Mega-budget, special-effects packed action adventure sci-fi epic directed by Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, Stargate), in which global warming and the greenhouse effect have given rise to abrupt climate change - with cataclysmic consequences for the entire planet. Dennis Quaid stars as Professor Adrian Hall, a paleoclimatologist who is fighting to save the world from a second ice age and all the natural disasters that herald it: floods, hurricanes, earthquakes and tornadoes to name but a few. But first, Hall must complete a more personal mission: his son Sam (Jake Gyllenhaal) is stranded in New York City where he was taking part in a school competition when the catastrophe began. As well as facing a perpetual onslaught of natural catastrophes, Hall must fight his way through the mass of humanity fleeing south into warmer climes... but can he reach his son in time to save him?

Supreme silliness doesn't stop The Day After Tomorrow from being lots of fun for connoisseurs of epic-scale disaster flicks. After the blockbuster profits of Independence Day and Godzilla, you can't blame director Roland Emmerich for using global warming as a politically correct excuse for destroying most of the northern hemisphere. Like most of Emmerich's films, this one emphasises special effects over such lesser priorities as well-drawn characters and plausible plotting, and his dialogue (cowritten by Jeffrey Nachmanoff) is so laughably trite that it could be entirely eliminated without harming the movie. It's the spectacle that's important here, not the lame, recycled plot about father and son (Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal) who endure an end-of-the-world scenario caused by the effects of global warming. So sit back, relax and enjoy the awesome visions of tornado-ravaged Los Angeles, blizzards in New Delhi, Japan pummelled by grapefruit-sized hailstones, and Manhattan flooded by swelling oceans and then frozen by the onset of a modern ice age. It's all wildly impressive, and Emmerich obviously doesn't care if the science is flimsy, so why should you?