The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1962)
IMDB meta-data is 1 hour and 39 minutes, rated 7.2 by 5127 cinematizens.
Genre: SyFy; Species: End of the world.
Verdict: Boring.
Yep, this movie manages to make the end of the world boring. This audience of one could not wait for it to end.
Hero spends most of the film feeling sorry for himself: Whingeing, whining, whimpering about the cruel world that has let him down. He is tall, good looking, young, has a good job, and lives in London; oh, such misery! The end of it all is just another irritation aimed squarely at him personally. (What an irksome prat!) Re-reading that reminded me of that US Supreme Court nominee who did all of that while tearfully declaring himself an alcoholic to boot, and secured his appointment, though he subsequently looked overqualified when the next nominee had never tried a case, argued an appeal, and only been in a court room three times. Yep, appointment made.
The portrayal of a parched and drought stricken London is quite well done, with the yellow cast at the beginning and the ending was very effective. This is climate change over night and more…! Also I enjoyed the backstage look at a great metropolitan newspaper at work with it fire-breathing presses, and the editor’s absolute insistence on facts. Rumpole is superb as the science reporter and so are all of the supporting cast, including Michael Caine in one shot. The same cannot be said for the two leads whose parts are, to be kind, underwritten and overplayed.
Then there is that sanctimonious soliloquy at the end that sounds like a very earnest high school student’s essay, or innumerable juvenile posts on Facebook.
The reviews I had read were positive: ‘one of the finest British science fiction films ever made, it’s also a great newspaper film which ranks with The Front Page and Ace In the Hole.’ See? Though the newspaper workings were certainly well done. True. But in aid of what plot?
What can I say? We must have seen different movies.