Deadly Skies

This could have been a good movie, but the acting is terrible!

I must have seen the tame version of this film under the title Force of Impact. No gay sex, not that it would have enhanced the film for me. Not my cup of tea. I didn't have any problem with the acting, it was good from seasoned professionals. The dialog seemed average. The storyline was average. The camera work was good. But the editing left way too many dramatic pauses and too much dead air. It was not unusual for the dialog to end and then the film just hangs there while the actor stares at something or shuffles some papers. Not much in the special effects area. There was nothing really bad nor good about the film. It was just kind of there as a pay day for the people involved.

Who can tell why this film was made? FORCE OF IMPACT (aka DEADLY SKIES) was apparently made for TV though it seems highly unlikely that it was ever screened. Not that the story itself is a problem: giant asteroid is sailing toward the earth with the potential of destroying the planet unless someone is smart enough to out guess the logistics. In this film the smart one is Rae Dawn Chong in a role she can sleep walk through. The government is not eager for her company to employ its 'better than government issue' strategies: Rob LaBelle and Michael Moriarty have a great time being mean. But it is Rea dawn Chong who remembers a terrific mind in the form of Antonio Sabato, Jr. who can save the planet....

And that is where the difference lies - Chong encounters Sabato and his lover Michael Boisvert en flagrante in a completely nude sex scene that is as sensual as any found in the movies. Nothing much is made of the reason for Sabato to be gay and that is good: he just happens to be a gay man in a healthy relationship, and the chemistry with Boisvert is definitely there. But that is about all we get, other than an opening scene when two beautiful young au naturel women make it in a swimming pool while a mini-asteroid collides in the water.

So it is another routine space age flick, but add to the salad the eye candy offered, and it is almost worth sitting through the movie! Pretty people help keep this one afloat.

On the surface, this strikes me as an oddly constructed movie. It's a stock sci-fi thriller whose hero and his friend/sidekick happen to be lovers. This fact is brought out in two bedroom scenes and is mentioned very briefly in a couple of other lines of dialog. But other than these brief, isolated moments it is never mentioned, never referred to, and it has absolutely no bearing whatever on the story as our hero battles to save the world from destruction. A standard subplot in this kind of action film is a romantic triangle of some sort, but these two lovers are in league with an extremely attractive computer jock and they never even notice him. Someday there may come a time when an action hero can be gay just because he is and it would not have any impact on the story, but we're not there yet. I'd bet good money that this movie was originally made as a standard thriller, that none of the cable services bought it, and that turning the hero gay was an afterthought accomplished by an additional day or two of shooting new footage in order to open up the gay cable network market. Whether or not the hero is in love with his buddy, the film is a decent low-budget thriller. You can see worse on the Sci-Fi Network any night of the week. Michael Moriarity is clearly having great fun as the scenery-chewing military villain and the gay moments give the producers a chance to get Antonio Sabato naked, which is never a bad thing. In short, it's definitely an enjoyable movie - just don't expect any dramatic revelations about gay action heroes.

Dr. Madison Taylor (Rae Dawn Chong) at Near Earth Asteroid Tracking Society has discovered a hidden asteroid on course to destroy the world in a day's time. General Dutton (Michael Moriarty) at the US government's Project Safe Skies dismisses her. Her only hope is former air force Major Richard Donovan (Antonio Sabato Jr.) and an asteroid-destroying laser which might be no more than a government boondoggle.

This is Deep Impact without the explosive CGI or the reasonable characters. I like the idea of a government boondoggle and secret weapon. Everything else is less compelling and less well-written. The miniature budget does limit the production. I got bored with Chong and Sabato in a long back and forth. This is cheap TV with one interesting idea among a sea of weak writing and production.