LOL! And I'm still needing to check out "Dazed and Confused."
I completely forgot to add one other criticism:
Script-wise, it totally stunk! The final quake came far too late in the movie. I feel that it should have been at least 15 minutes sooner. Of course, that could be an editing snafu and not the writer's fault. IMO, there should have been a bit more focus on the survivors after the final quake -- the aftermath, the mourning of those who died, the damage (building-wise, not geographically), and their resolve to rebuild. Something like what was done in "The Day After" or "Alas, Babylon" (book by Pat Frank, had to read it in school to compare with TDA). Just showing us the quakes and damage as it happened, with a sigh from the survivors and a brief speech at the end by Beau was not the way to do it, IMO. It didn't have to be that much longer of a resolution, but at least five extra minutes could have said a lot.
"Sum Of All Fears" -- Ben AFLAC! and Morgan Freeman flick.
I couldn't help but think of "Independence Day" when Fred Ward's character volunteered to go down and fix the warhead. Kind of like Randy Quaid's character did in the battle against the aliens. Like you said in the other thread, Mary -- totally predictable.
ID4 was another good disaster flick. I saw that one on opening day during the first show. The theater was packed and it was the best way to see a movie like that. Everyone clapped and cheered when the aliens got their butts kicked. And you could just feel that whole sense of "He!!, yeah!" when Bill Pullman as the Prez gave his pep/battle speech and ended with "Today, we celebrate our independence day!"