Low budget #37 The name Fred Olen Ray is familiar to every self-respecting fan of low-budget films. This guy with a cigar works in all directions: disaster movies, dramas, action movies - judging by the website, the comrade made 148 films. This director may be familiar to the average viewer from the films "Alarming Heavens" and "American Bandits: Frank and Jesse James", since they are still sometimes played on the night air of our TV channels. In the rest, the man is extremely diverse - he shoots both serious cinema and nonsense of a cosmic scale. So what is this movie? We're gonna figure it out.
So, before us is a disaster film Fred Olen Ray "Epicenter". The cover refers us to the universal level of destruction, which, of course, will not be (forgive the spoiler). But Lizard wouldn't be himself if he hadn't painted such beautiful covers for the cheapest movies.
You can retell the plot in just a few words: this is a disaster film for TV. That’s all you need to know about this movie. From this it follows that the plot will be incredibly pseudoscientific, there will be no special effects at all, the characters will travel from point A to point B, and then to point B and around the whole film. Did it happen this time? Judge for yourself: the main character wrote a book about the fact that the magnetic poles of the Earth will soon change places, however, no one believed him. Suddenly, due to a nuclear explosion, the poles began to change their location, so only this writer can save the world. Of course, we will get acquainted with all the problems of this hero, because timekeeping must somehow stretch. As a result, everything is as usual: cartoon military, “yes, Mr. President”, shots with special effects are 8-10 seconds in total.
In fact, the film is the same as the one released a year before it "The Last Squall". Also directing Ray, also endless nonsense, while there is an uncontrolled weather anomaly on the city. It’s the same here: the heroes talk and in principle nothing else happens. Yes, there is something incomprehensible happening outside the window, but it cannot be shown due to a lack of budget, so the timekeeping will increase with ordinary chatter and completely useless storylines.
To sum up: a standard television disaster movie that can be watched in the background. A lot of blunders, a lot of inconsistencies, a lot of pseudoscientific delirium - all according to the canon of the genre. Unfortunately, the film is almost no different from its counterparts - it all goes perfectly on SyFy. Yes, and in the genre of telecatastrophe, there is nowhere to run away, that's why the films turn out so ordinary. Well, the day after tomorrow, there's a new disaster movie from The Asylum, let's see what the good old psychics tell us.
Thank you for your attention
6 out of 10