Tea Leoni, Robert Duvall, Morgan Freeman, Elijah Wood, Ron Eldard, Leelee Sobieski, Laura Innes
So this has never been done before. A comet hitting the earth, and destroying all life, just like the dinosaurs. I wonder if said dinosaurs had a president as calm and comforting and reassuring as Morgan Freeman? I doubt it.
Although a good story, with a fine plot idea, Deep Impact did have a few rough spots in it:
1)Tea Leoni's acting. I think it got a little better as the film progressed, but, it was so bad anyway that I couldn't tell. Better casting idea: William Shatner. Okay, so it wasn't *that* bad, but Leoni's acting was still shaky at best.
2)All the useless sub-plots. Jenny Lerner (Tea Leoni)'s family problems. nothing to do with the plot at all, a bulky add-on. Leo Biederman (Elijah Wood), who co-discovered the comet, and HIS family problems, and the whole story with his young wife's family as well. Both of these having little more to do with the plot other than to wrench sympathy from the audience.
3)The time-jumping. You never really know how much time the government knew about the comet, and why they kept it a secret so damn long, and why during all this time, did they only build saving space for a million people? It's very confusing at times.
Besides this, I enjoyed the movie in the end. I didn't think it was a waste of money at all. As disaster films go, this one was pretty good, and I can't wait to see Armageddon to find out what that film does with the same plot line.
TRIVIA: The people who played Jenny Lerner's parents, were Vanessa Redgrave and Maximillian Schell. Both of these actors were in 'Young Catherine: The Story of Catherine the Great' playing the Empress Elizabeth and Fredrick the Great, respectively.