The Day After the Movie Before

Taking a break a few days ago, I caught a few minutes of the broadcast of The Day After Tomorrow. Leaving aside the debatable scientific allegations for a moment, I was struck by two things:

(1) Good grief, the acting was awful. Did anybody actually want to be in this picture? Did they all work for free or something? I know Dennis Quaid isn't exactly Mr. Kinetic Energy, but a little bit of enthusiasm in his role might have been called for.

(2) I wonder if the filmmakers chose the title to intentionally follow 1983's The Day After. After all, the fear of nuclear holocaust in the 1980's has been succeeded by the perceived threat of global climate self-immolation in the 2000's. I saw The Day After in 1983, and saw it again (or at least enough of it) a few years ago to find its premises and prognostications almost laughable. One has to wonder if we'll see The Day After Tomorrow twenty years hence an crack a similarly wry smile when we realize that all this "global warming" nonsense was exactly that. I guess we'll find out one way or another...