An American disaster science fiction directed by Dean Devlin, starring Gerard Butler, Alexandra Maria Lara, Daniel Wu, Ed Harris and Andy Garcia.
A network of satellites has been set up around the Earth to prevent catastrophic storms. Someone has put a virus into it that causes storms instead of preventing them. The man who was in charge of building the network and his brother work to find the culprit and fix the problem.
Pretty standard and stereotypical. The 209.9 million dollar box office revenue speaks for that. Clocking in at an hour 41, the extremely fast pacing made it seem like less time. The plot was like every other disaster film I have ever seen, just 100% cliche. Characters were pretty much the same. The main character was the "loose cannon" and there were no comedic relief characters. The dialogue seemed like it was copied and pasted from other disaster films, but the acting was convincing. Sets, costumes, locations and special effects looked like 120 million dollars worth of budget to me. The space sets and the storms all looked professional. Camera-work was mostly made up of quick editing cuts. Even conversations between two characters switched back and forth like a tennis match. In audio, I could hear all of the dialogue and the soundtrack included the standard "epic" disaster film music. Other critics give this a failing grade and I agree with them completely. My main disappointment was that there was no CG "Geostorm" in the climax. I rate this bad for being stereotypical, cliche and disappointing. Don't watch it!
A British American disaster adventure directed by Joe Carnahan, starring Liam Neeson and Dermot Mulroney.
A group of men are on an airplane that crashes in Alaska. They try to survive with a pack of wolves chasing them through the wilderness.
How disappointing. The plot held my attention because of the subject matter. The characters were not very developed and lacked back-story. They spent the whole time arguing and getting killed. The video all looked good. There were some very good shots of landscapes and action sequences. The audio was mixed well and I could hear everything. The soundtrack music stayed in the background and seemed appropriate. What irked me was that the rising action would almost instantaneously skip to resolutions. This was particularly true of the ending. Overall, a disappointment. I rate this poor, mostly because of the ending.
An American disaster action thriller directed by Wolfgang Petersen, starring Kurt Russell and Richard Dreyfuss.
A remake of the 1972 film. A large ship is sinking because it has capsized. People try to make their way out through the bottom of the upside down boat.
This was very much like the 2005 remake of the same, but worse in all the ways that the 2005 version was worse than the 1972 original. The plot was simplistic: get out of the boat or drown. The characters were not developed at all because so much time was devoted to building tension and having action scenes. The video was choppy and fast. It featured close, underexposed shots that were edited with quick cuts. There were a few special effects with fire and water. The audio was mostly screaming and shouting with building symphonic music. The intro featured a white woman singing like she was black. Is that a reverse oreo? Overall, not worth the time it took to watch. Luckily, there were 10 minutes of credits at the end. I rate it bad. DO NOT WATCH!!!
An American disaster thriller directed by Wolfgang Petersen, starring Dustin Hoffman, Morgan Freeman, Cuba Gooding Jr., Donald Sutherland and Kevin Spacey.
A military medical research team goes to Africa to investigate a new disease. It turns out that a monkey carrying the disease has been illegally shipped to America and has infected people. The disease mutates to spread more rapidly and tensions rise.
This is pretty standard of the disaster thriller genre. I would say even exemplary! The plot follows the rising action, showing people getting sick and military leaders freaking out about the disaster. Dustin Hoffman plays his psychotherapist role. Amidst the chaos, he is the rock of reason with Cuba Gooding Jr. as his sidekick. Even though Hoffman's character's own life is in the middle of a messy divorce, he remains steady. The video was very active. There was lots of camera movement and lots of quick editing cuts between simultaneous scenes and even angles within a scene. The audio was basically good. I could hear all of the dialogue and the music didn't get in the way. Overall, not bad. I rate it adequate. It would get a better rating if I liked disaster thriller flicks.
An American action disaster film directed by Scott Pembroke.
A pair of new line installers come to a small town to help run telephone lines. They are immediately disliked and plunged into small town drama of relationships, infidelity and trouble in the workplace. Once things start to go well for them, the local dam breaks and causes a flood.
The plot, although inconclusive, was interesting and kept my attention through the whole duration. The characters lacked back-stories, but weren't bad. The audio and video were pretty good for 1937 and the style was standard for that time, but not too shabby. The pacing seemed right and made sense. Nothing was rushed or drawn out. At 52 minutes, it was easy to watch. I'm rating this o.k.
A disaster directed by Wolfgang Petersen, starring George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg.A fishing boat sets out on a job and catches fish, but on the way back, a storm waylays them.There was a lot of animalistic shouting, as with any disaster film. I didn't find it very interesting at all. The plot was simplistic and the characters even simpler. The style looked like it meant to be a box office cash register breaker and the production value seemed similar. There was "doing important things" music with strings and brass and "disaster theme" music with drums added. I think the whole deal was a cheap ploy to make money. I'm rating it poor for not being about making a good movie.
A disaster film directed by Matt Reeves.A group of friends are at a party at night, when a giant monster attacks the city. One of them was video taping the party and continues to film as they run from the monster.This was all from the perspective of the friend who was video taping the party and there isn't a steady shot in the entire film. I found it a little annoying, but it preserved the premise very well. If I was making a monster movie, it would be all monster and probably get boring very quickly. This one showed only short glimpses of the beast, which is probably a better way to keep the viewer's attention. I'm rating this adequate.
A disaster film directed by Roland Emmerich, starring Dennis Quaid.Giant storms freeze the earth. A son is in New York City and his father heads out through the storm to rescue him.This was stereotypical and so overproduced. It also tries to back up Al Gore about his climate change hoax. The earth's temperature is regulated by the sun (imagine that!). When the earth is far away, it is cold. When the earth is close, it is hot. This has nothing to do with greenhouse gasses or carbon taxes in any way. I'm rating this film poor because it's basically pointless.
A disaster film directed by Ronald Neame and Irwin Allen, starring Gene Hackman.A large boat flips over and passengers make their way to the bottom (now the top) to get out.An interesting side-note, Jack Albertson (Grandpa Joe from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory) is one of the survivors at the end. The plot was alright, but the characters got stupider as the film progressed. They slowed down and stopped with water chasing them through the boat and did other stupid things. There was a scene in which one character goes ahead to swim underwater and tie a rope for the others to follow. When he finally makes it to the other side, he junks the idea of tugging on the rope so the others can follow. One of hem goes without a rope tug and what does he say when he gets there? "you didn't tug on the rope... I'll go back and get the others.". Did he get a lobotomy while he was underwater? Just tug the fucking rope! I'm rating this poor because it was alright, but the characters were unbelievably stupid.
A disaster film directed by John Guillermin and Irwin Allen, starring Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, William Holden, Faye Dunaway and Fred Astaire.A huge skyscraper catches fire with lots of people inside. Rescue crews rush to help the people inside.The plot is stereotypical now, but at the time, it was original. The characters were good and I liked the action and tension. The style was typical of the '70s and the production value as well. The pace was very quick, despite the 2 hour and 45 minute length. I'm rating this good because I think it is a good milestone of it's time and I enjoyed watching it.
A disaster film directed by Frank marshall, starring Ethan Hawke.A plane carrying a South American rugby team crashes in the Andes mountains. The survivors of the crash try to stay living.The plot was good and the pacing and style were right. The characters were a little bland, but decent. My main concern is South Americans with Spanish names speaking English for 2 hours. I know that it was based on a true story, but come on! I know it was done to sell tickets and videos, but it seems as fake as a terrace attack. The question of cannibalism comes up here. I would like to state that I would eat human meat. I would cook it (unlike these dumb asses) and probably enjoy it. If your "god" lets you eat pigs, cows, fish and birds, then I doubt he would care about adding another species to the list of "food animals". When they began eating the butt-meat of their dead friends, I expected the camera to zoom out and show a row of corpses without asses. It would have gotten a good review, but Carlitos and Nando were speaking fluent English to each other. I'm rating it adequate.
A disaster film directed by Roland Emmerich.In the year 2012, natural disasters disrupt the earth and a family flees from the wreckage.Special effects were THE main character in this film. It was pretty in that "earth shattering disaster" type of way. I'm rating it adequate for being exciting.
