The Disaster Movie of the Week

One of the lesser known facts about me is that I have come to get a kick out of really bad movies about either weather/natural disaster/atmospheric phenomenon or critters-gone-wild usually involving sharks. I'm not sure what it is about these movies, but I usually have a good time with them. Tonight, Jeff and I raided Walmart's "Under $10 bin" (an awesome place to find these movies) and came up with a two pack of weather disaster movies and a two pack of critter-gone-bad movies, all for under $13.00. After a brief discussion, we settled on watching "Countdown: The Sky's on Fire." I have since been inspired to start what I hope will be a weekly feature entitled The Disaster Movie of the Week.

Based on a novel (really!), this unrated film starts John Corbett, Josie Bissett and Bradley Whitford and takes place in Los Angeles, CA- the perfect setting for a weather-related disaster movie. Exiled work-from-home scientist Dr. Evan Thorne (John Corbett) is called in when a lab discovers a hole in the Ozone layer that is moving towards LA. He and his cohorts must convince the mayor of LA to evacuate the city in three days otherwise, everyone will roast. Of course, when the city finds out, riots break loose (I kid you not, there are 15 minutes solid of riot footage) and hospitals fill. The only way to save the day is for the work-from-home scientist and his team to bring back an old, experimental project that involves a bomb which causes the Ozone hole to fill itself back up again.

There are too many ridiculous parts to list them all, but some of our favorites were:

- the extensive use of the same shot of the sun, this had to have accounted for at least 10 minutes of the movie on it's own

- the REALLY horrific "special effect" shots of the plane flying up to the ozone layer hole to shoot off the bomb (really, worse than the plane animation shots in the Gilette Mach 3 disposable razor commercials)

- the woman who was so freaked out by the creepy bugs coming into the house that she didn't run out the front door where she just came from, but instead locked herself in a closet with bugs and stuffed a jacket under the door

- the flight control tower woman who never said a word, but merely turned around to her left every few minutes with a look of extreme worry on her face

Don't watch this film looking for real science, but if you're looking for a good laugh with your sweetie, it's worth the $3.75.

For a much better, funny, pretty extensive review of this movie, please click here:
http://www.jabootu.com/skysonfirenugget.htm