By Chris Snellgrove | Published
With the holidays upon us, many families are trying to find the best movies to watch together, but that can be difficult when more interesting things hit theaters (from Nosferatu to Baby girl) is not suitable for children at all. But did you know that a great '90s blockbuster is just a click away, and one that the whole family can enjoy without leaving the house? Armageddon it's now on Disney+, and now is the perfect time to revisit this timeless tale of hard-hitting heroes destined to save the world from an alien threat that threatens to wipe out the human race.
The Plan of Armageddon
In ArmageddonNASA finds that an asteroid will hit the planet in 18 days and make humanity go the way of the dinosaurs. They come up with a plan to drill a hole in space and drop a nuke, but this means finding drilling experts in a short amount of time. Until now, NASA is hiring a veteran oil driller and his team of unqualified workers, and whether they can work in space like on Earth will determine if they have a planet to return to when their work is done.
The layout of Armageddon it's delightfully crazy, but it's supported by some great actors, including Billy Bob Thornton as a bemused NASA executive in charge of recruiting an oil group led by Bruce Willis. The team's best employee is played by Ben Affleck, who tends to keep his eye on the boss's wife (played by Liv Tyler) rather than work. As for the work, its success or failure rests on the talent of the oddball crew, whose cast is brought to life by such veterans of the oddball genre as Steve Buscemi and Owen Wilson.
Big Box Office But Slammed By Critics
When Armageddon premiered in 1998, it became a hit with audiences thanks to everything from its star-studded cast to Aerosmith's hit song and music video. Against a budget of $140 million, this film brought in a stellar (or maybe that should be interstellar?) $553.7 million. Surprisingly, this film never got a sequel, but its cultural impact continues to be felt to this day.
Sadly, Armageddon did not go down well with critics: on Rotten Tomatoes, the movie has a low critical rating of 43 percent. Often, critics complained that the film's clever presentation was let down by a very dumb script. However, the audience doesn't care, either Armageddon has a very high 73 percent audience rating on Popcornmeter.
The critics are not wrong that this is the kind of script you need to turn off your brain to enjoy. If you can do that, though, you will find out Armageddon the '90s heir to all those “snobs vs. slobs” movies of the '80s. Now, the snobs run the show but eventually they have to ask the slobs for help without saving the world, and the resulting film is a lot of fun to watch.
Plus, the huge talent bench means you can always count on a veteran actor to steal the show with a combination of dumb dialogue and killer line delivery. There's also a nice touch of humor that helps give this disaster movie just enough off-kilter laughs to avoid being deadly serious. Armageddon and it has a little bit of a moving romance, and the sticky sweetness of these romantic characters goes well with the salty sarcasm of … well, pretty much everyone.
Will you find Armageddon an out-of-this-world hit like we did, or will you want an asteroid to wipe us all out as the credits roll? You'll never know until you stream it on Disney+. Just be warned: you'll have a certain Aerosmith song stuck in your head long after this one is over.
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