Skyfire

Ok, the story is a bit simple, but it's a nice popcorn disaster movie

Here's The Lowedown on "Skyfire" (NR - 2019 - Blu)

Genre: Thriller/Disaster My Score: 5.4

Cast=4 Acting=4 Plot=5 Ending=7 Story=4 Intense=7 Pace=6 Suspense=4 Disaster=8 F/X=5

A seemingly dormant volcanic island becomes the site of a resort, using the energy of the mountain to power everything. But what would happen if this woke up the volcano?

"I'm not leaving this island...until we're done." It was like Jurassic World and Dante's Peak had a baby that tried to coast on its genetics. As a disaster movie junkie, there were parts I liked. Look for some cheesy CGI and bad acting, but then you get some crazy stunts that may keep you going for another few minutes. It's not a horrible watch...but it's not worth hunting for.

If you discount the usual PRC propaganda undertones present in most Chinese movies (with the usual greedy western white villain), this is a nice disaster movie. The Chinese have always been experts in action movies, and this is no exception. Action and suspense are masterfully produced all through the movie, but you will get nothing else here. Characters and dialog are mostly silly, with the usual over the top drama, which can make for an added layer of involuntary comedy.

I was in the mood for an action-filled, silly-but-fun disaster movie tonight, and this was exactly that--except to my deep disappointment, it was dubbed. Every dubbed film I have ever seen ruins the film with terrible translations that make dialog provokingly inane and the film hard to watch. I like hearing the original language, and the actual voices of the actors, and besides the terrible translations, the acting of the dubbing voices are much worse! I once had the misfortune to see a dubbed version of Crouching Tiger on cable, and I was horrified that even that exquisitely beautiful, sad film was reduced to a farce, with laughable, horrendous dialog and acting. I wish the Skyfire version I saw on Crackle tonight had had subtitles; it would surely have been less ludicrous.

Ah, well. In addition to the many special effects, it would seem that young lovers can swim underwater (with no diving tanks) and hold their breath for at least half an hour...! I wish I could do that.

This movie is unintentionally funny with it's totally impossible stunts to what I assume are mix ups in language translation. Jason Isaacs was excellent, as usual.