

Languages: English Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: English, English for the hearing impaired
Widescreen format 2.35:1

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62 Reviews 5 star:  (31) 4 star:  (12) 3 star:  (4) 2 star:  (5) 1 star:  (10)           Average Customer Review (62 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   11 of 14 people found the following review helpful: disengage brain and enjoy!, 7 Jul 2007 By  Deborah MacGillivray "Author," (US & UK) - See all my reviews          This is one of those movies so bad it's great! OTT? Yep. Realistic...snort...this is Hollywood, mind. You want real? Watch Discovery Channel. I think, this movie makes it clear it's out for fun and to pull the heartstrings. A Doggie attacking Godzilla? Fix my parking tickets? Stay in the White House for six months? Tell them who shot Kennedy? If you are wanting realism, you are barking up the wrong tree. Obviously, the movie doesn't take itself serious, but is out for sheer fun. Pop a bowl of popcorn, turn up the home movie system and kick back. It's funny, it's silly, it's corny, it defies all logic at times, but it's damn fun entertainment. I think sometimes we forget a movie is just a movie - meant to give us an escape for 2 hours or so. I laughed, sniggered, and like a sap, cried at this fluff. Sometimes you just need B-movies to get away from it all for a while. So this one earns a place on my keeper shelf next to The Queen of Outer Space, Forbidden Planet, The Thing (both versions) and The Day the Earth Stood Still. Buscemi is worth the ticket alone!!  Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? (Report this)   18 of 24 people found the following review helpful: Powerful, earth shattering movie, 22 Aug 2002 By  "litelistener" - See all my reviews    In my opinion, one of the best to-be disaster movies ever made. Bruce Willis stars as Harry Stamper, the best deep core driller. Billy Bob Thornton works at NASA. What evolves is a threat for existence to cease on earth. An asteroid the size of Texas is coming at over 20000 miles an hour towards earth. Bruce Willis gives a superb performance in his role as an arrogant driller, who gets a team of his men to save the planet. NASA of course think these men are the biggest mistake in the history of spaceflight. They are sent to drill in the asteroid and drop a nuke. The teams make it to the asteroid but turbulence and rock storms plague their mission. The teams have so much to go through, very gripping to watch their struggle to drill into the asteroid. I love this movie because the soundtracks are so powerful in a way that you feel that the world is really coming to an end in your living room. The fact that makes this movie so amazing is that in 2019 an asteroid is set to hit earth. I would say this film would be scary to know that it will happen. But for the sake of Hollywood, it’s worth a view. Excellent special effects and a huge blockbuster hit (1998 Box office charts)  Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? (Report this)   13 of 18 people found the following review helpful: Hollywood at its best/worst, 25 Aug 2006 By  JW83 (Bath, UK) - See all my reviews Watched this on TV last night and feel compelled to write a review. I remember seeing this in the cinema as an impressionable teenager and thinking it was the greatest thing ever; explosions, tough nut men and funky gadgetry. Having watched it again now, I can't believe how different my opinion is. This is the most blatant piece of American propaganda ever. A huge comet is ploughing towards Earth, and who notices it first? The Americans. Throughout the course of the film, you get the impression that the rest of the world is still living in a cave somewhere, scratching its collective head and banging a bone against a stone. Of course, only America knows that this threat is coming. Of course, only America has the technology to stop it. Of course, no other countries in the world have the slightest inkling that anything bad is happening, or come up with their own ways of stopping it, or even run away (non-specific Asian man sits eating noodles by a river, then BANG! Bye-bye non specific Asian city. Innocent looking French kids are playing around on a Citroen 2CV, probably having just finished their lunch of onions and frogs legs, when BANG! Paris gets wiped out. We then get a lovely sweeping shot of decimated Paris, because apparently the dust and debris from a comet impact settles immediately). The only other country that is credited as being capable of putting a man in space is Russia, but whilst Team America are whizzing around in their new, shiny shuttles (named "liberty" and "freedom", or some other patriotic nonsense) all Russia can muster is some drunken, insane Cosmonauts aboard their creaky, decrepit space station, which just so happens to explode as soon as America boards it. Goes to show just how much of the space race resentment is still held by America. I won't even get started on the script; it's just dire beyond belief ("I've got just 5 words for you - Damn glad ta see ya boy!"). Some of the set pieces are well staged and look very pretty, but I can't stand films were half the characters are brought in just so they can be killed. By the time they've landed on the comet, I frankly couldn't keep up with who's dying and who's alive, and quickly got beyond the point of caring. One point of unintended humour was the fact that the guys at mission control got so distraug