The Day After Tomorrow is a great ride: a silly, cheesy, overwrought, and gloriously beautiful summer popcorn movie. The special effects are amazing (and I'm not easily impressed), and while the plot, the dialogue, and the characters are often hackneyed, it doesn't really matter. If you know what you're getting going in, you won't be disappointed. I wasn't.

As for the other big summer movies, the only two I've seen so far are Shrek 2 and Van Helsing (I couldn't muster up the enthusiasm to see Troy, and Harry Potter is sold out everywhere). The former was a bit of a disappointment: funny, yes; original, no. And the contemporary references are getting old. Where the Pixar movies will live on in timeless glory, the PDI movies appear very much a product of their times - and while that's not necessarily a bad thing, it does take away some of the fairy-tale magic. It also felt very episodic; a series of scenes, puns, and gags strung together by a very thin storyline.

Van Helsing, on the other hand, was the biggest pile of stale dung I've had the displeasure of seeing this year - and it has the dubious honour of being one of the very worst movies in memory. It stunk. It was a confusing mess, riddled with bad special effects, horrible dialogue, atrocious acting, misguided direction, haphazard pacing, and the most ridiculous ending ever. (And remember that this is coming from a guy who actually enjoyed the Mummy movies.) Avoid. At all costs. For now and all time to come.  ¶ 12:06