Product Description
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From the mega-hitmakers who produced and directed THE ROCK and
PEARL HARBOR comes ARMAGEDDON. And now, this mind-blowing
action-adventure explodes on Blu-ray(TM) for the first time ever!
Bruce Willis (SURROGATES, SIN CITY) and Academy Award(R) winners
Ben Affleck (1997, Best Original Screenplay, GOOD WILL HUNTING)
and Billy Bob Thornton (1996, Best Adapted Screenplay, SLING
BLADE) head an all-star cast that includes Liv Tyler (THE LORD OF
THE RINGS trilogy), Steve Buscemi (CON AIR) and Will Patton (GONE
IN 60 SECONDS). When NASA's director (Thornton) realizes the
Earth has 18 days before it's destroyed by a meteor the size of
Texas, he has only one option: land a ragtag team of roughneck
oil drillers on the asteroid and drop a nuke into its core. With
spectacular special effects, laugh-out-loud humor, a riveting
story and a rockin' soundtrack featuring Aerosmith and Bon Jovi,
this adrenaline-pumping thrill ride now boasts the staggeringly
intense picture and incomparable theater-quality sound of Blu-ray
High Definition.
.com
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The latest testosterone-saturated blow-'em-up from producer
Jerry Bruckheimer and director Michael Bay (The Rock, Bad Boys)
continues Hollywood's millennium-fueled fascination with the
destruction of our planet. There's no arguing that the successful
duo understands what mainstream American audiences want in their
blockbuster movies--loads of loud, eye-popping special effects,
rapid- fire pacing, and patriotic waving. Bay's
protagonists--the eight crude, lewd, oversexed (but lovable, of
course) 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 fetishizing 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 tries to lure the art-house crowd, raiding the local
indie acting stable and populating the film with guys like Steve
Buscemi, Billy Bob Thornton, Owen Wilson, and Michael Duncan, all
adding needed touches of humor 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 females--four if you count the
meteor, who's constantly referred to as a "bitch that needs
drillin'," but she's a hell of a lot more developed and
unpredictable than 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