TheSTORY-0.5
Unfortunately, it's the story that carries a film. Even if the story is fantastical, such as this, it needs to have a semblance of reality to make it believable in the viewers' eyes. This, I am sad to say, doesn't.
The writers, Neil Elman and Colin Reese do have a good idea. Stopping the world from turning and pulled out of its rotation around the sun. However, from here on in its by-the-book disaster movie fodder. A family apart have to fight to get back to one another. Stereotypical characters and events. Even the military is stereotyped as the bad guys of the piece.
This is a shame as the story could have been so much better if Elman and Reese had used their imagination a bit more and had done a little more investigation into their phenomena.
theDIRECTION-1
At least Steven Daniels does a better job with the direction. Though it's not too brilliant it is watchable. Even the special effects, at times, are decent... though there are some dire ones thrown in as well (when the budget was running out).
theTEMPO-1
It's good that Daniels uses a couple of different speeds in the film as it keeps the audience from being too bored or thinking too much about the silly storyline. For the main part of the movie, we move along at a steady trot and when the action picks up we shift to a steady gallop. The word here though is steady. There is a definite feeling of averageness and of "seeing it all before" about this film. That, though, is understandable if, like me, you enjoy a good disaster.
theACTING-1
Unfortunately, due to the characters being a little stale the actors don't have much to work worth. They do, however, try their best with their portrayals and, largely, come across well. In fact, their portrayals help to lift this story out of the quagmire a tad.
theGRATIFICATION-0.75
Even though the direction and acting lift the film up the story drags it back down to below average. I enjoyed some of the special effects and a couple of humorous scenes. But I cannot find it in my heart to recommend this movie to anyone. There are a lot more disasters out there that are more enjoyable than this.
theSCORE-4.25
Come on over to my Disastrous and The Final Frontier lists and see where this turkey sits on my chart of disaster films. You should, at least, find a better one to watch.
