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Film Review: Thrill Seekers

Posted in Thrill Seekers with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 5, 2012 by Higher Plain Music

Sometimes TV movies break the mould and become something quite entertaining and unique. Thrill Seekers for me, is one of those movies. Taking an interesting concept for disaster and playing generally within its budget constraints, there’s a lot to like.

The Premise

A company decides to use time travel to give people the experience of a life time to live as part of huge disasters such as Hindenburg or Titanic in safety. When someone cottons on and tries to stop the disasters, problems occur!

The Disasters Faced

Plane crashes, fires, bombs, missile guns, what looks like the early invention of an iPad (nooo) and some really jumped up baddies.

The Execution

Thrill Seekers is first and foremost a sci-fi /thriller movie but it’s weaved around disaster elements. It’s story is the key to its enjoyment. Casper Van Dien, whose acting is wooden here to say the least, uncovers a Thrill Seeker which is a person who time travels to witness first hand big disasters in history. A strange package holiday to say the least! When Casper works out his plane is the next destination, he stops the disaster taking place and then begins to work on stopping the rest of the brochure taking place too. The company running Thrill Seekers isn’t impressed and sends back two dubious baddies to catch Casper. The story genuinely kept me really interested and when it gets going in its full flow, it’s a really enjoyable romp. The pacing is well done and there’s not too many dodgy CGI scenes as everything is kept low-key until the final thirty minutes.

The Effects

The train crash looks to me like it’s had footage ripped from a film called Money Train (and isn’t the only film to have committed this crime) and the plane and bomb scenes are littered with poor CGI. There is one good explosion though and the iPad’s in waiting are quite fun to see how in 1999, they could be so close to what we get now.

Why It’s Worth Watching

The story is very entertaining and I like how it weaves lots of real life disasters around its own fictional ones. Catherine Bell makes a good reluctant heroine, Casper an awful lead and Theresa Saldana is hilarious as Cortez – the stilted acting bad ass whose in it for the money. It also gets my vote for a really high death count and isn’t afraid to kill most of the cast off at some point! The old drinks game can be used for whenever either baddie runs through the public holding a gun and no one remotely reacts, or when Casper / Theresa fail to act at all.

Best Death

I’ll go for Elizabeth (Catherine Bell) who dies in the best explosion when Cortez gets bad ass with her missile gun.

Favourite Character

It’s got to be Cortez – she kept me in stitches throughout and I’m not sure it was intentional. One thing I will say for the film, is all bar the lead have good characters and some development with them.

Weirdest Moment

It’s not weird, but Charlie Sheen is the big star in the movie yet he has about ten lines and say a minute of screen time. Elsewhere in an attempt for comic relief, our cop duo have some terrible dialogue that is groan worthy.

Conclusion

A disaster / sci fi / thriller hybrid and one of the most interesting and unique takes on the disaster genre. For once, a TV movie with an imdb rating above 5! At least I’m not alone in thinking Thrill Seekers is actually an enjoyable romp. I was entertained from start to end and that’s what any film goer wants.

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Film Review: Polar Storm

Posted in Polar Storm with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 29, 2012 by Higher Plain Music

By placing the word storm on the end of a TV disaster movie hopes generally aren’t high for what is to come. Strangely though, there is really no storm in sight and the film is actually quite competent! Shocks all round then.

The Premise

A close passing meteor sheds its bum which crashes into Earth and rips the electromagnetic properties of our planet to shreds. The poles of Earth decide to do a switcheroo and that’s when its time to end the world.

The Disasters Faced

Meteor’s, earthquakes, EMP’s, a dodgy pace maker and a child so is trying soooo hard to be like Justin Bieber it hurts me on the inside.

The Execution

Whilst Polar Storm is heavily reliant on some of the most dubious science found in a recent disaster flick, it goes with it and fully commits to it with gusto. Whilst the film is clearly done on a shoestring budget, the actors involved aren’t slouching and get on with it too and this elevates the dull script. The film has three distinct acts. The meteor coming to Earth, the EMP dramas and the solution to any b-movie ever made – some nuclear bombs to round-up. Sadly the third act is so reliant on CGI that just doesn’t cut it, the film ends damply but it is solid enough up until then to hold your attention.

The Effects

The meteor, its crash and the earthquake effects are passable. What is not is the awful submarine effects in the final half hour which completely shatter any illusion you’ve been trying to pretend you’re in. It’s like an early PlayStation 2 FMV sequence.

Why Its Worth Watching

Polar Storm is well paced and doesn’t use all its cards in the first twenty minutes. It’s full of clichés and disaster movie must haves like moody teenagers, the loveable old man, daddy issues and the government once again not acting on advice. Those of you looking for the drinking game, take a shot whenever teenage Shane tries to look innocent/sexy at the camera is a slightly awkward Bieber pose.

Best Death

I’ll go for Michael (Rob Morton) as the best death when his pace maker decides to give out on an EMP and he does the best death fall in the movie.

Favourite Character

Every few characters are really nice or given much in the way of character development but Marsha Regis’ Pam is always a good lady to declare the end of the world with. I’m sure everyone would have been a bit calmer if she was more involved.

Weirdest Moment

Aside from the science side of the whole film which is just silly, notice that the film seems to use the same two roads over and over for everyone to stop during an EMP pulse – in some cases in the exact same spot! It just made me laugh.

Conclusion

Not bad enough to be a classic, it is an interesting concept of EMP’s causing havoc that keeps things in motion. It may fall flat with awful CGI in the final third and have some improbable moments but hey – what other disaster movies aren’t taking liberties with reality these days! Passable TV affair.

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Film Review: Hindenburg

Posted in Hindenberg with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 9, 2011 by Higher Plain Music

Possibly one of the first disasters to be caught on TV feed, The Hindenburg is one of those moments that people will reflect back and note with historical importance. This 2011 adaptation was originally a three-hour TV adaptation but has been scaled down to just over half that to make a relatively pacey movie that despite some iffy accents, is relatively well put together and the actual disaster itself is surprisingly explosive.

The Premise

We follow the secret lives of various people aboard the Hindenburg before it fatefully bursts into flames.

The Disasters Faced

A bomb, a ton of hydrogen, static electricity, an affinity with men’s toilets and some dodgy guess the accent games.

The Execution

Due to the fact no one has ever been able to pinpoint the exact cause of the disaster, this film decides to take several of the theories and merge them all together. Most of the character driven plot and subtext drive the bomb theory and this throws most of the cast into the “whose got the bomb” story. What that does, by shrinking the story down by half, is drop a lot of the subplots and characters into a few small scenes. A Jewish family is introduced but half hour in with a suspiciously pervy magician but then suddenly are thrown into main characters for the explosion and then be dropped straight after. As a whole though, there doesn’t appear to be gaping holes missing in the story. However in the background an electrical storm is going on throughout and this is the other main theory for the crash. It’s fun to see the two ideas flirted with. As for the disaster itself, for what only lasted a minute in real life, it’s stretched to a couple on film in slow motion but is well done, even if it’s quickly over.

The Effects

The Hindenburg looks fantastic. Good sets, period cars and the ship itself looks great. The explosion itself and subsequent action is well shot and the flame effects are way above the standard TV fair. There’s some good burn make up too. Yum!

Why It’s Worth Watching

From a historical point of view, I’ve no idea how accurate it is but it does feel like you’re viewing a bit of history. The acting is generally fine but the accents do take a wander from German trying to sound English to American to just stilted in a strange manner. However, because it’s not just one actor, it’s everyone, after a while it feels quite normal to have everyone talk in a bizzaro hybrid of accents. If you enjoy a good drinking game, I suggest a shot for every time someone turns out to already know a bomb is onboard. You’ll be sozzled by half way. (I think I need to make a new sub heading for drinking game from now on)

Best Death

I want to say Mummy Dearest for burning in a very large fireball (yay) but I think Eckner may take it after being murdered and dumped in the men’s toilet’s urinal. What an insult to injury!

Favourite Character

Strangely, not many characters stand out for me in the movie because no one appears to be good or bad, it’s all a blurring line. I’ll go for the lead lady Lauren Lee Smith as she’s very Winslet-esque.

Weirdest Moment

There’s a magician and performer onboard and there’s a very random scene where he emerges with a cabin boy making slightly sexual strange remarks only to then tell our leading male he’s off to the male toilets as he hopes to have as much action in them as he has. Of course he’s referring to the murder beforehand but it just comes across in a sinister kidnapper manner – not helped by the fact many of his other scenes are with a young girl.

Conclusion

Competent mystery before an explosive finale that while is over too soon, is worth the wait, Hindenburg is a good disaster flick. It’s certainly not a great one because of the strange accents, the completely inappropriate modern rock soundtrack and the strange need it has to over score scenes. It is a quirky entry because of its unique subject matter and disaster movie buffs could do a lot worse. Just don’t expect to feel much for the characters.

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Film Review: Ice Quake

Posted in Ice Quake with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 21, 2011 by Higher Plain Music

Ice Quake – otherwise known as lets traipse up and down a mountain is a TV disaster movie that limps along from shaky camera to shaky camera and failed to capture my attention despite a high-profile name and some competent acting.

The Premise

A mountain is busy farting with a methane problem and is releasing sub-zero gases via Earthquakes. Think an ice volcano with a belly ache and you’re there.

The Disasters Faced

Earthquakes, avalanches, storms, lots of polystyrene and wobbly camera angles and the horror of frozen people wearing blue makeup to show they’re dead.

The Execution

Ice Quake for a TV movie really isn’t that bad. Maybe that’s part of the problem. The film bubbles along from one mini problem to another although most quakes look identical. The film wisely stays to just a single mountain and has most of its action take place in nondescript locations in the snow. For that, the film is then able to tightly weave you from problem to problem until it comes to the final section where it moves to a small town for its finale. The acting in general is of a good standard and despite some dodgy science having an actor such as Victor Garber (Titanic) really helps. What I will say is that he is the most ineffectual leader in a crisis ever committed to film. Now we just need to make the typical whiny teen girl to shut up a bit and the film would have been more enjoyable!

 

The Effects

The special effects aren’t so bad as they have been for a TV movie. The avalanche scene actually looks quite good and while the earthquake effect is used far too many times, it doesn’t look bad at all. What always looks strange is the movies insistence of colouring all frozen people completely blue and the face. Explosions still suffer on TV movies with yellow-ness however.

Why It’s Worth Watching

Ice Quake is well paced even if there’s no massive set pieces. The characters are generally likable except the vile teenage girl. Every scene she is in she moans, groans and decides to be injured. Even her voice makes you want to shake her until she hushes. Normally you do get the spoilt teen in every movie but this girl pulls it off to a T. I wanted to slap her. Otherwise, it is generally a feel good family TV movie too with hardly any deaths and no blood at all so if it’s a good one to start off on for the youngsters – although the strangest moment in the film may put you off showing it to real young’uns!

Favourite Death

One of the very few novel parts to the film is going onboard a couples snowsled down a slope in one of the earthquakes and the camera follows you into the chasm and down the cracks! Complete with screaming. Good fun if I do say so myself!

Favourite Character

I’ll go with Yeti the dog – he’s adorable. Following that Nicholas Carella does a fine job as smiley Ram – quite how he got that name no one will know.

Weirdest Moment

The opening of the movie (and first couple of deaths) has a man for no reason at all doing geological research dressed in full Santa gear. Cue Santa to then get blown up in an ice geyser. It’s not as great as it sounds I’m afraid but it’s certainly a startling opening. Also our family manage to side-step a volcano.

Conclusion

Ice Quake worryingly straddles the competent but boring side of the genre with the slightly cheesy dialogue and not enough silliness side. As a result it is mildly entertaining but neither dire enough to tackle the worst (or best) nor is it scope big enough to warrant it a huge thumbs up. For genre fans only.

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Film Review: Meteor Storm

Posted in Meteor Storm with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 24, 2011 by Higher Plain Music

From the director of Megasnake and Spiders 3D… ok we know what we’re letting ourselves in for then! Actually, for once I was pleasantly surprised – Meteor Storm has plenty of faults but it has its heart in the right place and is actually quite enjoyable indeed!

The Premise

A big meteor shower that’s meant to just be pretty turns nasty when the meteors containing a new element yet to be discovered fall from the sky. With each passing storm, things deteriorate. Yay!

The Disasters Faced

Meteors, comets, falling buildings, falling bridges, falling everything, a news crew that MUST GET THAT SHOT and bad mobile reception.

The Execution

Despite (in spite?) the directors legendary credentials Meteor Storm is a very tightly wound movie. The opening segment see’s an opening mini storm which sets up everything and introduces us to a collection of people. Of course we have the all new ideal family – separated parents who we know will be back together by the end, stupid children who do things like run off on their own and use lifts in a burning building (oh dear) and a news duo who will do anything to get a story. All the characters are heavily clichéd but in an endearing way. The leading duo do a remarkably good job of having internal dramas without everything becoming soap opera and the films much better for this.  No one is grating aside from the new reporter and you know he’ll get his comeuppance at some point. The film basically follows a storm – aftermath – science bit – revelation wheel several times before the finale. This ensures things aren’t stale and the science parts are kept down to small bite size chunks. The plot itself is silly and there’s some real problems with general character IQ levels – the children especially – but it’s all harmless fun.

The Effects

The meteor sections are fun to watch because some of the CGI is awful – especially the orange explosions. What’s worse is the green screen effects where you can see how things have not been blended well and things look really 2D. In fact the green screen is some of the ropiest I’ve seen in a while. Where things do pick up are in the bigger set pieces. The collapse of the Golden Gate is done well and so is the collapse of the huge tower block.

Why It’s Worth Watching

Meteor Storm has a decent amount of action. There’s two good set pieces, a fair amount of destruction for a low-budget flick and good tension throughout. The acting is above average for this type of film and that does a lot to make it so much more credible. There’s an abnormal amount of eye candy as well for men and women. There’s also a glint of enjoyment as you watch people doing things that defy all logic whatsoever and also spotting the massive continuity problems such as people being surrounded in traffic as they try to get out the city while the lead male chats happily next to a quiet street where cars roam freely. Other things include the Golden Gate bridge only being open one way despite a city evacuation (with traffic flowing into the city), man of motorcycles get saluted by armed guards for no reason and helicopter pilots sit stunned watching their ‘copters explode while civilians rush to help.

Best Death

Two main characters die. I’ll go for poor Laura who goes in the big Golden Gate Bridge disaster. After crashing her car, instead of climbing out the window she decides to just shout and scream for five minutes before remembering there’s a window or boot to crawl out of and promptly and deservedly splashes into the river down below. A shame though, all she ever did was help the entire time – confirming the never be too nice theory in disaster movies – you will be bumped off!

Favourite Character

This is a real close one. Camera lady Lena (Lara Golchrist) wins as she is great with her one liners throughout as the comic relief. She hits the dry humour well and manages to get away with lines that shouldn’t really work in a script. However just behind Harper (Carmen Moore) who is severely underused in this film. In every scene she’s in she’s eating, looking disinterested in all that’s going on and like she just wants to be left alone with her pizza! Great.

Weirdest Moment

At the first meteor wave poor Jack is hit by a Meteor (I assume – it’s never explained). He then spends the entire film unable to get medical attention! For some reason the children take the entire night and morning to walk vaguely about down populated streets with flowing traffic stating they can’t get to the hospital. When they eventually get there, they give up because there’s a road block. Eventually instead of getting medical treatment Jack then wanders home and takes some pain killers and falls asleep and is left in a crumbling building. This then means our brave children, too lazy to take the stairs up 26 levels to get to him and rescue him decide to use the lift in a burning, crumbling building. Go figure. They then get stuck and cause the rest of the cast to turn up! The whole set up is one of the worst constructed plot devices I’ve ever come across and is utterly hilarious because of it.

Conclusion

Meteor Storm is elevated from utter tosh by its credible acting, tightly paced flow and some characters whose decisions are so stupid you have to watch to see what situations their ineptness takes them next. Coming in at a tight hour and a half, its fun, mindless and cheesy but instead of outwardly going for that edge like say Megasnake, this disaster movie straddles seriousness with silly and gets the tone spot on for its budget. Much better than your average TV disaster flick.

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Film Trailer: Fail Safe

Posted in Fail Safe (TV) with tags , , , , , , , on April 19, 2011 by Higher Plain Music

It’s a live TV event don’t ya know! Welcome to Fail Safe – not enough mistakes in the film for you to play a spot them drinking game sadly.

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Film Review: Locusts: Day of Destruction

Posted in Locusts: Day of Destruction with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 11, 2011 by Higher Plain Music

Insects. They aren’t generally well liked in this world are they? Thankfully some people appear to feel the need to create indestructible ones for dubious scientific reasons. Wehey! Bring on the creepy crawly carnage!

The Premise

Genetically engineered Locusts are accidentally let out of their play pen and generally eat anything green in sight! Thing Jolly Green Giant with wings…

The Disasters Faced

Countless locusts, nerve gas, lots of green text and a woman spilling her drink!

The Execution

For a TV movie, it clocks in nicely at just under 90 minutes (although IMDB states 95, my version in the UK is 86 minutes long) and doesn’t hang about getting going. CGI swarms are used in short glances but often and there’s enough mini set pieces to keep everything ticking over. Of course, nothing screams TV movie more than green text boldly being stamped across the bottom in tv movie font. The sheer lack of blood or violence in general means this PG release is disaster-lite too, however what’s here is good fun, if a bit on rails.

Lucy Lawless is clearly a talented a lady and this leads to her vastly out acting the other larger names around her. The other two male leads fail to get out of second gear when it comes to the more emotive scenes and although their acting is far from offensive – it does feel a bit like they’re coasting. Aside from that, the whole premise is hilariously silly and the end result where all of America needs to turn off their electric to save the world is laughable and reeks of heavy handed environmentalism. In addition to that, the best line in the film is “You screw with Nature and Nature will screw with you!” and you’ve got yourself a preacher. The script isn’t awful, its just by delivering all these clangers from nowhere feels a bit random on occasion.

The Effects

The Locusts are well done, especially the camera work done for when you’re meant to be flying with them. It’s less cheesy than it sounds. The biggest special effect is a plane crash which is also done very well and the artistic direction of it masks the low budget with ease. If there were one let down on effects it would be that in some scenes after the initial layer of locusts are shown, behind them is just fuzzy black smudges moving about… clearly not insects!

Why Its Worth Watching

Locusts… is not a bad film. I was entertained! Its short and doesn’t outstay its welcome, the acting in general is good, the melodrama is classic disaster movie and its a PG and so rates as a good place to start getting your youngsters into disaster movies! Lucy Lawless is always watchable. Also for drinking game fun, take a shot everything Vivian does something sneaky or finds a new piece of information. That character is wasted! She needs her own detective series!

Best Death

Only one character is shown dying on screen so I’ll go for the firery high voltage exit the locusts take when they meet their giant zapper and FRY! The following shot of our two leads kissing whilst all these inspects rain down on the car windscreen is quite surreal.

Favourite Character

In what is such a small role, Natalia Nogulich owns the screen with her stilted character Lorelei. For the first hour all she does is spill a drink and then suddenly she’s integral to saving the world. You can’t help but root for the quiet one at the back sometimes and this is one of those occasions.

Weirdest Moment

Quite how the little girl ends up in a coma for the film I have no idea. Firstly all she does is scream and fall over – next we see her their blood across her face. Was she trampled on?! The bus driver in that scene is just random too – you can see the Locusts coming in from the top window – CLOSE IT! You can see said little girl has decided to be dramatic and have a coma – CALL 911! Sheesh!

Conclusion

Illogical but well put together on a tight budget, Locusts Day of Destruction is fun, silly and lighthearted with some genuinely interesting ideas and set pieces. While it certainly isn’t rated as a good movie, it certainly doesn’t deserve the low IMDB score it currently has and so I’d suggest anyone who either really enjoys these pesky creatures – get stuck in!

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Film Review: Britannic

Posted in Britannic with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 26, 2011 by Higher Plain Music

Titanic’s lesser known sister eh? These ships sure know how to keep it in the family!

The Premise

Germans decide to sabotage the Britannic, sister to Titanic during World War I. Cue an unlikely baddie, an equally unlikely goodie and lots of posh people trapped in the middle – to fight it out in this tug o war.

The Disasters Faced

A quickly sinking ship but really the biggest killer is the giant propeller of the ship which appears to take out more lives than the actual ship itself!

The Execution

Although the Britannic is a TV movie, it does hold some good production values and to some degree this is both its triumph and its downfall. It’s a triumph as everything is made very competently. The script is feasible, the story line is dumb but the acting raises its believability and the film chugs along at a decent enough pace. However over the entire movie is a Dr Quinn sheen. Everything’s too shiny. Everyone’s too perfectly dressed and make-up’d. There’s no blood, dirt or grime. This means that while it’s perfectly watchable it lacks character. There’s the typical first class lot (Jacqueline Bisset back for more disaster fun) who scoff that another ship could sink and the usual Captain Birdseye at the helm. It’s all by the numbers and therefore doesn’t enthrall. The sabotage storyline is skewed so that our lead lady can save the day and fall in love with the baddie in a silly manner and it just doesn’t work at all – feeling forced and contrived. The absence of death in general is surprising and I cannot believe the films rated as a 15! I’ve seen PG’s with more violence.

The Effects

Some poorly inserted greenscreen shots look very generic and computer generated. The sinking itself is not shown dramatically and the actual wide shots look like they’ve come from a PlayStation 1 games FMV segment. The flooded sets are much better however and give a great claustrophobic (albeit shiny) feel for our main duo to splash around shouting in.

Why It’s Worth Watching

The love story is hilariously bad but aside from that, everything else works in a ten-year olds adventure story kind of way. Think BBC2 on a sunday afternoon kind of film. Inoffensive, you can doze off merrily and rejoin the action knowing exactly where you are. The acting is well done and credit to the well-known names for not coasting their way through it.

Best Death

There are so few so I’ll go with our baddie Edward Atterton who finally gets his comeuppance when his lifeboat is sucked into the propeller and he gets promptly diced up for the sea creatures below. A good way to go no matter how tastefully it’s done…

Favourite Character

Everyone is very bland but at least Bisset owns her lady role to a T.

Weirdest Moment

Despite the whole love element between the two leads being so clunky I’m going to give the award to my copies DVD cover. The cover not only has the tagline “Intrigue, romance and disaster” spelt wrong but so are some of the stars’ names and some other words on the cover are missing! What drunken sailor designed the Uk release of this movie’s cover?!

Conclusion

By being completely inoffensive, mild and restrained Britannic manages to completely avoid giving you any kind of emotional strain whatsoever and while that means it’s not an awful film, it’s certainly not a good one either. I’d rather laugh at how awful something is and get more enjoyment out of a film that way than just sit numb. Sorry!

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Nature Unleashed: Earthquake

Posted in Nature Unleashed: Earthquake with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 17, 2011 by Higher Plain Music

The Nature Unleashed series has certainly had its helerious moments but by far the best of the set is Earthquake. Despite its strange accents, poor dialogue and inaccuracies – it’s still fairly good fun.

The Premise

Lots of Europeans pretending to be Americans are in Russia (why not cut the middle man?!) working on a nuclear plant when an Earthquake strikes. Will the plant go up? (No, its a low budget film!)

The Disasters Faced

Earthquakes, train crashes, falling debris, an elevator and a wide variety of accents and me man you ape dialogue delivery!

The Execution

The plot surrounds a broken family of four spread across a Russian city when the quake hits. For the first quarter of an hour our two leads row with eachother before they even announce they were married before. You know then they’ll declare undying love before the credits role. Everyone in Russia appears to be pretending to be American. None of them really get away with it.

The main two sets are a train wreck with the daughter and her teacher, and a fairly impressive looking nuclear plant that was obviously built by cowboys as it falls apart at a rate of knots. While the effects aren’t great (although some of collapsing buildings are actually done properly and so look more impressive than cheap CGI) and the script does nothing new (“I won’t let you down…. EVER!”), where the film works well is in its pacing. There’s usually something silly going on or building up to something. From being trapped in a train, to climbing elevator shafts to watching a hot room get hotter – it keeps you going. This is good because the 90 minute tv movie works much better usually than the three hour mini series for pacing and suspense. Of course there’s a whole lot of silliness in plots and action sequences but nothing that’s outrageously pathetic.

The Effects

Most of the earthquake centres on small close up set pieces but because the sets are real, they work quite well. The train derailing isn’t cringeworthy either. The guilty parties are the CGI flames in the train afterwreck and the miniatures looking very shiny!

Why It’s Worth Watching

I’m surprised its scored so lowly on IMDB. Some shoddier works in the genre have higher scores than 3.7 and I don’t think this film deserves that at all. Is it a masterpiece? Certainly not – but it’s far from god awful. It’s well paced, if a bit gore and death lite. Those of us who enjoy all the badness in a movie can relish in some of surreal accents attempted – including one man who literally talks like Tarzan in English.. but in an Americanized accent. You can also whine at the daughter Cherrie’s really annoying voice that gets more high pitched the further the movie continues. Still, its all in good jest just to see how you’ll find the family all back in love with eachother in ninety minutes time.

Best Death

There’s only two character deaths on screen and so that award goes to Leon who after being blinded by hot steam early on eventually gets pancaked by a falling elevator! Double whammy! Obviously wanted to get rid one of the better European-American accented people early as they cost more…

Favourite Character

Purely for the fact that every line he speaks has such a unique delivery and that he survives the whole ordeal – Vicktor (Michael Zelnicker). Primative is the word.

Weirdest Moment

Aside from all of Vicktor’s lines and the stupid shmultzy wedding ring saves the day ending, how the hell did Leon know exactly where to move his chess piece when he’s not even in the the same building at the beginning of the film?!

Conclusion

Goofy, unintentionally comical in places but still well cobbled together, Nature Unleashed: Earthquake is a silly but enjoyable enough disaster movie that is small in scale and big on cheese.

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Film Trailers: Atomic Train

Posted in Atomic Train with tags , , , , , on February 10, 2011 by Higher Plain Music

US Trailer

UK Trailer

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