Le chemin de la destruction

On a large oil rig platform, worth $14 million, many important people work. Attractive investigative reporter Danica McKellar (as Katherine Stern) is there, looking to prove oil companies dump chemical wastes. She is close to cracking the case when a horrible incident releases a black fuzz. The black fuzz begins killing workers and triggers a fire. Although she is hit hard on the forehead by a hook, Ms. McKellar is one of the few survivors. In the hospital with a white bandage on her forehead, McKellar realizes the black fuzz was a shady incident; it soon becomes a huge black cloud. Due to being so smart, McKellar is now hunted by oil executives...

McKellar escapes from the hospital and seeks help from attractive blond Chris Pratt (as Nathan S. McCain). The duo must try to escape from the clutches of oil executive David Keith (as Roy Stark) and save the world from the black cloud, which is causing weather to run amok all over the planet. Director Stephen Furst (as Louie Myman) serves double duty as Mr. Pratt's unlikely playboy pal. Direction and quick editing provide a little TV Movie excitement during the times when our heroine is on the run, but the nasty cloud is not exciting. There isn't much you can do when your monster special effects are a fuzzy black cloud and a shaky camera.

*** Path of Destruction (9/24/05) Stephen Furst ~ Danica McKellar, Chris Pratt, David Keith, Stephen Furst

Most of what I was going to say has already been covered repeatedly. I just had to add the on the nose scenes were too much to bear. For example, a dad trying to get his two sons into nature while they ignored him and played computer games. Seriously you just plonked that there like that without even trying? "Hey we need a hackneyed cliché for this scene do we have any of those in stock?" Lets not try to set a scene, lets just straight up tell the viewer like we're the narrator in a kids play.

The bad acting, slow deliberate actions and blurting stuff out, it was a waste of time that only Danica made bearable.

Okay, okay...I know my summary says it all. Another Sci Fi Channel "original." Well, wait just a minute folks; this one actually seems to have a grain of originality.

I'm afraid the nanotechnology concept is where it ends, though. Bad acting. Horrible CGI. Ridiculous plot twists. Starring Winnie and directed by Flounder.

But this one is so horribly bad, folks, that it's entertaining. We're not talking PLAN 9 bad, but pretty close. Another reviewer indicated that this may have been intentional, but I'm not buying it. For those of you that enjoy this kind of thing, buy some beer, turn off your mind, relax and float down stream.

Poor acting, mediocre CGI and technical ignorance abound in this time filler. Some of the plot points don't hold up to even the barest scrutiny. They draft a bimbo reporter to serve as bombardier when they have an entire base of Air Force personnel to pick from? They push for an EMP bomb over a nuclear blast (the biggest EMP bomb there is, BTW) because radiation is too non-directional like shotgun pellets? Dental braces attract lightning? Come on. And why are molecular disassemblers causing storms and hail anyway? Even the bad acting and video game quality CGI could be tolerated with a little technical competence. The underlying concept is OK but the execution is pretty bad. Trying to guess which eastern European country is substituting for Alaska (and the winner is...... Bulgaria!) was fun. And David Keith and Stephen Furst chew the scenery in amusing if one-note performances. Any time you can completely and totally describe a character with two words, like horny yokel or corporate greedhead, you're in trouble.

I've watched worse, though. And can't David Keith get any better roles than these second rate Sci-fi channel crapfests? Every month he's in at least one (two this month) of these celluloid WMD's. He used to be somebody. Maybe he figured, "Hell, I'm already in Bulgaria filming Epoch 2, I'll just knock another one off while I'm over here". Maybe the beer's cheap. Who knows.

This movie is hilariously bad. From the very beginning, you know you're in for a gut busting ride of bad script writing, acting, directing and gaping plot holes that boggle the mind. If you enjoy laughing at poorly made tripe, than this is your type of movie. If you want to watch a movie with a somewhat believable plot and some point, then you might want to rent something more mainstream.

I watched this with my brother last night at 1am on sci fi. We knew what we were getting into. From the absurd dialogue to sheer convenience of certain events, you will get your fair share of 'writing class no-no's'. Anyways, this movie, taken for what it's worth (production value, acting and sheer lunacy), can be tolerated and watched. Once only though. NO ONE has that much time.