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Why would Criterion do a special edition for Armageddon? I really don’t know. The only explanation for this is that it brought in enough money for the mouse house to bribe somebody over at Criterion. All kidding aside, Criterion usually only deals with “classics” and this movie falls a bit short of that. So without further ado –

The Movie:

An asteroid is headed toward the Earth. If it hits we all die. NASA sends up, I shit you not, oil rig workers to drill into the asteroid and blow it up from the inside. That’s about it. There's not much to the movie. For your cast you got Bruce Willis as the leader of the oil rig guys, Ben Affleck as the eye candy for the girls, Liv Tyler as the eye candy for the guys, Billy Bob Thornton as the NASA guy who let the fate of the world in their hands, Steve Buscemi as the horny guy, then you throw in a few more people and a Russian cosmonaut and you have a pretty outstanding ensemble cast.

Before you watch this movie make sure that you check your intelligence at the door. Now don’t get me wrong the movie is a fun, exciting movie. Its worth the money to buy the DVD and watch when you have some people over or just don’t want to think for about 2 1/2 hours. But the suspension of disbelief with this movie is high to say the least. Hell, in some instances the WWF is more believable. Some times it gets a bit cheesy but that’s about it for the bad. The good is the acting; the special effects are great, lots of action and explosions. This was that summer’s big summer blockbuster popcorn flick like ID4, Mummy Returns, etc. It’s a fun ride and worth catching.

The Video, Audio, Goodies:

Video quality is good, but not up to Criterion standards. I expected more from them. It’s non-anamorphic which is a bad thing if you have a widescreen TV, I don’t but I’ve seen non-anamorphic movies on a widescreen TV and it’s not pretty.

The audio rocks. Everything, and I do mean everything is loud and crisp. This is one of those movies you should use to show off your home theatre.

The Extras is where Criterion made this worth getting. You’ve got 2 commentary tracks, one with the director and some of the cast. Ben Affleck pretty much sits there and makes fun of the movie and its almost more entertaining than the flick itself. He also does a “Sling Blade” impression almost every time Thornton is on screen. Funny, funny stuff.

The other commentary is a technical one with a NASA guy, the cinematographer, and an asteroid consultant. Way too technical for such an unbelievable movie. There is a storyboard section, the Aerosmith music video, multiple SFX documentaries, gag reel, outtakes, deleted scenes, trailers, TV spots, and even interviews with Aerosmith. In short there is a lot of extras. It makes you realize that even if you don’t like the movie; you can’t help but appreciate the effort that went into making it.

If you liked the movie get this disc now. If you didn’t care for it or wouldn’t mind seeing it again, then rent it just to see the extras.

I give the movie a 7/10, the Criterion DVD a 9/10, mainly because of all the extras.

-Chris Talerico

talefreako@hotmail.com