It had a Deep Impact on Me

 Me and the missus watched Deep Impact last night. After trying a couple of Harlan Coben crime series' intros, which the Missus didn't like, I opted for pure nostalgia.

I have to say I love Deep Impact. There's no point denying it. That Wolf- Biedermann comet takes me right back to the 1990's. We were in our thirties, the prime of our lives, a young family and our daughter, just a kid, lived at home with us.

Yep, Deep Impact is memory lane, wending it's way back to that nostalgic sunlit valley where our youth lingers.

Those rose-tinted glasses are powerful things. Seductive, alluring and the films we saw back then are windows into that distant land.

Deep Impact has a surprisingly low score on Rotten Tomatoes. 38% I think. I would have have scored much higher but then again nostalgia would drive my vote.

The central character, a TV reporter played by Tia Leoni, is the perfect neutral foul for the apocalyptic action around her. I read that Hollywood insiders think she never lived up to her potential as an actress. I saw her in a Jurassic Park film I'm sure. It's true, she sort of disappeared. A shame. Like everyone in Deep Impact, she's getting on in years now.

Robert Duvall, one of the films elders, is 93 these days! All that olive oil and good vino in three Godfather films paid off! His character in Impact, Spurgeon Tanner, the aging astronaut, is played in characteristically reserved Duvall fashion, which I really like. His clean-cut old-timer says one of its best short lines when sees the comet close-up for the first time,

'Mary Mother of God!'

Or something similar. 

Captain Tanner goes on to lead his young crew into the film's heroic heart with an act of selfless bravery as they head into the comet and oblivion. Humanity is saved by altruism. Has that idea had it's day in Hollywood?

My favourite line in Deep Impact, from an albeit short  role, comes from Dr. Wolf at the start of the movie. He's just received Leo Biedermann's astronomy query and is reading through it whilst eating a particularly floppy slice of pizza at the observatory. Punching in the coordinates, he pizza- mutters,

'Well, hi there little fella, where are you going in such a hurry?'

A moment later, staring at the screen, Dr.Wolf drops his food and the rest, as they say, is a disaster film.

But boy I still so want a slice of that pizza! 

Do you have a movie you just love readers?