IT’S CLOSER THAN YOU THINK.

When NASA scientists discover that a gigantic asteroid is headed for Earth, they come up with a plan to have oil drillers insert a nuclear bomb into it. If Michael Bay took it to eleven with The Rock (1996), he managed to find an additional level of volume with this profoundly stupid disaster movie that shared a theme with the same year’s Deep Impact. Way overlong, with a climax on top of the asteroid that goes on forever. A grating sense of humor doesn’t help, but Bay still knows how to conjure tremendous energy.

1998-U.S. 151 min. Color. Widescreen. Directed by Michael Bay. Screenplay: Jonathan Hensleigh, J.J. Abrams. Song: ”I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” (Diane Warren). Cast: Bruce Willis (Harry S. Stamper), Billy Bob Thornton (Dan Truman), Liv Tyler (Grace Stamper), Ben Affleck (A.J. Frost), Will Patton, Peter Stormare… Steve Buscemi, Owen Wilson, William Fichtner, Udo Kier, Michael Clarke Duncan, Jason Isaacs. Narrated by Charlton Heston.  

Trivia: Co-produced by Bay. Tony Gilroy contributed to the script.