It's Disaster day for Junesploitation! This is not my favorite genre. JB is your man for the disaster movies of the '70s, when these things were at their peak. Want to talk Daylight? Talk to Adam Riske. But just because there aren't a ton that I enjoy doesn't mean that there aren't any I enjoy. Here are 10 I dig.
1. Independence Day (1996, dir. Roland Emmerich)
A very traditional 1970s disaster movie that just happens to use aliens as the disaster. This is not the last time aliens will appear on this list, which means either a) I have a soft spot for sci-fi disaster movies or that b) aliens became an acceptable substitute for more natural disasters beginning in the 1990s. I know a lot of people really hate this movie but I just can't get on board with that. Any film that casts my beloved Bill Pullman as the President of the United States will forever have my sword.
2. Hard Rain (1998, dir. Mikael Salomon)
Originally titled The Flood, 1998's Hard Rain cleverly mashes up a 1970s disaster movie with a heist movie and a western. Christian Slater drives an armored car that gets held up as a small town succumbs to some HARD RAIN. A better-than-average cast for this sort of thing coupled with clean '90s direction make this a small gem in the pantheon of latter-period disaster movies. Nowadays it would go right to streaming. Hard Rain is further proof of Adam Riske's theory that no movie centered on an armored car is bad.
3. The Towering Inferno (1974, dir. John Guillermin)
The only traditional disaster movie from the genre's Golden Age to appear on this list. John Guillermin knows how to stage huge-scale action like this (he went on to direct the 1976 King Kong remake, a movie I like) and it's hard not to enjoy a movie in which Paul Newman and Steve McQueen share the screen. Also I like stuff being set on fire.
4. Armageddon (1998, dir. Michael Bay)
Another movie that gets a ton of hate and I get it. This is a lot of Michael Bay bullshit and there are a lot of cringe-worthy moments ("HARRY I LOVE YOU!"), but as I've said before and will say again, Armageddon is functional in a way that summer blockbusters rarely are anymore. Shit gets blown up. There are actual characters played by actors we like to see show up in movies. The world is at stake. This played the end of F This Movie Fest two years ago and that viewing proved to me that it still works. Sue me, I like it.
5. War of the Worlds (2005, dir. Steven Spielberg)
Another alien invasion movie that uses the language of a disaster film, particularly in its first half when everything descends into pure chaos and destruction. The reception was mixed when this came out; I feel like it will be getting some reevaluations in the coming weeks with Spielberg doing aliens again in Disclosure Day this summer. Of all the post-9/11 movies about 9/11, this remains one of the best.
6. Knowing (2009, dir. Alex Proyas)
Nicolas Cage plays a guy who unlocks a code and figures out the world is ending. A massive $200 million success at the time of its release, it's a movie no one has seen or talks about despite being pretty good. Obviously I love the Cage of it all, but Proyas really directs the shit out of the disaster sequences and the movie isn't afraid to go places other movies probably wouldn't go. Give it a chance if you've skipped it until now.
7. Cloverfield (2008, dir. Matt Reeves)
Ok, one more alien disaster movie. Cloverfield is clever in that it introduces the found footage aesthetic into the disaster movie. The novelty makes a huge difference, because there aren't really characters worth getting to know or care about. Don't get me wrong -- I still like the movie, but it's in spite of its flaws.
8. Titanic (1997, dir. James Cameron)
Another unpopular opinion: I like Titanic. I know it sounds stupid to say it's unpopular to like one of the most successful movies of all time and a Best Picture Oscar winner, but all the cool kids either turned on Titanic or, more accurately, never liked it in the first place. James Cameron combines the disaster movie with an old-fashioned romance, putting many human faces on the lives lost when Titanic sank. He knows how movies work.
9. Contagion (2011, dir. Steven Soderbergh)
I like Steven Soderbergh's outbreak movie but I might never watch it again. I wasn't sure I would ever watch it again even before COVID but now there's no way I can ever watch it again. It's a different kind of disaster movie, but a disaster nonetheless.
10. Melancholia (2011, dir. Lars von Trier)
No movie makes me feel better about depression than Lars Von Trier's Melancholia, a gorgeous (and often funny) mediation on what it feels like to live with potentially crippling mental illness that somehow prepares you for the end of the world. This is a disaster movie for the arthouse crowd, featuring a characteristically great Kirsten Dunst performance and some breathtaking photography. If a planet ever crashes into ours, I hope it looks this good.
the inclusion of aliens in the disaster movie genre is outrageous
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