Nature Unleashed: Earthquake

If I did not know better, I'd have thought Ed Wood did this movie. It has its pros and cons. The story isn't bad. The setup is perfect if you're a disaster movie junkie, but does fall short of any Irwin Allen classic. The cons are the acting, the acting, and the acting.

I read everyone else's reviews & comments and I disagree with them all. First, this is not a ho-hum, boring movie. An earthquake cripples a Russian power plant threatening a meltdown, and it's a race against time to avert the disaster. Add into the mix a Russian supervisor who refuses to accept the idea of anything wrong, and will stop at nothing to keep the truth from getting out, even if it means locking the engineer near the core, and trying to run away when confronted with the truth. That is very believable. This movie is well-paced, and doesn't take long to get started. And once it gets going, you're on a roller-coaster ride of suspense. The scene in the elevator shaft reminds me of the suspense in TOWERING INFERNO and POSEIDON ADVENTURE. The kids are very believable American youngsters trying to deal with their parents' separation, and fate forces them to work together. Maybe it's all cliché, maybe not. But I like this movie. Maybe the special effects were taken from DANTE'S PEAK, I don't know. Frankly, I don't care, since they're very brief and quick. Only when scenes are obviously stolen from other movies do I care, like when they stole footage from AIRPORT 1975 to create SONIC IMPACT. But try it yourself. You may be surprised.

Josh (Fintan McKeown) lives in a Russian city where a nuclear plant is present. In fact, he is an engineer at the facility while his ex-wife is a scientist there as well. Josh made plenty of mistakes as a husband and dad and, therefore, lives separately from his ex and two teenage kids. The two children have issues as well, for the son longs for a motorcycle, which his mother forbids, and the daughter is rebellious, too. One day, all Hades breaks loose, as an earthquake hits the region. The teenage girl, who skipped school, ends up on damaged bus, unable to leave a wounded teacher from her school. Most importantly, the nuclear plant is severely hurt, losing its precious cooling water supply. A meltdown may occur but Josh and the other plant operators are temporarily stymied about how to prevent the worst case scenario. In addition, the couple is worried about their missing children! Will a solution be found in time and the family reunited? This isn't the worst disaster flick of all time but its not great, either. None of the actors are well known and the script is cliché ridden, even down to an evil, conniving plant employee. But, for all that, it is still watchable, intriguing enough to entice its audience to stay with it until the resolution is known. So, if you are a fan of disaster and survival type movies, you might give it a go.

When you set forth to write a movie review, you should have some theme for your comments, and I believe the creators of this website would prefer you give a prospective viewer some idea about the work, whether or not it is competently crafted, entertaining, or pure crap. Too often, I find that reviewers feed on each other like bottom-feeding snails.....if one or two of the early reviewers hate the film, then most subsequent reviews echo their thoughts. This film was thoroughly trashed by the reviews I have read. But it is truly not that bad. It follows a script, something some of the blockbusters seem to disregard these days. It is entertaining with lots of the elements which seem to attract viewers. It has interesting characters, conflict between the characters, a plot, all elements which tend to please people who want to be shown a story which is not totally predictable. The guys and girls who created this movie ought to be given a break. They did the best they could working with a limited budget. I enjoyed the time I spent with this film. I think you will enjoy it also.

Ho-Dee-Ho, what should I have expected? I bought this TV drama on DVD for under 5 dollars so could I be disappointed, really? No, I wasn't and I'm afraid the standard low brow for midget minds situational disaster flick formula is in force here.

A family with teenage kids. The daughter looks like a slut, but so what? An improbable situation, a divorced American family in Russia, where Dad is an engineer, but his wife appears to have most of the smarts.

What can be said formula take over. Family divorced, and kids think Mom was a douche bag for divorcing Pop. We never learn why they were divorced or why the kids and ex are in Russia to begin with.

No matter an earthquake strikes where golly, you would think, the Russians would think maybe it wouldn't. Dumb Russies.

The rest is pablum for a 90 minute occasional glance at the screen to be sure your movie smeller didn't predict way ahead how it would end.

The brave young and arrogant 17 year old heart throb, the Artie- terribly trashy looking daughter, the very smart Mom who immediately sees a circuit board needs resistors bypassed with her cast off wedding ring.

Oh, well, you'll find this flick plays well and probably isn't a total disaster if you buy the DVD for under 3 dollars. I want a partial refund on what I paid.