Deep Impact (1998)

# Tubi Review: Deep Impact (1998) – A Nostalgic 90s Favorite with Major Realism Creaks

We are kicking off a brand-new month of free streaming reviews on Tubi with a total 90s disaster heavyweight: *Deep Impact*.

Released during an era when Hollywood was absolutely obsessed with the idea of giant space rocks ending humanity, this film tries to blend high-stakes political tension with heart-wrenching human drama. But looking at it today, how well does its vision of survival actually hold up?

Let’s dive into the plot and look at what works—and what completely falls apart.

### The Setup: Spotting the Threat

The movie kicks off with a teenage amateur astronomer, Leo Biederman (played by a very young Elijah Wood), spotting an unfamiliar object in the night sky. It turns out to be a massive, seven-mile-wide comet on a direct collision course with Earth. The government naturally keeps this a complete secret for an entire year to prevent global panic.

**My Take:**

First of all, even today, we can still only track a certain percentage of the asteroids and comets out there. The idea of a rogue rock sneaking up on us was definitely a lot more believable back in the 90s. If you tried to sell this plot to an audience nowadays, with our advanced space telescopes and automated, global sky-scanning systems, it would be a much harder sell.

As for the cast, I love the characters in this movie. When you see a young Elijah Wood on screen, he plays that vulnerable, geeky character so perfectly that you instantly just want to go watch *Lord of the Rings*! The fact that the government kept it a secret for a year is also highly believable—because if there is one thing the government loves to do, it's keep secrets.

### The Turning Point: The Media Leak

The secret unravels when an ambitious journalist named Jenny Lerner accidentally stumbles onto the story while investigating a politician's supposed affair with a mistress named "Ellie." She quickly realizes "E.L.E." isn't a woman, but a government acronym for an *Extinction-Level Event*. This forces the President (Morgan Freeman) to step up to the podium and announce the terrifying truth to the world.

**My Take:**

Now, this part is completely unbelievable. I don't believe this would ever happen in real life. Unless it were a Republican president, I simply don't buy it. If it were a Democrat president, the mainstream media would hide the story because they wouldn't want it hurting their news station or the administration. They would go along with the cover-up because the media landscape leans heavily in that direction, and that's just what they do.

The idea that a mainstream reporter would press that hard for a story like this is pure fiction. In reality, she would be immediately ordered by the higher-ups at the network to bury the story to protect the political narrative. If we had a Democratic president and a Democratic congress, they would die before covering a scandal or a crisis of this magnitude. This entire plot point falls completely flat on realism.

### The Climax: The Messiah Mission

In a desperate, last-ditch bid to save the planet, a team of brave astronauts is sent into space aboard an experimental spacecraft called the *Messiah*. Their high-stakes mission is to land directly on the moving comet, drill deep into its icy core, and detonate nuclear bombs to destroy it from the inside out.

**My Take:**

Slapping explosives on a comet to save the world seemed to be a massive theme back then, but realistically, the technology just wasn't there. I don't think even Elon Musk could devise a rocket capable of doing that nowadays, let alone a team in 1998! We are talking about the pre-internet era of floppy disks and corded wall phones. Come on—do they really expect us to believe 1990s tech could pull off an interstellar drilling mission?

Plus, you can't keep a project like the *Messiah* a secret. Even if you housed it and built it entirely underground, people talk. Leaks would have slipped out left, right, and center long before launch.

Interestingly, growing up as a kid before the internet existed, I vividly remember being told that an asteroid was going to come and end the world in my lifetime. I don't even know where I first heard it, but they definitely warned us. Hollywood was clearly tapping into that exact cultural anxiety.

### Final Verdict

When you strip away the sci-fi fantasy, *Deep Impact* is undeniably unrealistic and full of massive, logic-defying plot holes. But you know what? I had to watch it again anyway, because at the end of the day, it is just a genuinely good movie. It's an entertaining, nostalgic time capsule that delivers great character performances, even if the science and politics are pure science fiction.

**Rating: A flawed, nostalgic 90s disaster classic worth a rewatch on Tubi.**

Miracles, Malice, and Mindsets: Reflecting on Matthew’s Powerful Contrasts

 

## Miracles, Malice, and Mindsets: Reflecting on Matthew’s Powerful Contrasts

Hey to all my readers.

Today was a "Greeting Sunday" for me at church, and it was a busy one! We had so many people coming through—perhaps because of early summer road trips and tours starting up. It was wonderful to greet everyone, though I had to do it all with a broken pair of glasses!

If I wear them too long before getting them fixed, I get a splitting headache, but I was determined to stay focused.

In fact, I stayed for both services today. Paying close attention to the message twice really helps to lock it down and ingrain the truth into my mind.

And what a powerful sermon it was.

### From the Bread of Life to a Gruesome Banquet

The sermon took us through the deep contrasts in the Gospels, moving from the breathtaking miracles of Christ to the dark realities of human pride.

We looked at the sheer abundance of Jesus’ ministry:

 * Turning water into wine at the wedding in Cana.

 * The miraculous feeding of the thousands with just a few loaves and fish.

But then, the narrative shifts sharply to a very different kind of banquet—a birthday party thrown by King Herod Antipas.

In **Matthew 14:1-12** (and also recorded in Mark 6), we see a scene of pure, unrestrained ego. After Herod’s stepdaughter danced for the gathering, a rash oath was made. Urged by her mother, Herodias, the girl demanded the head of John the Baptist on a platter.

### The Tragedy of Saved Face

What strikes me as so incredibly sad about this passage is the peer pressure and the cowardice of the king. The scripture explicitly says that Herod was grieved by the request.

As the ruler, he absolutely had the power to stop it. He could have backed into a corner, swallowed his pride, and said no. He could have chosen what was right over what was popular.

Instead, because of his dinner guests and his fear of looking weak, he went through with a gruesome execution. He valued his status at a party more than a holy man's life.

It makes you think about our world nowadays. While we might not see birthday parties turning into literal executions, we constantly see people going to toxic extremes just to fit in, preserve their image, or please a crowd. It is deeply heartbreaking to watch how far people will go just to save face.

### Moving Forward

Sitting through that sermon twice was the perfect way to wrap up my journey through this first Gospel. I have officially finished reading Matthew, and I am off to the Book of Mark next!

Even with the broken glasses, it was a deeply meaningful Sunday.

THE Trinity Explain Explain

 

... 

## The Ultimate "Empire Strikes Back" Plot Twist: How Jesus Resets the Theological Score

Ever had a moment in a movie theater where your jaw literally hit the floor?

For many of us, that moment was in 1980 when *The Empire Strikes Back* was re-released in theaters. Sitting in the Mercy Twin down at the Valley Mall, listening to Darth Vader drop the ultimate paternal bombshell on Luke Skywalker completely re-wrote the rules of that universe.

Suddenly, you had to step back and re-evaluate everything you thought you knew.

If you grew up in the church, you might not always realize it, but **Jesus does the exact same thing to our worldview.** He completely blows up the paradigm.

### The Divine Paradigm Shift

For a good Jewish believer at the time, understanding God was straightforward: there was Yahweh, He was their one God, and the system was beautifully simple. Then, Jesus showed up and created a massive problem for how people conceptualized the Almighty.

Consider how the narrative shifts throughout the New Testament:

 * **The Baptismal Formula**: At Jesus' baptism, He is in the water, a voice from heaven claims Him as His Son, and the Holy Spirit descends like a dove. Suddenly, the single canvas of God has three distinct strokes.

 * **The Problem of "Lord"**: In 2 Corinthians, Paul explicitly refers to God the Father as "the Lord Almighty". Yet, by the end of the same letter, he gives his famous benediction: *"May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you."* Paul isn't confused; he is actively shifting the title of "Lord" to Jesus and, eventually, to the Spirit as well.

 * **The Savior Paradox**: In the book of Titus, the writer effortlessly weaves between calling God the Father "our Savior" and Jesus Christ "our Savior", all while noting that salvation comes *through* the renewal of the Holy Spirit.

### Understanding the Trinity: Personhood vs. Individualism

The early Church didn't just throw its hands up at this complexity. It took centuries—specifically from the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD to 381 AD—to carefully hammer out the vocabulary to describe this mystery. What they came up with is what we know as the **Doctrine of the Trinity**:

> **God is one being (one "what") eternally existing as three persons (three "whos")**.

> 

But here is the crucial catch: **"Person" in a theological context does not mean "individual"**.

In modern English, if you subtract one individual from a room, the other individual remains entirely themselves. But theological personhood is **relational**. It is a kind of existence that actually *needs* the other in order to be what it is.

Think of it like personal terms we use today:

 * You can be a "scholar" all by yourself in an empty room.

 * But you cannot be a "teacher" without a **student**.

 * You cannot be a "husband" or a "wife" without a **spouse**. If one dies, the other's personal identity status literally changes to widow or widower.

In the exact same way, **the Father can only be the Father because there is the Son**. The Son is the Son of the Father. There never was a time where the Father existed without the Son, because to exist without the Son would mean He wasn't the Father. They are eternally, completely interdependent.

### The Bottom Line: God *Is* Love

Why does this vocabulary lesson matter to your daily life? Because it means that **at the absolute foundation of who God is, before anything else was ever created, God is love**.

If God were a single individual existing in solitary isolation before creation, He could not have eternally been "love," because love requires an object.

But because God is a Triune community of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, **eternal, relational, self-sacrificing love is His very definition**.

SATURDAY MEN'S BREAKFASTS

 

 Out of Focus

The Stone Church foyer was packed for the men’s breakfast this morning. Tables were set up everywhere, games were played, and the room was filled with loud talk about jobs, stress, and families. The turnout was great, and the food was excellent—plates were piled high with bacon, sausage, and pancakes.

But for me, the morning felt entirely different.

Because I didn't have my glasses, the crowded room was just a blur. I couldn't see faces. I had to rely entirely on voices just to figure out who was who. Sitting at a table where everyone was talking across and around me, it felt incredibly isolating. People were wrapped up in their own conversations, and aside from three of the pastors saying hello, hardly a word was spoken to me.

It is a heavy feeling to be in a room full of people at your own church and realize you don’t feel like you fit in or belong anywher

​Psalm 142:4

​"Look to the right and see; there is none who takes notice of me; no refuge remains to me; no one cares for my soul."

​This is David crying out from a cave. It perfectly captures the raw feeling of being completely invisible to the people right next to you.

​Psalm 25:16

​"Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted."

​A direct, honest prayer acknowledging that loneliness isn't a lack of faith; it is a real human affliction that even the most faithful experience.

​1 Kings 19:10

​"He said, 'I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant... and I, even I only, am left...'"

​Elijah felt entirely alone while doing ministry among God's people. He was surrounded by the nation of Israel, yet felt like the last man standing.

​Hebrews 13:5

​"...for he has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you.'"

​When human community fails to see you, this is the foundational promise that God's presence remains constant, independent of how the room treats you.e.

Alien Rubicon, 👽 👾

 

Alien Rubicon

The Absolute Audacity of "Special" Effects

Calling the visual effects in this film "CGI" is a massive insult to computers everywhere. The giant alien sphere looks like a gray marble that someone lazily dragged across a green screen using a 2004 version of MS Paint. There is zero weight to it. It "crushes" skyscrapers with all the devastating impact of a wet sponge falling onto a carpet.

And those knockoff Xenomorph things that show up at the end? Bloody hell. I’ve seen more convincing, terrifying alien lifeforms inside a discount Halloween costume clearance bin. They look like men in cheap rubber gimp suits who got lost on the way to a completely different, much weirder party.

### Executive Decisions in a Broom Closet

Let’s talk about the "President" and her elite task force. The fate of humanity rests on a group of people who look like they were kidnapped from a local community theater audition and forced into cheap suits.

 * **The Set Design:** They are supposedly managing a global cataclysm, but the "situation room" has the distinct aura of a rented storage unit. I’ve seen more high-tech equipment in a teenage gamer's bedroom.

 * **The Military Strategy:** The General spends the entire film screaming into a walkie-talkie like a man trying to order a kebab over a bad radio signal, pretending he’s directing battalions. "Move the tanks left! No, the *other* left!" It is genuinely pathetic.

### A Masterclass in Writing (If the Writer Was Drunk)

The script feels less like a screenplay and more like a collection of sentences that were vaguely aware of each other. The dialogue consists entirely of characters stating the bleeding obvious:

> *"The giant ball is moving!"*

> *"Dear God... it's heading towards us!"*

> 

Thank you, Captain Obvious. We can see it. It’s a giant, poorly rendered circle taking up eighty percent of the screen.

And the continuity? Pure comedy. Characters are in a military bunker, then they're instantly on a highway, then they're back in the room, completely ignoring the laws of physics, time, and human movement. The director clearly just didn't give a toss. They had a budget of twelve dollars and a pack of cigarettes, and by God, they spent every penny of it on that camo netting inside the helicopter.

### The Final, Most Scathing Verdict

> **New Rating: 0.5/10** (The 0.5 is for the sheer entertainment value of watching washed-up actors try to look terrified of a green screen).

> 

*Alien Rubicon* isn't just a mockbuster; it’s an insult to the word "entertainment." It is a cinematic black hole where talent, budget, and logic go to die a slow, agonizing death. If you ever find yourself tempted to watch it again, please, do yourself a favor: turn off the telly, stare at a blank wall for ninety minutes, and poke yourself in the eye. I promise you, it will be a far more stimulating and intellectually rewarding experience, darling.

A Friday Fry-Day, Blurred Horizons,

 

## A Friday Fry-Day, Blurred Horizons, and Navigating the Dark 🍟👓

Today was supposed to be a straightforward, ordinary Friday. 🗓️ I decided to treat myself and take advantage of the Friday deal at McDonald's—you know the one, where you buy a large drink and score a free order of fries. 🥤🍟 It had been a while since I'd done that, and honestly, walking in to get those fries and a cold drink hit the spot perfectly. 😋

But the real drama of the day didn't happen at the counter; it happened right on my face. 🤦‍♂️

For a bit, I was thoroughly convinced that my left glasses lens had cracked internally. It was incredibly confusing because plastic lenses aren't supposed to fracture like old-school glass, but there was this unmistakable, maddening line running right through my field of vision. 🔍 After consulting with my AI companion, the mystery was finally solved: it’s a semi-rimless frame held together by a tiny nylon string, and that sneaky little wire has slipped out of its groove and wedged itself completely out of place. 🧵😅

The good news is that it’s entirely repairable. The bad news? I can’t get it fixed until my optometrist opens on Monday morning. 🏥

Now, you might be thinking, *"Hey Andrew, that’s not so bad, just wear them anyway to get through the weekend."* And look, I agree it could be worse! But with the left lens sitting completely wonky, it totally distorts my vision. Worse yet, without that nylon string holding it secure, there is a very real danger that the lens could just pop out randomly, fall onto the pavement, and get permanently scratched up. 💥🏃‍♂️ I can't risk ruining the lens entirely, so the glasses are officially benched until Monday. 🛑

And don't even ask about my backup pair. 🤦‍♂️ I dug them out, only to remember exactly why I replaced them in the first place—the right lens has a massive scratch right down the center, and the right hinge is completely broken! If I bend down even a fraction, they will fly right off my face. So, it's either funhouse-mirror vision on the left, a scratched lens and no hinge on the right, or just going completely bare-faced. 🤷‍♂️

Knowing myself, if I try to wear the broken ones, I will completely hyper-focus on that nylon wire or the scratch until I drive myself completely batty. 🤪 So, I'm choosing my sanity—I'll be navigating the weekend without any glasses at all! 🕶️❌

This sets up a rather interesting obstacle course for the next two days. 🧗‍♂️

Tomorrow morning is the Men’s Breakfast, which I’ve been really looking forward to. 🥞🍳 Then on Sunday, I'm scheduled to greet at church. That is going to be an absolute trip! ⛪👋 I won't be able to clearly see anyone's face until they are standing right in front of me! It's definitely going to make socializing and recognizing people a bit more difficult than when I actually have my spectacles working properly. 🥸🧐

Bagging those layout shots of the empty church lobby tomorrow morning before the breakfast is going to be a real test of my blurry vision, but hey—the show must go on! 🎬📸 Luckily, the church is just within my walking range, so I can handle the trek on foot. I guess I'm a survivor, and I'll find a way to navigate the blur. 🤠

This whole situation actually takes me back to a memory from when I was about 22 or 23 years old. 🎒 I was down in Cannon Beach, and a friend of mine accidentally sat on my glasses and physically broke them. 🌊💥 At the time, I was working at the conference center as a waiter, and they had a grand band of waitstaff. With my glasses completely ruined, I had to figure out a way to do my job waiting tables without being able to see. 🍽️🏃‍♂️

And you know what? I did it. 💪

Granted, back then, this was pre-stroke. I had my full, normal field of vision and didn't have any other handicaps at the time. So, I learned to adapt. I would walk up to each table, and while I couldn't see details, I could make out blurry shapes. 👁️‍عون I could see just enough to know when a table needed more dinner rolls or a refill. 🍞☕ I managed to get away with it because I had to go up to every single table and pretend like I could see everything perfectly. I had to fool all the guests! 🥷✨

The hilarious irony of it all was that it actually made me a really fantastic waiter! 🏆 Everyone thought I was just being incredibly attentive to the tables I was waiting on, but the reality was, because I couldn't see, I *had* to be that close and attentive just to know what was going on. 🕵️‍♂️ It’s kind of funny when you think about it. 😂

I don't know if anyone else will think this is a funny enough story to read or not, but that’s up to you, my readers. 📖👇 That is the story of my day and my history with glasses.

Have a nice Friday, and good night! 🌙💤

Are you Scared?

📺 Series Review: Are You Scared? 👻

​🛋️ The Vibe: Comfort Watch with an Edge

​🛸 The Chaotic Duo: What makes this series uniquely addictive is its perfect, background-noise synergy. Ryan and Shane’s on-screen presence captures the dynamic of two friends arguing late at night—meaning it fluctuates between being hilarious and deeply annoying.

​🛌 The Ultimate Marathon: It is a rare horror show that functions beautifully as a sleep-aid. You can dose off during season three and wake up in the middle of season six without missing a beat.

​⚠️ The Flaws: Cheap Shots and Fake Lore

​🤥 The Fake Stories: In the early run, the "true or fake" compilation format meant viewers had to sit through stories that were transparently, outright lies.

​⚡ The Edgy Banter: The duo’s filterless banter won't be for everyone. Their rolling commentary takes cynical jabs at anyone who doesn't buy into alien theories, and they occasionally veer into territory that can easily feel offensive or disrespectful to Christian audiences. It’s a series that doesn't mind being abrasive to get a laugh.

​🛗 The Standout: Real-World Terror

​💥 Pure Nightmare Fuel: When the show hits a specific phobia, it excels. The episode focusing on being trapped in an elevator stands out as one of the absolute scariest of the entire nine-season run.

​😰 Claustrophobic Panic: For anyone who has ever experienced the claustrophobia of a real-world elevator malfunction, the narrative strips away the usual campy internet creepypasta nonsense and taps into genuine, heart-stopping panic.