Michael Moore meets Irwin Allen courtesy of "The Day After Tomorrow," a curious hybrid of sociopolitical cautionary tale and good old-fashioned disaster flick complete with state-of-the-art special effects and the kind of hokey dialogue that, for better or worse, often tends to go with the territory. While all producer Allen needed were capsized cruise ships ("The Poseidon Adventure"), flaming skyscrapers ("The Towering Inferno") and killer bees ("The Swarm") to have audiences quivering in their seats, filmmaker Roland Emmerich has upped the ante considerably, dealing with no less than an imminent deep-freeze of the entire, globally warmed planet. Ultimately, the message aspect and the human drama aspect aren't nearly as persuasive as the truly awesome special effects, which aren't burdened by hokey dialogue that lands with all the subtlety of one of the picture's mighty hailstorms.

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