Movie Review: Meteorites! (1998)

Meteorites! (1998) - USA - Drama/Disaster Movie - TV Movie

Directed by Chris Thomson

Starring Tom Wopat, Roxanne Hart, Abby Meates, Darrin Klimek, Pato Hoffmann, Marshall Napier, Amiel Daemion, Leo Taylor

Destructively powerful meteorite strikes coupled with a divergence of rural townsfolk make for an entertaining movie to kick back for 90 minutes.

A teenage girl exits her home upset with her parents and telling them in a simple moment of teen angst she wishes they were dead; in short order the daytime sky lights up and the house literally explodes. The local sheriff calls on Tom Johnson, a retired police demolitions expert with a past incident he wishes he could forget, to help him investigate this mysterious home explosion. Both of them butt heads with the town mayor because this is the week of the UFO festival, the town's major source of tourism and tourist dollars, and he doesn't want them scaring away tourists investigating something he wants to believe is due to mundane circumstances. With additional meteorite strikes and an eventual warning from an astronomer that the town is in for heavy meteorite activity, a potential disaster is looming large if people are not warned.

I have seen meteorites in movies that bounce off of cars, and where people get under awnings and indoors for protection. In this movie, however, something the size of a coconut or smaller that has fallen miles through the atmosphere rips through vehicles, overturns cars, and leaves craters a car can drive into. Now I'm no expert on meteorite strikes, but it seems like something the size of a cannonball hurtling toward earth at an accelerated rate, as falling objects do, would do a hell of a lot more damage than just bouncing off of a car or rolling off of the roof of a home.

The meteorites in this movie are threatening, they're not just falling out of trees. Houses, building and vehicles are seriously damaged or destroyed when hit. A staple of disaster movies that makes them work is to build up the threat, and that they do in this movie. You can't crawl under a table to get away from these extraterrestrial ingots of invalidation...no siree!

Another staple of a disaster movie which works is making you victims, or would-e victims, likable. You'd think that would be a given, but I have seen many movies in which the people being threatened are assholes and find myself rooting for the disaster. Meteorites! has a mix of folks with likable personalities and a scummy character thrown in who tests their mettle.

The ending I find absolutely unbelievable. No, I'm not going to give it away. Let's just say it's one of those true moments of a willing suspension of disbelief. I think my disbelief was suspended somewhere in outer space, but it still works. Overall it is an enjoyable movie.

My Rating: 3 Fingers

Meteorites! is only available on VHS. I did find a nice VHSrip searching it on YouTube.

Toxic Fletch

Movie Review: Night of the Twisters (1996)

Night of the Twisters (1996) - USA - Drama/Disaster Movie - TV Movie

Directed by Timothy Bond

Starring Devon Sawa, Amos Crawley, John Schneider, Lori Hallier, Laura Bertram, Jhene Erwin, David Ferry, Helen Hughes

A standard plot for a tornado movie, tornadoes lay waste to a small town, is brought up a level by focusing on the characters of the story rather than special effects and creating tense storm scenes.

A storm chaser for the weather service tracks a supercell storm behaving erratically through rural Nebraska (I know, that's redundant). On a hunch he goes to the town of Blainsworth. The Hatch family lives in Blainsworth, and on this night the mother is working at the diner, the father is checking on his mother while the son is at home taking care of his baby brother when twisters strike. Survival, fear and chaos are all on order for this evening as families that are separated try to reconnect while the massive storm sits stationary and threatening with more twisters before this night is over.

What separates Night of the Twisters from other twister movies is in creating scenes which accentuate the storm effects surrounding the characters in the story. The main character, a teenage boy, is home with his best friend watching his baby brother until one of his parents get home. With the storm siren going off then failing they are in the dark whether it is real or not. The sounds increase outside the house. Is this a twister or not? The viewer is just as blind to what is approaching as the characters on the screen and feels the tension building as a result. An added bonus is the after effects of the storm are just messy, making it seem like a real storm has been through this town.

What I did not care for with this movie is the pretense given to this storm being some freak of nature working contrary to the laws of nature, with the storm chaser saying (paraphrased) that in 20 years of doing this he has never seen such a storm behave in this way, yet this mystery is never resolved. I can see it as a tension building element by painting the storm as unpredictable, but in the end I was still left hanging about that. 

Additionally I didn't feel John Schneider was given much to work with as an actor. He is a more than competent actor from whom I have seen some wonderful performances, but he seems stuck in a singular mood. It is certainly not his acting capability, I just don't feel he was given that breadth in this as the main character is his character's son, and he is more affective to that main character. It is probably just knowing what he is capable of I found myself disappointed is his role, not in him.

Night of the Twisters is somewhat based on the book of the same name, which in turn is a fictionalized account of the Grand Island, Nebraska tornado outbreak on June 3, 1980 which produced a total of 7 confirmed tornadoes in the Grand Island area, from a slow moving supercell, ranging in strength from F1 to F4.

My Rating: 3 Fingers Plus. Though I had some disappointments with parts of the movie, overall it creates an effective tension better than other movies of its kind.

Night of the Twisters is available on DVD but it, as of this writing, is expensive. I found mine in a YouTube search.

Toxic Fletch

Movie Review: Without Warning (1994)

Without Warning (1994) - USA - Sci-Fi/Breaking News Drama - TV Movie

Directed by Robert Iscove

Starring Sander Vanocur, Jane Kaczmarek, Bree Walker, Dwier Brown, Brian McNamara, James Morrison, James Handy, Kario Salem, Spencer Garrett, Gina Hecht, Dennis Lipscomb, John de Lancie, Patty Toy, Ashley Peldon

An excellent presentation in a breaking news format marred by occasional irrelevancies and a confused message.

A murder mystery movie is playing only to be interrupted by breaking news. Three locations around the world in the northern hemisphere have been struck by meteorites simultaneously; one in the United States, one in Europe and one in Asia. It seems an asteroid entering into Earth's orbit broke apart into three pieces, hurtling three meteors into Earth's atmosphere. As the night progresses questions arise about the equidistant spacing of the hits, and that they all struck on the same parallel. With the seemingly systematic meteorite strikes, two survivors having been found both speaking incoherently in tongues, and a prominent SETI scientist being rushed to NASA, the question arises if this has some alien intelligence behind it. More after we break for station identification.

If it weren't for this having been made 23 years ago, my first thought was this would be a great prank to pull on unsuspecting friends or guests; leaving this playing on the TV when they come over to visit and telling them it's an actual newscast. Other than the opening mystery movie sequence, solely for the purpose of having programming to break into with the newscast, this is entirely a mock newscast with only a 'we will return after this from our local affiliates' thrown in for commercial breaks. Of course, at the time it was originally broadcast there would also be a disclaimer that this was not real, both as a crawl (text on the bottom of the screen) and at commercial breaks (not included in the DVD version). Unfortunately with an actual retired newsman leading the cast, Sander Vanocur, and the very convincing presentation, this movie did cause some concern among viewers watching it if they didn't tune in from the start because it looked so real.

The presentation is excellent. What takes it down a notch for me is contrivances within the broadcast used for heightening the tension, or storytelling, but with no conclusion or necessarily much if any rationality. Although sparse in this regard, what happens in the town of Grover's Mill, without giving anything away, doesn't fit with the rest of the story, other than heightening the mystery, irrelevantly, and lacks much sense with regard to the rest of the story. And good luck with figuring out the message this movie is trying to make; it just seems like blaming people for trying to defend themselves.

Despite my reservations about contrivances within the story and a confused message, overall it is an excellent and entertaining presentation that is overall a good movie.

My Rating: 3 Fingers

You can get it on DVD though the price seems high. I found it on YouTube myself.

Check out the Sci-Fi Collector's Set on DVD with Final Days of Planet Earth and Supernova.

Toxic Fletch

Movie Review: Ice (1998)

Ice (1998) - USA - Adventure/Disaster Movie - TV Movie

Directed by Jean de Segonzac

Starring Grant Show, Eva LaRue, Audie England, Udo Kier, Flex Alexander, Michael Riley, Kyle Fairlie, Kristin Booth, Diego Fuentes, Art Hindle

Though watchable, a better element of believability and sympathetic characters would have made it a better movie.

Increased sunspot activity reducing the effect of the Sun warming the Earth is going to plunge the temperatures globally well below freezing. In the Los Angeles area where this story takes place, temperatures will drop to 80-100 degrees below 0 fahrenheit. A group of characters composed of a family, a cop and his girlfriend, a criminal and the scientist who predicted this disaster are trying to make their way to a promised boat that will take them to the equator where it will at least be survivable.

My biggest problem with this movie is in believing how cold it is suppose to be with characters wearing nothing more than simple coats, most not even wearing headgear or gloves; and yet it is suppose to be well below zero. I don't think the writers or makers of this movie have ever been out of the L.A. area. Even at 0 degrees someone would have severe frostbites just with a few minutes of exposure being dressed the way these people are. Perhaps it is a minor quibble, but living in an area that has a winter, and can get very cold, I just found it difficult to believe the story.

The other problem is these characters are constantly fighting with each other. I'm thinking it's probably not a good idea for them to get to safety for the simple fact they could possibly breed in the future and there would be a world with more of them.

The movie is watchable. It moves at a good pace. It also has Audie England and Eva LaRue in it, so for us guys at least the eye candy factor is there.

My Rating: 2 Fingers

It is not available on DVD but can be found on YouTube.

You can see more, and I mean a lot more, of Audie England in Zalman King's Delta of Venus.

Check out a Disaster Movie 2-Pack with Absolute Zero.

Toxic Fletch

Movie Review: Inferno (1998)

Inferno (1998) - USA - Action/Disaster Movie - TV Movie

Directed by Ian Barry

Starring James Remar, Stephanie Niznik, Anthony Starke, Daniel von Bargen, Jonathan LaPaglia, Kathryn Morris, Fredric Lehne, Frank Birney

An entertaining enough TV movie that takes more than a few lessons from the 70s disaster movie formula.

An unprecedented solar flare, for our time anyway, is going to impact the earth. The result will be an increase in temperatures on a global scale with some places reaching upwards of 145 degrees fahrenheit or more. This will only last for a few days before the temperatures return to normal, but who will survive this extreme heat wave? The focus of this movie is on Los Angeles and the individual and interconnected stories of various characters including a doctor, a lifeguard, her stalking ex-boyfriend, a teacher who is also a reservist, a would-be bank robber, and a general tasked with dealing with this disaster.

Inferno takes a lesson from 70s disaster movies (e.g. Earthquake 1974) and runs with it. We are introduced to the threat at the start, then the characters and their individual stories. These different characters will cross paths at some point, either cooperatively or as a disruption. It worked well enough for disaster movies of the 70s and it works in this movie as well.

The main thing that was working against the movie for me was believing that these people were dealing with 130 degree plus temperatures and not collapsing, dying, and still having vehicles running. I just had to increase my suspension of disbelief.

My Rating: 3 Fingers

Though not available on DVD you can get a copy on VHS or you can find it on YouTube.

You can get a 6 Movie DVD Disaster Pack including the movies Scorcher and Miami Magma.

Toxic Fletch

Movie Review: Camp Cucamonga (1990)

Camp Cucamonga (1990) - USA - Comedy - TV Movie

Directed by Roger Duchowny

Starring John Ratzenberger, Chad Allen, Jennifer Aniston, Candace Cameron, Danica McKellar, Dorothy Lyman, Jaleel White, Lauren Tewes, Richard Herd, G. Gordon Liddy, Sherman Hemsley

Summer camp activities, pranks and romance with a lot of 80s and 90s up and coming stars is actually a fun movie.

The kids, middle school to high school age, are just arriving for summer camp, but not everybody is happy to be there. There will boys trying to spy on the girls, competitions, conflicts and romance among the campers and counselors. The camp, however, faces the possibility of not receiving accreditation and being shut down while one of the campers has to deal with news of her parents' divorce and running away from camp. The kids band together to help solve both situations.

Filled with stars who were either popular during the 80s and 90s stars in their prime, Camp Cucamonga had the right mix to draw an audience of the time, and still has a good mix of stars from their early days to appeal to audiences of today. A youthful Jennifer Aniston is gorgeous as a camp counselor and the daughter of the camp owner played by an appropriately accident prone John Ratzenberger. Young stars like Chad Allen who really had an incredible confidence on screen for his age, Danica McKellar and Candace Cameron provide stars who were "in" at the time and are given actual characters to work with and do an excellent job.

Unlike too many summer camp movies which come off like a collection of discarded jokes and pranks that wouldn't work anywhere else cobbled together with a weak plot solely to hold everything together, Camp Cucamonga is well developed and though it does have cheesy moments its strength is in having the comedy and drama develop from its story. The characters and stars who play them are likeable, the situations are not all that predictable, and even cheesy moments have a charm and humor to them.

My Rating: 4 Fingers. I think this will mostly appeal to tweens and teens as well adults who would find the nostalgia of value.

You can get it on DVD but presently the prices are outrageous. You can find it on YouTube to watch.

Movie Review: Ice Road Terror (2011)

Ice Road Terror (2011) - USA - Horror SciFi - TV Movie

Directed by Terry Ingram

Starring Brea Grant, Ty Olsson, Dylan Neal

Charismatic actors cannot overcome an inconsistent script and weak special effects, though still a moderately entertaining movie.

Workers at a diamond mine located at the terminus of an ice road in northern Alaska plant explosives deeper than they have ever before. The explosion sets free a prehistoric creature from its slumber as it makes a meal of the mine workers. Two truckers pulling double hazardous duty hauling explosives to the mining camp and having to deal with slushy and thinning ice have a scientist along with them on her way to the camp. Encountering the creature the truckers are now being pursued along the ice road with explosives in tow and hazardous ice conditions adding to the danger.

Ice Road Terror wastes no time in getting the story moving as the creature makes an appearance within minutes as the story moves along. Ideally this should have been a good way to go with a movie but it soon becomes obvious that the setup is pretty much the story and the rest of the movie really has nowhere to go than the standard running from and fighting against a monster that really is not that impressive.

I am used to seeing some decent to impressive CGI work on SyFy movies, but the budget must have been cut on this one as what would normally be some gruesome effects takes place off-camera instead. After which some fake blood or dismembered limbs have been thrown around. The trucks are more interesting than the creature and the special effects simply come off as something an amateur or indie could have done with little to no budget.

Additionally inconsistencies in the script are at times jarring. I don't mean the flow of the script from one scene to the other, but characters who are inconsistent and not well developed and scenarios that don't really play out. One character who is a complete coward in the movie suddenly has an epiphany about himself in describing how bad he has been, though he doesn't change. And more than once the characters have a plan that is questionable whether it actually played out or not. I think it was in the script, just perhaps not in the budget.

My Rating: 2 Fingers. Despite a low rating it was entertaining enough for me, but it is not well made, lacks consistency in the script and ultimately will probably be a letdown for most, especially if you've seen a lot of SyFy movies then it is simply not going to offer as much.

Get Ice Road Terror on DVD or Instant Video

Movie Review: Red Alert (1977)

Red Alert (1977) - USA - Thriller - Not Rated (TV Movie)

Directed by William Hale

Starring William Devane, Michael Brandon, Adrienne Barbeau, Ralph Waite, David Hayward, M. Emmet Walsh, Jim Siedow

A fantastic and tense thriller pitting human against computer, and ultimately against human, in the face of a potential nuclear meltdown.

At a Minnesota nuclear reactor a leak is detected by a safeguard remote computer which results in trapping technicians in the containment building resulting in their deaths. Two investigators are brought in and discover things don't quite fit with what the computer Proteus is reporting which pits them against a by-the-book bureaucrat following procedure to the letter. What is reported by the Proteus computer as human error resulting in the malfunction may well have been a cleverly devised plan that will result in a nuclear disaster at the hands of the computer, unless the investigators can figure it out, much to the irritation of the bureaucrat who has faith in the infallibility of the computer.

Devane and Brandon play two very human investigators butting heads with the by-the-book Ralph Waite. The more passionate Brandon tempered by the more pragmatic Devane gives a balance to their investigation as they confront the possibility of a very human saboteur, played by Jim Siedow (of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre fame). Though the emotional turmoil and depression having led a man to this point in life is nothing they can or will make an excuse for, their ability to connect and understand a man gone off the deep end gives them an edge in preventing a tragedy versus a safeguard system which only can see things in numbers and logical steps, even if illogic set those steps into motion.

The performances in this are above par. Often I have read reviews stating something like "really good for a TV movie", but frankly I think TV movies average better overall and that's an unfair statement to make. And even at that, Red Alert is above the average TV movie. Waite does a great job as a inflexible man trying to hold to his faith in something, not because he has to be right but because he believes it is the right thing to do and he believes in going by the book. Devane's down to earth characterization provides a release valve for the audience, a security blanket if you will, as he stands up to Waite's character and questions his inflexible safeguards. Brandon's character may even be more complex as being a family man he has to downplay his emotions while still being a family man worried about his family in the face of a catastrophe.

The edge of your seat climax of Red Alert is one of those classic moments in film, or at least it should be. The seconds tick down in the face of a public panic and a control center rendered helpless as two average men, not superheroes or guys with fantastic backgrounds but two regular guys, are all that stand in the way of a potential disaster.

My Rating: 5 Fingers!

It's a true crime this movie has not been released on DVD. You can get Red Alert on VHS