Deep Impact
Paramount Pictures | Release Date: May 8, 1998 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
40
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 20 Critic Reviews
Positive:
5
Mixed:
10
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
70
The New York TimesElvis Mitchell
Deep Impact confines much of its horror to television news reports and has a more brooding, thoughtful tone than this genre usually calls for. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Leder establishes a syncopated rhythm unlike anything we're used to in a catastrophe spectacle. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
You can enjoy the way they create little flashes of wit in the dialogue, which enlivens what is, after all, a formula disaster movie. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
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. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Unfortunately, an A-list group of actors doesn't mean a lot when there isn't much of a script. Read full review
60
Film ThreatChris Gore
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. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
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. Read full review
60
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
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. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
To its credit, the movie eschews cheap dramatics, but at times it eschews dramatics altogether. Read full review
50
San Francisco ExaminerWalter Addiego
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. Read full review
50
VarietyTodd McCarthy
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. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
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. Read full review
40
The A.V. ClubJoshua Klein
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. Read full review
40
SalonCharles Taylor
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. Read full review
40
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
A three-hankie weeper in disaster-movie drag, and its tear-jerking bull's-eyes are separated by long stretches of tedium. Read full review
30
Dallas ObserverPeter Rainer
The film is often unintentionally silly, and it might have been better if it tried to be. Read full review
20
Chicago ReaderLisa Alspector
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. Read full review
20
Washington PostRita Kempley
These folks are so blase, you'd think that scientists had predicted pennies from Heaven instead of world's end within the year. Read full review
10
L.A. WeeklyManohla Dargis
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. Read full review
10
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
For a suspense drama, Impact is a slack, oddly enervated and mawkish soup of largely lethargic performances. Read full review
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