( dreamworks skg ) running time : 2 hours starring robert duvall , tea leoni and elijah wood directed by mimi leder the first of the two asteroid movies coming out this year ( the second is the macho armageddon ) is actually a dull affair . elijah wood plays leo biederman , who during astronomy class discovers that a large asteroid is heading for earth . tea leoni plays a ( rather crap ) news reporter , jenny lerner , who soon discovers about this asteroid through a very long winded and boring way , and robert duvall plays the leader of a space crew , spurgeon tanner , who are planning to blow the asteroid out of the path of earth . also featuring is morgan freeman as the president , and maximilian schell and vanessa redgrave as jenny's father and mother . while many people will walk into the film expecting a big special effects fest with the asteroid blowing everything up ( as the trailers seem to promise ) , the film is actually more of a character study , if a very poor one . the main problem is that there are too many characters in the film , and not enough time to explore them all . only the space crew are given any depth , jenny lerner , leo and the president are surprisingly 2d , and we never get to know these characters . and because i couldn't care for them , i didn't really give a crap if the asteroid killed them or not . the script by bruce joel rubin and michael tolkin is horribly simple , and never really makes any interesting statements . mimi leder , the former er director and director of the average the peacemaker ( 1996 ) , again directs in a ho-hum style , and never really gets any emotion out of a scene , which is a shame . the cast are seemingly on autopilot , although tea leoni does gives a rather good performance , even if she acts a bit too dorky for her own good . she seems uncommonly stupid for a journalist . robert duvall is on autopilot with a underwritten role , he just seems to be in this film for the money . elijah wood , one of the best child actors working today , is surprisingly average , although his choice of roles lately haven't exactly been brilliant ( i . e . flipper , 1996 ) . his role is also vastly underwritten . morgan freeman , again , is utterly wasted with a ridiculously underwritten role . like duvall , he just seems to be in the film for the money . the supporting cast are all o . k , none making much of an impression . ok , so deep impact may have messed up character wise , but surely the special effects are good ? well , yes and no . although the special effects should be impressive , with a massive tidal wave destroying new york , the special effects look like , well , special effects . sadly , the waves looks like it's been drawn on computer , and doesn't look too good at all . surprising really , when the effects are done by industrial light & magic , who did the effects for the lost world and twister . in the end , deep impact is a wasted opportunity . what could of been a moving movie with good effects turns out to be a dud in both characters and effects . the 2 hours the film had could have been used to much greater effect . once again , dreamworks has churned out another average movie . let's hope armageddon is a bit better . overall rating= * * out of * * * * * review by david wilcock web space provided by geocities david wilcock <a href= " mailto : david . wilcock@btinternet . com " >david . wilcock@btinternet . com</a> visit the wilcock movie page ! <a href= " http : //wilcockmovie . home . ml . org " >http : //wilcockmovie . home . ml . org</a> -or- <a href= " http : //www . geocities . com/hollywood/9061 " >http : //www . geocities . com/hollywood/9061</a> recieve wilcock movie page reviews via e-mail send a blank e-mail to <a href= " mailto : wmp-reviews-subscribe@makelist . com " >wmp-reviews-subscribe@makelist . com</a> to join the mailing list ! 
