DARK STORM -- Movie Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 11/15/10

 

After watching EARTHSTORM with Stephen Baldwin, I thought to myself, "Wow, I sure would like to see another cheapo Canadian ARMAGEDDON-inspired Stephen Baldwin sci-fi movie with the word 'storm' in the title." 

Well, the good folks at the SyFy Channel and Lionsgate must've heard me, because sure enough, here's DARK STORM (2006), a cheapo Stephen Baldwin sci-fi movie made in Canada with the tagline "Armageddon is on the horizon."  Yay...

At least Stephen Baldwin fit the part of a building-demolition expert in EARTHSTORM.  Here, he plays a scientist named Daniel Gray who's part of a secret government project to collect dark matter in space.  (I'm not quite sure what "dark matter" is, but it's one of those neat things like wormholes that you don't really have to understand in order for it to be a cool subject for a sci-fi flick.)  Seeing Stephen Baldwin in a lab coat is like seeing a gorilla wearing a tutu--somehow, the two just don't go together.  I kept expecting his associate Dr. Fred Flintstone to show up at some point so they could sneak out and go bowling together.

Anyway, this project is supposedly being done to benefit Mankind somehow, but the weaselly guy in charge of it, Dr. McKray (Gardiner Millar), turns out to be a dirty rat who's planning to turn the whole thing into a deadly weapon and sell it to the highest international bidder.  While demonstrating it to the visiting General Killion (William B. Davis, better known as Cancer Man from "The X-Files"), who controls the government purse-strings that finance the project, a containment leak in the orbiting dark-matter-collecting satellite is detected and a cloud of dark matter is spreading over the atmosphere.  (Sorry, but I'm just going to have to keep saying "dark matter" a bunch of times during this review.)
 

Dr. McKray doesn't want to lose his funding so he forces the reticent Dr. Baldwin and his coworkers to ignore safety measures and proceed with the demonstration, which causes the dark matter to enter our atmosphere at different points known as "spikes", wreaking all sorts of havoc with the weather and disintegrating airplanes and buildings and stuff.  This is done using that TV-quality kind of CGI that looks pretty good in some scenes and so hot at all in others.

Not only that, but Dr. Baldwin gets exposed to some errant dark matter himself during the botched test, which gives him strange super-powers that enable him to start his car without keys, lob dark-matter fastballs at bad guys, and repel focused beams of destructive dark matter with his mind.  He's Dark Matter Man!  This, too, turns out to be part of the repulsive Dr. McKray's plan to turn himself and everyone else into a race of dark-matter superbeings in order to bring Mankind's evolutionary process to its ultimate peak.  Wow--sounds just crazy enough to work!

It's interesting seeing William B. Davis as a good guy for a change, but without those fake cigarettes he used to chain-smoke on "The X-Files" he doesn't really know what to do with his hands anymore.  Camille Sullivan (THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT), who looks and sounds a bit like Sarah Jessica Parker but I didn't hold it against her, is okay as Dr. Baldwin's wife Ellie, and Keegan Connor Tracy (WHITE NOISE, FINAL DESTINATION 2) does a fairly good job playing the nasty agent of an unnamed government bidding for the dark-matter weapon.  I liked Rob LaBelle (FIDO, "Taken") as Dr. Baldwin's dorky associate Andy--he reminded me of a skinnier, shorter-haired Larry from the Three Stooges. 

Some of the dark-matter storm scenes are pretty cool but there are just enough shots of calamity and destruction, with varying degrees of cartoony-ness, to remind us that this is going on while the talkier, less-expensive scenes take up more running time.  Dr. McKray eventually has Dr. and Mrs. Baldwin kidnapped and taken to his secret dark-matter destructo-beam installation, and it's up to them to find a way to foil his evil scheme.  It all builds to a final super-powered showdown, with predictable results.

I liked EARTHSTORM better because its "Buck Rogers"-type space shuttle mission and other cheesy sci-fi elements were brighter and more fun.  DARK STORM, which is darker, more earthbound, and  a bit dreary at times, is a fairly entertaining time-waster and I didn't hate it, but that's about it.  

DARK STORM -- Movie Review by Porfle

EARTHSTORM -- Movie Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 10/17/10

 

I really like imminent-doom-from-space movies like ARMAGEDDON, DEEP IMPACT, WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE, and their directionally-inverted counterpart, THE CORE.  The makers of EARTHSTORM (2006) obviously like them, too, because their movie is very similar to these in several ways except a very obvious one: budget.  It's an epic disaster flick scaled down to barely the size of a Sci-Fi Channel movie (which, in fact, it is), with most of the drama taking place in--as Paul's very clean grandad from A HARD DAY'S NIGHT might have put it--a cheap CGI shot and a room, a barebones space shuttle interior and a room, and a room and a room.

After a title sequence that resembles the opening of "Star Trek:The Next Generation", the movie kicks off with the moon being struck by a huge asteroid.  Not only does this send a shower of huge meteorites raining down upon the Earth, but it also causes a gradually-widening crack that threatens to break the moon itself into pieces.  Worldwide weather chaos ensues as well, and we get to see the usual idiot newsguys standing in the middle of it as they breathlessly give us the play-by-play.  The CGI in the "meteors hit city" scenes is okay--not great, but not actually laughable, either.  It's a small-scale disaster, to be sure, but if you scale down your expectations to match, then it's not so bad.

Scientist Lara Gale (Amy Price-Francis) is summoned to the ASI, or "American Space Institute" (which is the equivalent of NASA in the alternate dimension in which this story seems to take place), by her colleague Dr. Garth Pender (John Ralston), to help whip up some kind of solution to the problem.  Lara's late father predicted that this scenario might someday occur and came up with his own theoretical remedy, based on his belief that the interior of the moon was composed mainly of iron.  This, however, was ridiculed by his peers in the scientific community, including the President's current Chief Scientific Advisor, Victor Stevens (Dirk Benedict), one of those characters whose sole purpose is to arbitrarily laugh off all the rational solutions proposed by our heroes and insist on doing things the stupid way.  Benedict, who was Starbuck on the original "Battlestar Galactica" and Face on "The A-Team", is used to playing stupid characters and does a pretty good job here.

The plan, as it is, consists of sending astronauts to the moon to blow up some nukes and cause the crack to collapse in upon itself.  In ARMAGEDDON, the fate of mankind rested on the world's greatest oil driller.  Here, it requires the expertise of ace building-blower-upper John Redding (Stephen Baldwin), who just happens to be the world's greatest demolition expert.  He gets summoned to ASI headquarters, and we just know that before you can say "Press the button, Stamper!", he's gonna end up having to go into space himself to make sure the job gets done right.  Upon hearing the plan, he protests, "I don't know anything about the moon!" to which Dr. Pender responds, "Nobody knows more about how things collapse in on themselves than you."  Well, you can't argue with that.

After a bunch of scenes consisting of people in rooms talking to each other, with a few "ehh" disaster shots thrown in here and there, we get to the film's most gripping sequence: the launch of the shuttle during a furious tropical storm.  With time running out and no backup plan, Redding and the two shuttle pilots must go for broke and take off even as various systems hover in and out of "no-go" status and the storm rages around them.  Things also get pretty tense during the shuttle's approach to the moon through a dense field of debris.  By this time, I wasn't expecting ILM-level effects, so I found these scenes visually adequate.  What sorta had me scratching my head, though, was the fact that they seem to have gravity on board the shuttle.  I guess you just can't simulate having a big lug like Stephen Baldwin floating around weightless without spending some serious cash.

Speaking of which, these Baldwin brothers really are a bunch of big lugs, aren't they?  Don't get me wrong--I like them.  But they look like the kind of guys you'd see hanging out at a Flintstone family reunion.  Alec used to be the slim, handsome one--his "Flintstones" character would probably be a movie star named "Rock Granite" or something--and Stephen was the lanky, kid-brother one.  Daniel, the middle Baldwin, was the original "big lug" type of the three.  Now, they're all starting to look more and more alike as Alec and Stephen's physical appearance begins to move closer toward the middle ground inhabited by Daniel.  A time-lapse montage of close-ups from their movies, in chronological order, would probably look like one of those transformation scenes in THE WOLF MAN.  One of these days we won't even be able to tell them apart, and they'll be able to star in an all-Baldwin remake of WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH.

Anyway, once Redding and the astronauts reach the moon, they discover that the nuke plan isn't going to work and that an alternate plan based on the theories of Dr. Gale's late father must be improvised (which will vindicate the old guy at last).  Take that, you dumb old President's Chief Science Advisor!  This leads to a sequence similar to one in APOLLO 13 in which the eggheads at mission control must devise a way to utilize only the equipment and resources available on board the shuttle to conquer the problem.  And a certain level of suspense is maintained as the shuttle is bombarded by debris while the clock ticks down to the point beyond which it will be too late to save the Earth. 

Stephen Baldwin does a good job and is likable in his Barney Rubble kind of way.  The supporting players are good, particularly Matt Gordon as "Albert", one of the eggheads running around mission control like a chicken with its head cut off, and Richard Leacock as "Ollie", the mission control guy who wants to abort the shuttle liftoff.  I also liked Redding's building-demolition helper, Bryna (Anna Silk).  She's very appealing in a "girl-next-door" kind of way.  Does Bryna get together with Redding in the end, like I wanted?  I'll put it this way--no.  GRRRRRRRR!!!  The final romantic pair-ups in this movie are infuriatingly wrong, and made me want to smash the DVD into little pieces, mix it with mashed potatoes and gravy, and eat it, thus symbolizing my total victory over this film and everyone involved. 

But on further reflection, I decided that such a course of action would probably be overdoing it a bit.  After all, EARTHSTORM is just a low-rent sci-fi actioner that is fairly entertaining if you catch it in the right mood, and it's not going to kill me if it doesn't end exactly the way I wanted it to.  But Stephen Baldwin's character and Amy Price-Francis' character ending up together?  Pffft--never gonna work.  Just wait'll she sees how much hair this guy's gonna leave in the tub every time he takes a shower.

EARTHSTORM -- Movie Review by Porfle

12 DISASTERS -- DVD Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 1/7/14

 

If one disaster makes for an exciting movie, then twelve of them would be twelve times more exciting, right?  Well...we're talking about the SyFy Channel here, and 12 DISASTERS (2012) is just the same old story they've been rehashing for years only with some slightly different but equally rinky-dink CGI.

Ed Quinn (BEHEMOTH) heads a cast dotted with several SyFy vets as rugged family man Joseph, whose 18-year-old daughter Jacey (Magda Apanowicz, SNOWMAGEDDON) turns out to be the "chosen one" in a long line of mystical women going all the way back to the Mayans.  She's the one who will have to stop the ancient Mayan prediction of the end of the world on 12/21/2012, as foretold in--brace yourselves--the Christmas carol "The 12 Days of Christmas." (The film's original title, as you might guess, was "The 12 Disasters of Christmas.")

You're probably singing that to yourself right now but it won't really help until you get to the part about the "five gold rings", which Jacey and her dad must locate and which are buried (for some damn reason I couldn't figure out) in secret locations all around their remote, rustic town (the usual Canadian location subbing for the U.S. Northwest).  Only with all five rings can Jacey ward off the impending twelve disasters which will destroy the earth.

We never really understand what the rest of the world has to fear since the disasters only affect their own small town, and most of them don't even qualify as "disasters."  There's a bad-CGI tornado, a mild earthquake, and some pretty cool giant ice shards that rain down out of the sky and skewer a few citizens (including Joseph's mom).

At one point, a crack in the earth releases some red gas that disintegrates a few bad guys who are under the impression that they can save themselves by sacrificing Jacey by fire (including the typical evil industrialist played by Roark Critchlow of EARTH'S FINAL HOURS). 

Another fissure in the earth's crust releases a sort of heat force-field that fries anything that tries to pass through it,  including some really poorly-rendered rescue helicopters.   The most interesting "disaster", for me anyway, is a rapidly-spreading cold wave that flash-freezes everything in its path, but we only get to see a few selected townspeople get turned into ice statues.  This is mainly due to the fact that these scenes don't feature a whole lot of extras.

Probably the dumbest-looking of the various deadly perils is a string of out-of-control Christmas lights that wrap themselves around a hapless victims and zap him to death in what might be Clark Griswold's worst nightmare.

The final and supposedly deadliest disaster occurs, as it so often does in these flicks, up in the mountains, where some meager volcanic effects billow and spew as Jacey and her dad scramble to locate the last ring.

Their quest to do so gets decidedly tiresome in the film's second half, as Critchlow's character menaces them while his cowardly cohort Jude (Andrew Airlie, APOLLO 18, "Defying Gravity") holds Joseph's wife Mary (Holly Elissa, ICE QUAKE) and son Peter (Ryan Grantham,  ICE QUAKE) hostage. (But at least you can pass the time picking out all of the script's obvious Biblical references.)

Director Steven R. Monroe of 2010's I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE and its sequel (as well as 2006's LEFT IN DARKNESS) turns in a passable but rushed job of bringing the screenplay by writer Rudy Thauberger (SNOWMAGEDDON) to a semblance of life.  Performances range from okay to not-so-great, with Magda Apanowicz as Jacey managing to work up the most convincing displays of emotion.

As Grant, an old codger who tries in vain to warn everyone of the impending doom, is veteran actor Donnelly Rhodes, whose mile-long list of credits includes playing the gambler who accuses Robert Redford of cheating in the opening minutes of BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID.

The DVD from Anchor Bay is in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen with Dolby 5.1 sound and subtitles in English and Spanish.  No extras.

If you catch 12 DISASTERS in the right mood, you'll probably get some "bad-movie" enjoyment out of it.  At any rate, most of us pretty much know just what to expect from these SyFy Channel "end-of-the-world" flicks and whether or not we want to waste precious moments of our lives watching them.

12 DISASTERS -- DVD Review by Porfle

Incredible Earthquake Effects In The Silent 1923 Lon Chaney Classic "The Shock" (video)

 

 

We've seen plenty of earthquake effects in modern movies.

But here's how the special effects wizards did it way back in the silent days of 1923...

...as the great Lon Chaney exhorts mighty nature to wreak terrible vengeance for him.

 

Video by Porfle Popnecker. I neither own nor claim any rights to this material. Just having some fun with it.  Thanks for watching!

 

 

Incredible Earthquake Effects In The Silent 1923 Lon Chaney Classic "The Shock" (video)

SNOWMAGEDDON -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 11/7/12

 

There seems to be an entire category of movies on the SyFy Channel in which small Canadian towns double as small Northwestern towns in the USA which are menaced by some kind of supernatural (or super-natural) force, which resides or has its origin in a nearby mountain.  Bad CGI comes as a standard feature; giant tentacles are optional. 

One of the latest entries in this curious little sub-genre is SNOWMAGEDDON (2011), a movie whose title pretty much lets us know what kind of movie we're in for.  This time, a rustic burg in Alaska gets hammered by a series of unnatural disasters such as a storm cloud that shoots ice torpedoes which shatter into deadly shrapnel, gaping fissures bisecting city streets and gushing flames, and huge pointy things shooting up out of the ground to spear moving vehicles like shish-kabobs. 

The reason for all this is kept from us at first, lending the film an air of supernatural mystery that's mildly intriguing--until, that is, we find out that the secret behind it all is pretty freakin' dumb.  Suffice it to say that there's this kid named Rudy who plays a role-playing game about dragons and wizards, and he anonymously receives a strange snowglobe for Christmas with a tiny repica of the town in it, and whenever he winds it up, something bad happens.  Somehow, all of this is related to that RPG that he plays.  Why?  Don't ask me.

The destruction is depicted with some pretty good practical effects--the picturesque little town is trashed quite nicely--along with the usual fair-to-awful CGI.  Once the slush hits the fan, the action is split into different little suspense situations of varying interest, including two hapless shlubs trapped in a bus covered with downed power lines, stranded snowboarders who picked the wrong mountain to board, and a mother-daughter duo in a crashed helicopter. 

Good editing helps jazz things up a bit, but it's all just standard time-waster stuff that helps cheapo flicks like this fill in the space between the opening and closing credits. 

Once the kid finally convinces the grownups that his evil snowglobe is causing all the trouble--which, admittedly, might be a bit hard to swallow at first--they follow his sage advice on how to combat the supernatural menace.  Which means two things: one, they've really run out of ideas.  And two, his dad, John Miller (David Cubitt), must make a trek up the now-volcanic peak in order to do what the hero in the game does to stop the evil. 

The acting is about as good as you'd expect from this sort of thing, with Laura Harris (of the late, lamented "Defying Gravity") deserving better as Rudy's plucky mom, Beth.  The dialogue isn't any better or worse than required, save for the occasional eye-rolling exchange such as this:

LARRY: "That thing's straight from Hell itself."
FRED: "Calm down, Larry."
LARRY: "You calm down, Fred."

The DVD from Anchor Bay is in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen with Dolby 5.1 sound and subtitles in English and Spanish.  No extras.

Really, I can't add any more to this than you can already figure out from the title.  If the word SNOWMAGEDDON doesn't tell you exactly what this movie is all about and whether or not you'll enjoy it, nothing will.  Bottom line: it's a passable, tolerable time-waster.

SNOWMAGEDDON -- DVD Review by Porfle

DEEPWATER HORIZON -- Blu-ray/DVD Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 1/3/17

 

If you could combine the raw thrills of the old-time disaster epics like THE TOWERING INFERNO, EARTHQUAKE, and THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE with a literate script and a story whose basis in fact gives it both realism and a genuine poignance--well, you'd have something.  And that something would be DEEPWATER HORIZON (2016).

The 2010 explosion in the Gulf of Mexico of the offshore drilling rig "Deepwater Horizon" is vividly depicted in this fast-paced and thoroughly engrossing film, which pays as much attention to the personal stories of its characters as it does to the dazzling and often heart-stopping action.

Mark Wahlberg plays chief engineer Mike Williams, who leaves his faithful wife Felicia (Kate Hudson) and young daughter behind for a three-week stint aboard the title rig, which is actually a large, untethered ship from which a probing pipeline, the deepest ever, is drilled into the ocean floor in search of oil deposits to be harvested later.

When he and his boss, known affectionately by all as "Mister Jimmy" (Kurt Russell), find that corners are being cut and safety measures ignored by the arrogant, penny-pinching company executive Vidrine (John Malkovich), their urgent warnings are ignored. 

Naturally, disaster is imminent, and by that I mean the kind of "disaster-movie" disaster which, if done right, can keep us on the edge of our seats from the first fiery blast to the last smokey cinder.

Director Peter Berg (late of "Chicago Hope" and director of such films as FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS and PATRIOTS DAY) knows exactly how to handle a movie like this, starting out with a slowly building sense of unease and gradual increase of tension as the drilling technicians are ordered to exert pressure on the submerged pipeline that we, along with our two main heroes, know it can't handle.

The fact that these characters are based on real people whom we get to know and like as they go about their daily lives gives the prospect of their imminent peril even more gravitas.  Wahlberg and Russell are experts at playing this kind of blue-collar hero, with Gina Rodriguez as rig designer Andrea and Dylan O'Brien as drilling floor worker Caleb also adept. 

On the opposite end, John Malkovich plays the coldly-calculating company man Vidrine to the fullest of his considerable abilities. Not too sure about his accent, though--I think it's supposed to be cajun but it's kind of hard to tell. Russell's real-life daughter Kate, on the other hand, seems to have done a little homework on hers.

The first half of the film is all suspense mixed with, in my case, a sort of wide-eyed awe at the vastness and complexity of this modern offshore drilling rig whose bridge resembles that of a futuristic starship. 

We're made even more uneasy when it becomes clear that the new vessel is ridden with bugs and woefully unprepared for what's to come--nothing seems to work, not even the telephones, and even worse, not even crucial alarm systems. 

When the inevitable occurs at about the halfway point, DEEPWATER HORIZON suddenly becomes one of the most mind-bogglingly epic and consistently thrilling action flicks I've seen in many years.  Everything hits the fan once the big pressure test on the pipeline goes wrong, and when this monster goes up in flames, the result is one of the most astounding and downright hellish conflagrations ever filmed.

After that, the latter half of DEEPWATER HORIZON is pure non-stop action and suspense mixed with heartrending human drama which director Berg pulls off with nary a misstep. 

Camerawork and editing are exquisite, while the SPFX, including an amazing full-scale mockup of the rig itself topped by a working heliport, are a near-flawless combination of practical and digital effects which help to engage the viewer in a thrillingly immersive experience.    

The two-disc set from Lionsgate's Summit Entertainment offers the feature film on both Blu-ray (1080P High Definition 16x9 Widescreen) and DVD (16x9 Widescreen) in addition to instructions on downloading a digital copy.  Needless to say, picture and audio quality are excellent.

Blu-ray Audio: English Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD compatible), Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital, English 2.0 Dolby Digital Audio Optimized for Late-Night Listening, English Descriptive Audio.  DVD Audio: English 5.1 Dolby Digital Audio, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital Audio, English Descriptive Audio. Subtitles are in English and Spanish.

Blu-ray extras consist of the following featurettes:

“Beyond the Horizon” Hour-Long Five-Part Series
“Captain of the Rig: Peter Berg” Featurette
“The Fury of the Rig” SPFX Featurette
“Deepwater Surveillance” Raw Footage Featurette
“Work Like An American” Tributes

The DVD contains “The Fury of the Rig”, “Deepwater Surveillance” and "Work Like an American."

All too rarely does a movie comes along which sets out to do something amazing and then does it so well that it leaves the viewer in a state of prolonged astonishment.  DEEPWATER HORIZON does exactly that, and I would, without hesitation, call it one of the finest and most spectacular action/disaster epics that I have ever seen.

DEEPWATER HORIZON -- Blu-ray/DVD Review by Porfle

THE TOWERING INFERNO -- Mini Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 9/16/20

 

Just watched the 1974 disaster flick THE TOWERING INFERNO for the first time.

Tacky looking, poorly directed and shot for much of its running time. Picks up when the fire gets going, due in large part to the fact that producer Irwin Allen directed the action scenes himself.

John Guillerman (KING KONG '76) blundered his way through the awful dramatic scenes and gets official directing credit.

Mostly a trudge, with one of John Williams' all-time worst musical scores (sounds like TV-movie dreck or, worse, the same Mickey-Mousing as heard in such films as AIRPORT '75).

But if you can make it far enough, the picture really gets good at the very end when architect Paul Newman and firefighter Steve McQueen make a desperate last-ditch attempt to stop the fire before everyone on the top floor gets consumed. The result is a rousing and surprisingly raucous finale.

The SPFX work ranges from hokey to very impressive. The stars are pretty much just going through the motions for a paycheck, but to be fair, they don't have much of a script to inspire them.

 

Also taking part in this star-studded spectacle are William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Robert Vaughn, Richard Chamberlain, Fred Astaire, Jennifer Jones, Robert Wagner, O.J. Simpson, and even "Brady Bunch" kid Mike Lookinland.

All in all, THE TOWERING INFERNO is an okay but rather exhausting time waster.

THE TOWERING INFERNO -- Mini Review by Porfle

Three Extras Killed Filming "NOAH'S ARK" (1928)(video)

 

During the key flood sequence, safety was ignored in favor of spectacle.
 
Extras were not warned of the severity of the water that would engulf them.

These included a young Marion "Duke" Morrison (John Wayne).  

While the stars were doing their closeups...
...the unwary extras were being deluged by deadly torrents of water.

Their fear is real as they scramble for their lives.
Several extras were seriously injured.

Three of them were killed.  


I neither own nor claim any rights to this material.  Just having some fun with it.  Thanks for watching!

Three Extras Killed Filming "NOAH'S ARK" (1928)(video)

George Kennedy Sex Scene ("THE CONCORDE...AIRPORT '79")(video)

 

The holy grail for many rabid, true-blue George Kennedy fans...

...must surely be his bare-shoulders sex scene with Bibi Andersson.

It may be considered one of the absolute high points in non-erotic sex cinema...

...just as the film itself is a milestone in non-exciting action cinema.

(Read our review of the film HERE.)

I neither own nor claim any rights to this material.  Just having some fun with it. Thanks for watching!

George Kennedy Sex Scene ("THE CONCORDE...AIRPORT '79")(video)

Martha Raye's Worst Role: The Bathroom Lady In "AIRPORT '79: THE CONCORDE" (video)

 

Martha Raye was one of the most talented comediennes of both the large or small screen.

She even stole scenes from Charlie Chaplin in "Monsieur Verdoux."

(Check out the rowboat scene sometime.)

But her role as "The Bathroom Lady" in this, the worst of the "Airport" films...

...must rank as the absolute nadir of her illustrious career.


I neither own nor claim any rights to this material.  Just having some fun with it. Thanks for watching!

 

Martha Raye's Worst Role: The Bathroom Lady In "AIRPORT '79: THE CONCORDE" (video)

"INVASION PLANET EARTH" -- Supernatural Sci-Fi Action Adventure Film Arrives on Digital and DVD February 4 -- Watch Trailer HERE!

"Grab your popcorn, buckle up and enjoy the ride" - BRITFLICKS

"A science fiction film for our Extinction Rebellion Era" -STARBURST MAGAZINE

"An achievement in filmmaking" -VULTURE HOUND

4 DIGITAL MEDIA INVITES HOME AUDIENCES TO EXPERIENCE THE SCI-FI ACTION ADVENTURE

"INVASION PLANET EARTH"

Arriving On VOD And Digital HD On Leading Digital Platforms
And DVD On February 4, 2020.



When a gigantic alien mothership launches a devastating attack on Earth’s cities, Thomas Dunn, a London doctor, discovers the truth to why they are attacking and why only he can save humanity. INVASION PLANET EARTH stars Simon Haycock, Lucy Drive, Sophie Anderson, Julie Hoult and Danny Steele.


WATCH THE OFFICIAL TRAILER:


 
SYNOPSIS
After the death of his young daughter, Thomas Dunn is a broken man. When his wife falls pregnant again, he cannot believe their luck. However, his joy is short lived, as on the very same day, the people of Earth become plagued with terrifying visions of the end of the world.

When a gigantic, all-consuming alien mothership appears in the sky and launches a ruthless attack on Earth’s cities, chaos and destruction follows!

Tom must find the strength and wisdom to save his wife and unborn child. However, first he must confront a shocking truth. A truth which threatens the key to the survival of the human race.


PROGRAM INFORMATION

VOD: Available on Cable and Leading Digital Providers (Amazon, iTunes, Fandango Now, AT&T, Comcast, DirecTV, etc)
DVD: Available at Walmart, Amazon and local retailers
Directed By: Simon Cox
Written By: Simon Cox, Simon Bovey
Produced by: Simon Cox
Starring: Simon Haycock, Lucy Drive, Toyah Willcox, Sophie Anderson, Julie Hoult, Danny Steele and Ian Brooker
Composer: Benjamin Symons
D.O.P: Gordon Hickie
Production Company: AlphaStar Productions
Distribution: 4Digital Media
Run Time: 92 Minutes 49 Sec
Rating: NR
Genre: Sci-Fi, Action, Adventure
Aspect Ratio: 16x9 (2.35:1)
Audio:  2.1 Stereo, 5.1 Dolby Digital
Language: English

EXTRAS INCLUDE:

    The Making of Invasion Planet Earth
    Deleted Scenes
    Director Commentary Track with writer/director Simon Cox
    Trailer

---------------------------
For more information about INVASION PLANET EARTH:
OFFICIAL WEBSITE
IMDB
FACEBOOK
TWITTER
OFFICIAL HASHTAG: #InvasionPlanetEarth

"INVASION PLANET EARTH" -- Supernatural Sci-Fi Action Adventure Film Arrives on Digital and DVD February 4 -- Watch Trailer HERE!

"13 MINUTES" -- Trace Adkins, Thora Birch, Peter Facinelli, Anne Heche, Will Peltz, and Pas Vega Board Natural Disaster Movie

TRACE ADKINS, THORA BIRCH, PETER FACINELLI, ANNE HECHE, WILL PELTZ AND PAZ VEGA BOARD NATURAL DISASTER MOVIE

“13 MINUTES”

Highland Film Group Will Launch International Sales at AFM, with Principal Photography commencing November 11th

LOS ANGELES (November 1, 2019) – Highland Film Group announced today that Trace Adkins (Deepwater Horizon, The Lincoln Lawyer), Golden Globe® nominated Thora Birch (‘The Walking Dead’, The Last Black Man in San Francisco), Peter Facinelli (Twilight saga, Countdown) Tony Award nominated and Emmy® award winner Anne Heche (The Best of Enemies, “Chicago PD”), Will Peltz (“Euphoria,” Unfriended), and Paz Vega (Rambo: Last Blood, “The OA”) have signed on to Lindsay Gossling’s feature directorial debut 13 Minutes. The story was developed by Travis Farncombe and Gossling with additional casting currently underway. Gossling will also produce under her production shingle Involving Pictures alongside Travis Farncombe and Karen Harnisch. Cassian Elwes and Jere Hausfater for Elevated Films will executive produce, in association with ImpactWX. Highland Film Group is handling international sales beginning at the AFM next week.  Cassian Elwes through Elevated Films is handling the US sale in collaboration with Highland Film Group.

In a small American town, residents begin a day as ordinary as the next. Mother Nature, however, has other plans for them. Inhabitants have just 13 Minutes to seek shelter before the largest tornado on record ravages the town, leaving them struggling to protect their loved ones and fighting for their lives. Principal photography will start November 11th on location in Tornado Alley.

Adkins is an actor and American country music singer with 11 million albums sold and multiple hit singles.  His film credits include: Screen Gems’ Academy Award® nominated Country Strong with Gwyneth Paltrow and Tim McGraw; Lionsgate’s The Lincoln Lawyer starring Matthew McConaughey; Lionsgate’s Academy Award® nominated Deepwater Horizon starring Mark Wahlberg; and Lionsgate’s I Can Only Imagine alongside Dennis Quaid.

Birch currently stars on season ten of AMC’s blockbuster series The Walking Dead. Birch recently appeared in Joe Talbot’s Sundance Award winning The Last Black Man in San Francisco. She was nominated for a Golden Globe® award for her role in Academy Award® nominated Ghost World starring alongside Scarlett Johansson.  Birch has also starred in Dreamworks’ Academy Award® winning American Beauty, New Line Cinema’s Now and Then, Paramount Pictures’ Academy Award® nominated Clear and Present Danger and Patriot Games, as well as the Halloween classic, Disney’s Hocus Pocus.

Facinelli starred in Summit Entertainment’s Twilight saga alongside Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson and Showtime’s Golden Globe® nominated “Nurse Jackie” with Edie Falco.  Additional credits include: STX Entertainment’s Countdown, CBS’ “Supergirl,” Universal Pictures’ The Scorpion King and Columbia Pictures’ Riding in Cars with Boys.  Facinelli recently directed his first feature film, Breaking & Exiting starring Milo Gibson and Jordan Danger, and is currently in post-production on his sophomore feature film, Hour of Lead, which he stars in alongside Thomas Jane and Anne Heche.

Heche is an author, a Tony-nominated and Emmy-winning actress who recently starred in STX Entertainment’s The Best of Enemies with Taraji P. Henson and Sam Rockwell and on NBC’s “Chicago P.D.”  Some of Heche’s most iconic films include Six Days & Seven Nights with Harrison Ford, Volcano with Tommy Lee Jones, Wag the Dog with Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman, Donnie Brasco with Johnny Depp and Al Pacino, John Q with Denzel Washington, Catfight with Sandra Oh. Heche recently reprised her role in a performance of Twentieth Century with Alec Baldwin on Broadway.

Peltz starred in Universal Pictures’ Unfriended with Heather Sossaman and Matthew Bohrer, Paramount Pictures’ Men, Women & Children starring Adam Sandler and Jennifer Garner, Relativity Media’s Paranoia with Liam Hemsworth and Gary Oldman, and Twentieth Century Fox’s In Time alongside Justin Timberlake and Olivia Wilde.  He is currently in post-production on Nick Everhart’s InstaFame and Jon Abrahams’ Exploited.

Vega can currently be seen in Rambo: Lost Blood starring opposite Sylvester Stallone. Some of her recent credits include: “The OA Part I” and “Part II” on Netflix, Acts of Vengeance starring opposite Antonio Banderas, American Nights starring opposite Emile Hirsch, All Roads Lead to Rome starring opposite Sarah Jessica Parker and Emperor starring opposite Adrien Brody. Vega portrayed Maria Callas alongside Nicole Kidman, Tim Roth, and Frank Langella in Grace of Monaco. She has also appeared in Frank Miller’s The Spirit, directed by Frank Miller with Gabriel Macht, Samuel L. Jackson, and Scarlett Johansson; 10 Items or Less, with Morgan Freeman and Jonah Hill; Triage opposite Colin Farrell; Pedro Almodovar’s I’m So Excited; Beautiful & Twisted opposite Rob Lowe; Kill the Messenger opposite Jeremy Renner for Focus Features; and Spanglish, with Adam Sandler and Téa Leoni. In Spain, Vega is well-known for starring in the series “7 Vidas”, billed as the Spanish “Friends” and one of the country’s best-loved sitcoms. She has starred in such Spanish films as Carmen, Talk to Her, and Sex and Lucia.

Adkins is represented by UTA and Greg Baker. Birch is repped by Buchwald and Luber Roklin Entertainment.  Facinelli is repped by Abrams Artists Agency and Mainstay Entertainment.  Vega and Heche are represented by Paradigm Talent Agency with Vega also repped by Management Production Entertainment. Heche repped by Untitled Entertainment.  Peltz is repped by Innovative Artists and Management Production Entertainment.

Highland Film Group’s slate also includes: Ray Giarratana’s The Tiger Rising starring Queen Latifah and Dennis Quaid; Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion’s Becky starring Lulu Wilson, Kevin James, and Joel McHale; Jiu Jitsu starring Nicolas Cage, Alain Moussi, Tony Jaa, Frank Grillo, and Rick Yune; Open Source starring Bruce Willis; Persephone starring Brianna Hildebrand; John   Krokidas’   Tunnels   starring   Susan Sarandon and Joeden Martell; Vaughn Stein’s Inheritance starring Lily Collins and Simon Pegg; Marc Meyer’s thriller We Summon the Darkness starring Johnny Knoxville and Alexandra Daddario; David Stassen’s Happy Life starring Ike Barinholtz and Alexandra Daddario; Trauma Center starring Bruce Willis; Michael Polish’s Axis Sally starring Al Pacino; Southland starring Bella Thorne and Jake Manley; and Skylines, the third chapter of the successful franchise, starring Lindsey Morgan.


About Highland Film Group
Led by founding partners Arianne Fraser and Delphine Perrier, Highland Film Group (HFG) is an independent worldwide sales, production and film financing company. Launched in 2010, HFG has had success across a wide range of film genres and platforms, building a reputation for handling high-octane films in the action/horror/thriller space, focusing on cast, director, film maker driven content.

HFG’s diversified production and sales slate includes: Joe Carnahan’s Boss Level starring Naomi Watts and Mel Gibson; Michael Cristofer’s The Night Clerk starring Tye Sheridan, Ana de Armas and Helen Hunt; Shawn Ku’s A Score to Settle starring Nicolas Cage; Berlin, I Love You with Helen Mirren, Keira Knightley, Jim Sturgess, Mickey Rourke, Diego Luna, and Jenna Dewan Tatum; Lin Oeding’s thriller Braven starring Jason Momoa; Steven C. Miller’s action thriller Escape Plan 2: Hades starring Sylvester Stallone and Dave Bautista.

About Involving Pictures
Involving Pictures is the production company of writer/director/producer Lindsay Gossling. The company’s debut feature film, A Translator (written and produced by Gossling), premiered in Sundance in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition in 2018 and is Cuba’s official foreign film submission for the 2020 Academy Awards.

About Elevated Films
Elevated Films is an independent film and television production company founded and operated by Cassian Elwes. Elevated is currently in post-production on Nicholas Jarecki’s DREAMLAND, beginning production on Lina Roessler’s BEST SELLERS starring Michael Caine, and in active development on multiple projects. Cassian and Elevated are well known for producing Academy Award winning and nominated films such as Dee Rees’ MUDBOUND, Jean-Marc Vallée's DALLAS BUYERS CLUB and LEE DANIELS’ THE BUTLER. The company has worked with many of the world’s best directors including Marc Forster, Werner Herzog, David Lowery, J.C. Chandor, Derek Cianfrance, John Hillcoat, and Eli Roth among many others.

About ImpactWX
ImpactWX is a Toronto-based social impact fund that supports innovation through strategic partnerships, direct investments and charitable donations. Its mission is to enable organizations who, through scientific understanding and public awareness, work to improve people’s response and safety during severe weather events.

"13 MINUTES" -- Trace Adkins, Thora Birch, Peter Facinelli, Anne Heche, Will Peltz, and Pas Vega Board Natural Disaster Movie

John Wayne's Coolest Scenes #44: Desperate Landing, "High and the Mighty" (1954) (video)

(SPOILERS!)

Duke is co-captain on a crippled prop plane from Hawaii...

...that has just barely made it to the California coast.

But now, with failing engines and about a minute's worth of gasoline...

...there's still the little matter of landing the plane.


I neither own nor claim any rights to this material.  Just having some fun with it. Thanks for watching!

John Wayne's Coolest Scenes #44: Desperate Landing, "High and the Mighty" (1954) (video)

John Wayne's Coolest Scenes #43: Cargo Dump, "High and the Mighty" (1954) (video)

Duke is co-captain on a crippled prop plane over the Pacific Ocean...

...trying to make it to the California coast.

But it looks like they may have to ditch in the ocean.

Either way, they must lose as much weight as possible...

...and that means tossing all the passengers' luggage to the fishes.


I neither own nor claim any rights to this material.  Just having some fun with it. Thanks for watching!

John Wayne's Coolest Scenes #43: Cargo Dump, "High and the Mighty" (1954) (video)

John Wayne's Coolest Scenes #4: Cockpit, "The High & The Mighty" (1954) (video)

Veteran pilot Duke is back after a long absence following a plane disaster.

Robert Stack plays an experienced pilot who is losing his nerve.

Their damaged plane is struggling to reach the California coast before having to ditch.

Will they make it?


I neither own nor claim any rights to this material.  Just having some fun with it.  Thanks for watching!

John Wayne's Coolest Scenes #4: Cockpit, "The High & The Mighty" (1954) (video)