Arctic Blast (2010) Reviews

• Good Drama, Bad Science

  Orukxu2011-01-14

  In short, the film has good acting, reasonably good drama, but bases itself on such bad science that it completely loses its credibility. This film uses a very standard disaster movie recipe, replete with the scientist warning the people in power of the danger, mysterious deaths that have to be investigated, then thousands of people dying in a catastrophe, the people in power acknowledging the scientist was right, the scientist saving the world, and even the all important scientist-marriage-is- in-trouble-but-saved-by-the-disaster cliché. It even has a green eco-warning about pollution. Scientifically, the movie is incredibly flawed, and this distracts greatly from enjoying it. The main premise, that the ozone layer keeps the cold air in the Mesosphere, is not the only major flaw. Many of the special effects of flash freezing at -100F, a deadly ice fog that appears to be slow enough to outrun on foot and fast enough to catch a speeding car at 100kph simultaneously, weather balloons launched from Queensland making it to 500 miles south of Tassie in 20 minutes by using a 'South Polar Jetstream' (which would have to be doing 7,700 kph to accomplish this), and even include a medical misrepresentation of the symptoms of hyperglycemia in a diabetic person. Other technical problems include the main character hacking a military satellite to obtain weather data, and being an all around genius with an unlikely quantity of giftings in meteorology, computers, and mechanical disciplines (but of course hopeless at relationships). *Spoiler* - one scene that was particularly terrible was the main character rushing off to get insulin for the diabetic character, JUST AS the computer was finishing the simulation necessary to save the entire world, leaving a 16 year old to figure out what to do. Who would do that? And of course once she does figure it out, the diesel generators go out, thereby again requiring the protagonist to return to complete the upload. Seriously? It's the most dramatic scene in the movie, and is just as flawed as the main premise. Dramatically, the acting is actually very good, and the storytelling plot line moves at a good pace - it's never boring or too fast to follow. There's good character development and the accent mixes are believable and explained. The locales are generally believable and well constructed. Overall, if you can suspend your intellect for a while, it's a pretty entertaining movie and worth watching. But if you are into hard science fiction, or are bothered by scientific inaccuracy (in order to create plot devices), then you might consider choosing something else. I give the movie 3 stars purely on acting and drama, with the remainder missing due to the aforementioned technical problems.

• If you love bad movies

  csheehandoe2011-02-12

  Easily one of the worst movies of all time. I'm understating it. This is the kind of bad that causes you to pause the movie so you can call your friends and tell them you are watching the worst movie in the world! Which is, of course, the very reason I loved it. I couldn't shut it off. The script is shameless, "releasing magnesium payload from high-altitude balloons..." This movie had me the whole way. You couldn't make this movie up. A killer cloud of ice, people freezing to death all over the place. A small fire that keeps the whole house from freezing and killing everybody in it. The fearless refusal to confront the obvious contradictions in the story; such as, the ability to go outside when necessary to get medicine and the ability to outrun the killer cloud by foot, when appropriate. This is a movie for the ages. Its a topical film that is all around brilliant in its ability to make you watch because you can't believe your eyes. You know its getting worse and you can't wait. If you love bad movies you need to see this movie immediately. Right now, today. Arctic Blast is easily one of the worst movies of all time. No question about it. Run out and see it today.

• Funny for all the wrong reasons.

  jim-penny2011-02-09

  First of all, let me start by saying that 1 star is more generous than I'd like to be, however I'll award that one star for the comedy of errors. Who did the research for this movie? Honestly - giving insulin to a person with low blood sugar (a dangerous thing for somebody to learn from a movie) and that complete nonsense about the mesosphere falling. I doubt if it was a school kid because they are generally more educated than this. It scored an F minus on the science. The Australian accents were either fake or overdone. The direction was abysmal. What an embarrassment for the local emergency services to be involved in this movie. The acting was high-school grade for the most part. They obviously had a couple of professional actors. The special effects looked like something out of the old Batman TV series or Power Rangers. To think that I paid money for this. It's honestly challenging the position of Santa Claus conquers the Martians as worst movie yet. When it gets to the stage where you're laughing at how amateurish a movie is, it's just not worth it.

• Don't waste your time

  gallloping2011-01-02

  I was extremely disappointed with this movie. Basic common denominators were forgotten when making this film. ie. A vehicle will not start at - 100 especially if you live in a country where gasoline isn't treated to endure freezing temperatures. Also you could not brush the ice off a windshield.... You would be scraping a very long time; when it's cold you would see your breath; these are some basic but important realities that were totally overlooked in this film. I'm guessing the makers of this movie have never actually experienced living in a cold climate and understanding the reality of it. This movie was much too unrealistic and anyone thinking about watching it think again.

• Something just froze over...

  paul_haakonsen2011-02-13

  "Arctic Blast" started out with lots of potential, though you knew right from the very beginning that there wasn't talk about a major blockbuster movie here. But still, the plot seemed promising and the CGI effects weren't too shabby. But of course it was all flushed down the drain, when the producers started having these arctic rifts open up in the atmosphere in multiple locations around the globe. Had they kept it to the one near Tazmania, as the first one was there, the movie had been all that much better. Surely if a weather phenomena like that hits Australia, the rest of the world would know about it. But suddenly there were arctic rifts over London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Amsterdam, and no one seemed to know about this in advance. You'd think there would be alarms going off at meteorological stations and such. But no... Actually, the plot of the story was solid enough and truly had potential. It was just killed off by too much ambition and the need to cause too much havoc and destruction. You would think that fog at -90 degrees Fahrenheit would be able to freeze the surface water solid, when it apparently can freeze a huge ship and people instantly. Throughout the movie there were a few mistakes and bloopers here and there. But nothing in the caliber that it really made the movie laughable. Of course, you should take "Arctic Blast" for what it is, a fairly low budget natural disaster movie. And it is an ambitious one at that too. And the end result wasn't too bad. But of course, there was the traditional sugar-coated happy ending. Come on! Firing missiles into the rift makes it all alright? Alrighty then... There are better disaster movies available on the market. But "Arctic Blast" is worth a watch if you got nothing better to do and if you like natural disaster movies. Just prepare yourself for a movie that wants to do big stuff but doesn't really manage to keep hold of the ambition.