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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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Film Review – The Volcano Disaster (Nature Unleashed: Volcano)

Posted in The Volcano Disaster with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 6, 2011 by Higher Plain Music

Some spooky goings on and lots of badly relooped dialogue make this disaster movie one of the most unique and perplexing of the lot. An instant buy for a dodgy disaster movie night then!

The Premise

After suffering the loss of his wife in a volcanic euruption, a man travels to her home town and discovers that not all is quite as it seems and more rumblings are coming!

The Diasasters Faced

Two volcanoes, lots of lava, baby dolls, evil dialogue relooping and a girl too hot to touch!

The Execution

Obviously a TV movie, The Volcano Disaster actually kicks off the first ten minutes with a large chunk of action and it passes itself off quite well. However after the death of the wife, everything takes a turn for the supernatural with the action moving to a small Italian town where a crazy girl taunts our main man’s every move by burning him with her hand, drawing circles with chalk and the horror – a hand delivered dead bat! While it then picks up for the last bit when all along she was trying to warn him of a volcano about to blow, she could have just said so and avoided all the drama!

What it does do though is set this film apart from any other disaster movie I’ve seen as it tries the suspense filled mystery approach to try and stir things up and while its quite predictable its a new mashup of genres that works to a degree but has been better done with Knowing who does suspense and mystery better. Where it does fall down is the Italian accents that have been relooped and the acting is so laughably stilted and everyone speaks perfect English! The combo of the two is almost as frightening as the story on screen.

The Effects

Effects range from some nicely intergrated stock footage to hammy CGI lava with some good set effects inbetween. However for a TV movie everything is quite impressive and this is because CGI has been used so sparcely, everything else while relatively small in scale actually is real and to this day I’d rather take that than any quick fix awful graphics time and time again. Well done Volcano Disaster! Also any film that see’s the decimation of a church the second after the monk speaks about how its everyones only sanctuary gets my vote!

Why It’s Worth Watching

Apart from the whole spooky-wooky side to disaster and watching an Italian teenage Jeffifer Connelly spend the entire film not talking at all but just running around and looking as “disturbed but pouty sexy” as possible, the Italian town looks beautiful and its a shame to see it burn in CGI lava! The acting is shameful in places but the story and pacing speed along quite happily. It’s also full of TONS of stupid errors to spot too such as holding hands to a dead girl while she’s getting electricuted or the date of the wifes death changing from weeks to months and back again.

Best Death

An unknown character is hit by a lava bomb and goes sailing through a shop window – double whammy!

Favourite Character

Antonio is so laughably stereotypical you can’t help but find him either grossly irratating or an over the top man come good.

Weirdest Moment

“Just because you can’t see the Moon it doesn’t mean its not up there!” Words of wisdom indeed.

Conclusion

Silly, random, full of moments that make you smile for all the reasons but thoroughly entertaining, The Volcano Disaster is good fun at everythings expense and is recommended for alternative disaster movie viewing. Easily one of better TV disaster movies I have seen to date.

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Film Review: Supervolcano

Posted in Supervolcano with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 19, 2010 by Higher Plain Music

The BBC in the mid 2000′s went through a period of making disaster TV Movies where they either went back in time to key disasters in history, or tried scare-mongering. “Supervolcano” falls into the latter half with a prediction of what could happen should Yellowstone erupt.

The Premise

Conducted like a documentary looking back at the event, lots of thoughtful blame passing scientists discuss a Supervolcanic eruption at Yellowstone.

The Disasters Faced

Yellowstone, lava, ash, lots of coughing and choking, collapsing ceilings and an evening dress.

The Execution

Supervolcano tries to tred a thin line by interviewing the survivors as they reflect back on what happened on the day. As they explain what happens, you see it before your eyes too. This docu-drama style of movie is different, but has its own pitfalls as you know who survives, who doesn’t and what’s coming next. There’s also a lot of padding to the story with sad pauses and people trying to choose their words carefully. I don’t know why but I just felt some of the actors couldn’t quite carry it off and so the concepts a bit hit and miss for me. As for the story itself, the pacing is good, there’s a lot of science and exposition, but it doesn’t come across poorly – it all feels relevant and worthwhile. The acting as mentioned above waivers from character to character with Rebecca Jenkins’ Wendy being the best. Rebecca obviously done the disaster movie rounds as she’d not long done 10.5 before this!

The Effects

As with most volcano films, its all about the huge eruption and pyroclastic clouds and those scenes are done very well with some impressive effects – especially for a TV movie. The science parts are also shown with a really overly elaborate computer too which I found quite amusing. All in all however, these are some of the most impressive TV documentary effects I’ve seen.

Why It’s Worth Watching

There’s good effects, goofy deaths, hammy acting and a fair bit of practical science involved. Also on the DVD is the documentary about Yellowstone that was broadcast on TV afterwards which is also really quite interesting. I hope however that it was just my DVD take appeared to have some bad pixelation when viewing the extras otherwise that’s a poor show BBC!

Best Death

Easily the best deaths are the two scientists in the car on the cover who get taken out in the pyroclastic cloud. Even more heleriously, just before they perish the female gets out her camcorder and says “well just incase”. Do you not realise how hot those clouds are my love?!

Favourite Character

I have to say the characters are all a bit.. characterless. I’ll go with the happy Adrian Holmes (Dave) who decides to sacrifice himself to give more info about the volcano to everyone else.

Weirdest Moment

Wendy starts part two in a dinner party dress and has a hissy fit about it. It’s all a bit out of place in a docu-drama! Also how have all the Scottish invaded Yellowstone – there’s hardly any Americans in the film at all!

Conclusion

Confident, big budget and self assured TV movie, Supervolcano spares no expense at throwing all kinds of effects at us. Add to that hammy acting, silly deaths and some moral highgrounds – and science programme as an extra – and you have yourself a fun nights entertainment.

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Film Review: Absolute Zero:An Inconvenient Reality

Posted in Absolute Zero: An Inconvenient Reality with tags , , , , , , , , , , on November 7, 2010 by Higher Plain Music

Science is never wrong! You will hear this golden nuggett tossed about like a salad throughout the movie but the science in this flick is shaky at best and let’snot talk about the sets and effects! Welcome to one of the worst (so that’ll be the best) disaster movies to grace my TV!

The Premise

Suddenly the Ice Age happens over 24 hours when the magnetic poles shifts and the climate drops to absolute zero leaving everyone bat the equator frozen to death. Science is never wrong.

The Disasters Faced

Copious amounts of polyestyrene and where you think the audience isn’t looking, menacing white sheets. Gasp! The Horror!

The Execution

Ripped from The Day After Tomorrow, the opening is nigh on identical and that’s the best effects shot done in the first couple of minutes. From there we are introduced to poor Jeff Fahey whose found himself in yet another TV movie which he excels so well in. His B-Movie esque qualities endear him in all his roles. Erika Eleniak from Baywatch joins as the ladee whose busy falling for Fahey within twenty minutes of her husbands death, the husband sadly gets the most awfully cringeworth CGI death I’ve seen for a while. Goodly!

Interestingly for a film that has a shoddy script, effects made on a clog string budget and some goofy science – the acting is quite passable. Everyone hams it up, especially our baddy who screams his way through the movie and his death is overdue and humourously stupid and elaborate. It’s like they spent all the budget in the opening few minutes which look so much more lush and expensive than the rest of the film put together.

The Effects

Awful. Plain and simple. In order to disguise their awfulness everytime something happens the screen is so dark and grainy you can’t really see the main effect anyway. The scenes of destruction are actually stills with snow effects on top and the one effect shot of a car being flipped open is laugh out loud funny. If you love dodgy effects, pick up this gem.

Why It’s Worth Watching

Jeff Fahey is always great and hams it up here. Aside from that its just seeing how helerious all the cost cutting measures are, such as building a glacier out of white sheets and polystyrene. There’s a point in a cave where Jeff is crawling and you can see the sacks or pillows under the thin layer of  “snow” moving about next to him. The Zero Room where you can survive absolute zero temperatures has no explanation to its working at all. They just shut the door and all is hunky diddly. There’s random script moments such as the student Phillip saying “You’re going to fast.” then saying “you’re too slow” and then “come on go faster” all in the space of about twenty seconds. I’m sure he actually fluffs some lines too as they don’t sit right with AJ’s retorts. All in all, great viewing!

Best Death

I do like the early on death of Dempsy who is splattered to death by a metal swing door – complete with bloodstain!

Favourite Character

There’s no character development at all in this film so Jeff wins, although Fred Ewanuiuk’s bumbling Phillip is a close second.

Weirdest Moment

The jarring science and everyone running around with a jacket on at -200 degrees aside, the TV reporter just needs a slap. However the weirdest moment is during an evacuation of a pool (oh yes, watch as peoplevery slowly climb out and walk up some stairs to a shaking camera) the evacuation takes according to the clock ticking down to the polar shift about 2 hours and the same swimmer is still walking around the pool. I think they thought we wouldn’t remember the same people, places etc. Wrong!

Conclusion

Use Absolute Zero as a drinking game. A shot for every poor effect, every bungled science theory, everytime someone utters “science is always right”, everytime our baddy shouts at someone to show you he’s the baddy. I tell you something, you’ll be admitted to hospital for alcohol poisoning!

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Film Review: Fail Safe

Posted in Fail Safe (TV) with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 22, 2010 by Higher Plain Music

“A Live TV Event”, Fail Safe marks to my knowledge the only disaster movie to be broadcast completely live from start to finish on TV! Just a shame that its really a lot of men talking and shouting at each other.

The Premise

When the “Fail Safe” (HA! You know its doomed by its name) technology goes faulty and tells a plane (piloted by George Clooney – see he IS bad for everyone’s health) to declare nuculear war on Russia, everyone is forced to talk a lot to try to resolve the issue.

The Disasters Face

Nuclear war, radiation, fluffed lines and an awful lot of on screen coughing and throat clearing!

The Execution

Fail Safe was broadcast live so there is absolutely no effects and very little in the way of moving camera work. Instead you are forced to be completely invested in the characters and the actors performances. This film is purely a military affair. You’ll bounce between the war room, the plane on its way to bomb Moscow and the President who is busy on the phone with the Russians trying to prevent war. There’s plenty of big names in the movie and for what is a live performance, everyone as a rule stands up to the task. excellently. There is an awful lot of coughing though and especially early on there is a real sense of “we’re live, look at us, quick throw as many miming extras in the screen as possible!!!” It’s actually quite funny because any moving noises are very loud, such as a dart hitting the dart board and yet you cant hear anyone else talking around them. As a result of being live, the audio quality isn’t great. There’s only a few fluffs in lines too and they’re very quickly recovered. As a live production its great.

My problem was that its so militant that I didn’t connect with it at all. It’s interesting to see the President trying to be emotional and stressed and Richard Dreyfuss does what he can but aside from that, its completely “Code Red” “Take them Down” infinitum. It just didn’t grab me at all until the last 15 minutes when the stakes are raised and by then it was too little too late.

The Effects

Does a fade to white count?

Why It’s Worth Watching

If you prefer your disasters more military focused than people focused, this is absolutely for you. It’s also great to view as a live performance and admire how it was done. Drinking game for counting coughs and throat clearings are a must if the film doesnt grab you and you must down the drink if you spot a fluffed line. Best way to watch I think!

Best Death

Although Millions die, nothing is shown at all. The only on screen death is that of Blackie (why is there always dodgy names in these movies?), whom knowing his wife and children are about to perish, gives himself a lethal injection which in itself is a very sad moment, significantly underplayed.

Favourite Character

Because everything is so militant, only really two or three characters portray any emotions at all. Richard Dreyfuss as The President was the one I was cheering for as he is acting his socks off in despair.

Weirdest Moment

Nothing particularly is weird in this film except there’s one point where everyone is looking at the screen of fighter planes on a map and they’re all actually just spinning round in a circle looking a bit confused. Apart from that, the audio of people walking or shuffling papers being the only noises heard in massive debates going on in the background is quite fun for a mini gaffe!

Conclusion

Fail Safe does nothing wrong. The problem for me was Fail Safe done nothing for me. Barely anyone has a personality and therefore you can’t attached yourself to anyone and so you’ve nothing to really invest in, try as the actors may. I was left wanting more and although the twist in the tail at the end was sad and shocking to a degree, being a live tv show meant it had to limit its depth to pure militant actions. Not my cup of tea.

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