U.S. President (Morgan Freeman) announces that a 7-mile-long hunk of rock is on a collision course with Earth, and much of the last-act destruction we see is based in New York City. A great wave not only takes down the Statue of Liberty, it decapitates her! Director Mimi Leder and screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin are very big on tearful goodbyes: that "let's keep a stiff upper-lip" mentality which allows couples (married or otherwise) to stare lovingly into each other's eyes, whispering dedications as death looms above. LeeLee Sobieski's entire role is based on a series of these teary farewells; she's so dead-set on staying with her doomed parents that her character takes on a suicidal edge. Yes, she's in denial, but her suffering seems to go on forever, and by the end a frustrated viewer could possibly be excused for screaming, "Stop whimpering and move!" How are the effects? Very good when they finally arrive (about four minutes before the film wraps up). Some of the incidentals during the final devastation are suspect, such as a two-second shot of an elderly man getting hit with the wave from behind while he's sitting outside reading the paper (is he in denial too?). I would think that the lottery-aspect of the plot (wherein people are picked at random to live underground for 2 years) would be more exciting than reporter Tea Leoni sniffing out a juicy story. The movie seems to start at much too early a point, with introductions to the characters and to an asteroid exploration team that just chews up time on the clock. There's also the time-worn idea about what books should survive (not "Huckleberry Finn" and "Moby Dick" again! Hasn't Rubin's thought process matured beyond 1960?). Naturally, it's we Americans who suffer on the screen. There's a tidbit late in the film wherein Freeman talks about Europe and Africa suffering from the meteor's destruction, but it's shucked off as basic info. The filmmakers don't care about the lost lives and homeless injured of other continents, they have their own agenda. By letting the Americans scream and cry and crawl through the debris, they can also let them triumph over all this tragedy--enough for a feel-good finish. But if Bruce Rubin thinks these stock characters are the most powerful representation of America's suffering own, then it is he who has been hit with a 7-mile-long hunk of rock. *1/2 from ****