Deep Impact
Metascore
40 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 20 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 20
  2. Mixed: 10 out of 20
  3. Negative: 5 out of 20
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  1. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Elvis Mitchell
    70
    Deep Impact confines much of its horror to television news reports and has a more brooding, thoughtful tone than this genre usually calls for.
  2. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    67
    Leder establishes a syncopated rhythm unlike anything we're used to in a catastrophe spectacle.
  3. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    63
    You can enjoy the way they create little flashes of wit in the dialogue, which enlivens what is, after all, a formula disaster movie.
  4. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    63
    Unfortunately, an A-list group of actors doesn't mean a lot when there isn't much of a script.
  5. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Liam Lacey
    63
    Deep Impact, a triple-strand ensemble disaster flick, has a few good opening minutes, the biggest tidal wave you've ever seen in the closing minutes, and a cluster of little meandering melodramas in between.
  6. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Chris Gore
    60
    While the film is flawed, lacks desperately needed humor and is filled with cliches, the attempt to explore the human cost of all those cool explosions and destruction is an admirable one.
  7. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    60
    The latest in Hollywood's almost biblical procession of disaster films, Deep Impact tries with moderate success to be more than just the sum of its special effects.
  8. The New Yorker
    Reviewed by: Anthony Lane
    60
    You may feel safe in your bed, but be warned: even as you sleep, Earth is under threat from a vast, overheated surplus of character actors.
  9. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Mick LaSalle
    50
    To its credit, the movie eschews cheap dramatics, but at times it eschews dramatics altogether.
  10. San Francisco Examiner
    Reviewed by: Walter Addiego
    50
    This Paramount-DreamWorks collaboration, with Stephen Spielberg credited as executive producer, is competently made, strongly focused on its characters' relationships and surprisingly light on special effects.
  11. Variety
    Reviewed by: Todd McCarthy
    50
    The season's first comet-targets-Earth special effects extravaganza is spectacular enough in its cataclysmic scenes of the planet being devastated by an unstoppable fireball, but proves far from thrilling in the down time spent with a largely dull assortment of troubled human beings.
  12. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Maitland McDonagh
    40
    A three-hankie weeper in disaster-movie drag, and its tear-jerking bull's-eyes are separated by long stretches of tedium.
  13. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marc Savlov
    40
    Deep Impact takes the high road and offers up more tearful reunions than actual fireballs and more egregious, sappy dialogue than you can shake a tsunami at.
  14. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Charles Taylor
    40
    Deep Impact is the work of someone crass enough, and in some essential way mad enough, to try to turn the apocalypse into a tear-jerker.
  15. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Joshua Klein
    40
    If director Mimi Leder is really guilty of anything, it's of wasting three first-rate actors (Morgan Freeman, Vanessa Redgrave, and Robert Duvall) in underdeveloped roles while allowing Leoni's shell-shocked, unconvincing turn to become an embarrassment.
  16. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Peter Rainer
    30
    The film is often unintentionally silly, and it might have been better if it tried to be.
  17. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Rita Kempley
    20
    These folks are so blase, you'd think that scientists had predicted pennies from Heaven instead of world's end within the year.
  18. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Lisa Alspector
    20
    Michael Tolkin and Bruce Joel Rubin's straightforward script and Mimi Leder's toneless direction make this attempt so boring that the titles counting down the months, weeks, and finally hours to impact are best used to gauge how soon the movie will be over.
  19. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Manohla Dargis
    10
    Mimi Leder shows none of the vigor she exhibited when directing for E.R., and screenwriters Michael Tolkin and Bruce Joel Rubin betray a real aptitude for hack work.
  20. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Michael O'Sullivan
    10
    For a suspense drama, Impact is a slack, oddly enervated and mawkish soup of largely lethargic performances.

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
5.9 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 34 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 5
  3. Negative: 0 out of 5
  1. JAM123
    6
    I really don't think it was all that bad. Better than Armageddon and I really liked it. I Don't know why people say it's so bad.
  2. Tss5078
    7
    Deep Impact is a pretty good movie with a very unfortunate name. It is another story that plays into people fears about the end of the world, with a situation we rarely think about. As far as stories go, this is a good one, telling the story from four different angles. Tea Leoni's was by far the most interesting, as an up and coming reporter from a troubled family, who becomes the face of the crisis. What I didn't like was the storyline in space, where the would be heroes try to stop the asteroid. It just seemed unnecessary and like it dragged on. If the legendary Robert Duvall wasn't one of the astronauts, I'm pretty sure most of those scenes would have been cut. Deep Impact has a great cast, with a strong story, but it's also a little slow and cheesy at points, but it's a much better movie than most of the other end of the world scenario films.… Full Review »
  3. Rox22
    7
    A really deep movie that does a good job of showing the world in this situation. I really like how it doesn't focus on just one person as the "hero," but rather select individuals. Although, Morgan Freeman does tend to steal the show, as usual.… Full Review »
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