Inferno - La grande canicule

Absolutely horrible movie. Not a bad plot concept, but executed horribly. Cliché storyline; bad script. So schlocky it doesn't even qualify for campy. This is the kind of movie that gives sci-fi a bad name.

I have lived in Los Angeles all my life so I like 90 degree days but over 140 degrees is too much even for me. That is what the story is about, surviving a very high temperature. There were little stories within the big picture. A doctor that lost his license but practicing again as the temperature goes up. A teacher turned soldier that never loses his sense of caring. A pair of bank robbers that get their "just deserts." The true hero in the film is General Craig Maxwell played by Daniel von Bargen that makes life and death decisions in trying to save a city from the terrors of melting ice. Can mankind survive 140 + degrees? Can this tiny planet ever be the same? The answers are will be on display as the planet takes a burning.

I actually watched this movie mainly because a very good friend of mine was in it (Daniel von Bargen as Gen. Craig Maxwell). However, I actually did enjoy the film. I walked into my pub just as it was starting, looked up, saw him, and ended up watching the whole thing over a couple of brews.

For avid sci-fi readers out there, I'm almost positive this movie is loosely based on an old sci-fi short story that I've seen in two separate collections I own. The name, however, evades me. For a TV movie, it wasn't bad. ***xx (three stars out of five)

INFERNO is a very poor disaster movie, made on the cheap on a TV movie budget. Every deficiency in the story is more than apparent because this is so cheap and cheesy looking. I could have overlooked the problems had the writing not been so predictable and clichéd, making this difficult to sit through.

The disaster stuff involves a flaming fireball heading through the heavens towards the Earth, meaning like NIGHT OF THE BIG HEAT it's one of those films where the characters start off cool but sweat and lose more of their clothes as the narrative progresses. Apparently this aspect of the narrative wasn't interesting enough as the writers instead focus on the various human interest stories which overlap and combine at times.

Leading the cast is James Remar, cast against type as the heroic scientist for a change (he's propped up cinema as a bad guy for years), but he's as wooden as the rest of the actors involved. Story lines include a down-on-his-luck doctor who somehow has to overcome his problems to treat the injured, plus a teenage gang member who must be "saved" by his dedicated teacher. Needless to say such moments are even cheesier than the mawkish sentimentality of VOLCANO and turn this into a right old mess of a film.

The film beginning is fairly good considering its a pretty standard TV disaster movie, however once things start to be fleshed out it rapidly becomes overwhelmed by characters and subplots that do more and more to distract from the movies positives ultimately leading to enough mismatches to flesh out 2 or even 3 different films...but which squeezed in to one just distracts and detracts from the enjoyment.

Watxch out for the stereotypes from the standard liberal but tough schoolteacher and the requisite gang banging brother of a dead gang member, a disgraced because he tried to do the right thing doctor and the lifeguard he befriends - who just happens to be the ex of the mad tow truck driver...etc etc...and apparently there was some army guys too...

Such is the poorly setup melodrama and the way the story concentrates more on these characters than the almost forgotten disaster of the impending 60c+ heatwave that any potential edge of the seat tension and drama is smoothed over and its difficult to even say there was any.

The question of who dies,who survives and how/why doesn't even come in to it by the end as there's too many by the book twists to put any flesh on the bones of any individuals or plots. I simply sat and watched each mini- story as a separate as there was no real immersive interplay or connection even when the characters had some supposed back story. Just mentally tick or cross them off as they go because in most cases you never seem to want to care enough to do more than count them in and count them out again. ... Surprisingly I did find Inferno quite likable, if rather forgettable, despite the lack of depth and annoying characters and multiple subplots. For a TV movie it fills the time effectively enough, however it just doesn't do enough to warrant a rewatching in a hurry.

Overall the SF was decent for its genre/budget - outside of the weird space fireball shots. The plot was driven along with enough energy to prevent sleep, though not enough to set the heart racing either. Characters, scenes and dialogue were very mixed and this is where the movie loses points, especially the way some characters seemed to be shoehorned in to the plot but without any redeemable features (The tow truck duo - I'm pointing at you!)

Overall this could have been polished up and had a reasonable score and with one or two less characters and subplots it may have made it...but no, I'm afraid as it stands:

5/10...