Such a frustrating disappointment

People are voting emotionally.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

This movie has is 30 years old, but it looks like it has 130. Acting is poor, direction is poorer and script is bad. It starts as a romance, goes on as a farce and ends as a tragedy. A huge tragedy. Script writers should not fool their audience. If I am watching The Day After, I am prepared to what's going on. The screenplay is clever. You feel compassion for people in their generality. You feel sorry for Humanity. In this movie you should feel sympathy for single characters who will die in a small cloud of vapor. That is not fair to me. I did not like it. My wife was right when she said that old movies are at risk, unless they are masterpieces

"Miracle Mile" (1988) actually came highly recommended to me. And that's perplexing, because this is a pretty bad nuclear war thriller that I'd only grudgingly rate a 4 out of 10.The script is terrible. We know that from the film's opening minutes, when it attempts to establish Anthony Edwards as a likable protagonist by showing him performing impromptu stand-up for schoolchildren on a field trip to a Los Angeles natural history museum. (He is not a chaperone for the field trip, or connected with these schoolchildren in any way. He apparently just hangs around alone at museums to inexplicably crack jokes for children he does not know.)From there, we follow an abortive, cloddishly written romance between two mostly unappealing characters. (Mare Winningham is the other half of the romance doomed by the impending apocalypse.) I won't bore you with the details about the ensuing end-of-the-world thriller, except that an implausible plot device gives the nascent couple and a handful of secondary characters advance knowledge of the nuclear missiles that will hit Los Angles in just more than an hour.Even the acting was mostly poor. Surprisingly, this includes the performance by Edwards himself, who has shown nothing but talent in every other role in which I've seen him.The movie comes close to redeeming itself near the end. Its obligatory chaos-in-the-streets set-piece is surprisingly well done for an otherwise mediocre film, and there are a few good lines when the couple reunites at the movie's finale. I suppose you can also have a lot of fun spotting a bevy of other character-actors from the 80's and 90's.I … can't actually recommend this, though. I can't remember the last time I was this disappointed by a film that my friends insisted was great. Check out 1983's "Special Bulletin," instead. Or, better yet, hunt down Britain's superb nuclear war mini-series, "Threads" (1984).

Back in 1980's and early 90's, the threat of nuclear war still played on many people's minds. With the umpteenth Cold War kicked off by the rise to power of Mikhail Gorbachev in the USSR, an arms race commenced between the Soviets and the US under president Ronald Reagan, until the Soviet Union eventually collapsed in 1991. Miracle Mile takes these fears and ponders what the knowledge of an incoming nuclear strike and imminent death would do to a person while everybody goes about their business none the wiser. By leaving it until the very end to confirm whether or not World War III has officially commenced, or if it's all in the mind of its increasingly paranoid and desperate protagonist, Miracle Mile is a tense and often funny end-of-the-world (or not) thriller.The film begins with a meeting between two singletons, trombone player Harry (Anthony Edwards) and coffee shop waitress Julie (Mare Winningham). It's love at first sight and they agree to meet up again later after Julie finishes her shift to grab a bite to eat. Harry oversleeps however, and by the time he makes it to the coffee shop, Julie is nowhere to be found. As he nervously waits outside, the phone rings in the nearby telephone booth. The man on the other line, who believes he is calling his father, informs Harry that an irreversible nuclear strike has been set in motion, and the U.S. has approximately one hour before complete annihilation. The man is cut short by machine gun fire, before another voice tells Harry to forget everything he has heard. After a bit of further investigation, the outlandish claim start to ring true. Deciding he would rather spend his last moments with the woman he loves, Harry begins his search, always clinging to the belief that they can somehow escape with their lives.With much of the action dedicated to Harry's panicked dash across a sleeping Los Angeles, where he encounters many offbeat characters played by the likes of Mykelti Williamson, Denise Crosby, Eddie Bunker and Brian Thompson, Miracle Mile brought to mind the enthralling aimlessness of Martin Scorsese's After Hours, and the eerie emptiness of a nighttime city of Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia. There's real tension in the events leading up to the possible apocalypse, and even more so when word begins to spread and downtown turns into sheer chaos and lawlessness. At the film's centre is the romance between Harry and Julie, and there's a sweetness to the irony of meeting your true love on the day the world will be reduced to rubble. It's played nicely by the two leads, with Edwards reminding us that he is a solid character actor deserving of more movie roles. A true forgotten gem that leaves you wondering if you would rather be given the chance to make the most of your last moments on Earth, or remain blissfully ignorant.

You will need to either make a sandwich or do the washing up for the first 15 minutes of this movie. It is so dull and lame I was sure I'd clicked on the wrong title.But hang in there, it does pick up from this point.I thought the suspense held up well throughout. Harry is never 100% sure of his own warning. Over and over we see him second-guess himself. And as every action he takes contributes to a chain-reaction of events where people are burned alive, shot, and smashed up, you can feel the pressure growing in his head. Several times Harry almost gives up in total despair, fearing that his warning might have been wrong.The 80's vibe is hilarious. Unintentionally, I think. Were we ever that unsophisticated? A frightening thought in itself.I liked the ending. I don't see why it all has to work out in the end.