20140128: SciFi Review--100 Degrees Below Zero

100 Degrees Below Zero

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2013, NR, 89 minutes, SciFi
2. IMDB: 2.5/10.0 from 675 audience ratings.  Estimated budget, 500,000 USD; aspect, 1.78
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No score yet,' and 93% wanted to see it from 64 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 2.8/5.0 from 116,053 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: R. D. Braunstein.
6. Starring: John Rhys-Davies as Colonel Ralph Dillard, Jeff Fahey as Steve Foster, Sara Malakul Lane as Taryn Foster, Marc Ewins as Ryan Foster, Ivan Kamaras as Dr. Goldschein, Luke Healy as Lieutenant Perkins.


2. Setup and Plot
1. There is a huge volcanic eruption in Iceland.  The resulting ash cloud heads toward Europe, and causes temperatures to drop.


2. Steve is flying in with his new wife Lacey.  The cloud diverts his flight to London from Paris.  Meanwhile, son Ryan and daughter Taryn are waiting in Paris.


3. Doctor Goldschein and colleagues try to predict the progress of the cooling, the volcanic eruptions, and the earthquakes.  Goldschein tries to coordinate with Colonel Dillard.  He predicts massive snowstorms and that the cooling will last perhaps 18 to 24 months.  To make matters worse, the rising sulfide levels (?) mean that polar melt will increase, even though the air temperature is going down.  Hence there will be rising sea levels to go with the snowfall.  If the predictions are correct, survival in Europe will be unlikely at best: 16 inches of ash fall, many feet of snowfall, dropping temperatures.


4. Lacey and Steve decide to get warm clothes, and to rent a car to drive to Paris from London.  Ryan and Taryn try to hole up in Paris as best they can.  The US embassy has been deserted, and they head for the Louvre.  Before they can leave the embassy, they get themselves trapped in a locked basement room.  Then Ryan gets a big electric shock.  An ER resuscitating shock machine just happens to be in a nearby room.  Sure.


5. Steve knows Dillard from Desert Storm.  They get the promise of help from Dillard, who is in Germany.  Dillard offers seats to go to Australia if they can get to Paris in ten hours.  They get in touch with the children and set up a rendezvous point.


6. Will the parents meet the kids?  Will any of them reach Colonel Dillard in time?


3. Conclusions
1. Asylum Pictures; oi.
2. One line summary: Family tries to reunite while natural disaster strikes Europe.
3. Two stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 7/10 Not too bad, but has a habit of soft focus.


2. Sound: 6/10 Incidental music was varied between irritating and irrelevant.  The actors were miked well enough.


3. Acting: 3/10 John Rhys-Davies and Jeff Fahey were wasted in this film.  Sara Malakul Lane, Marc Ewins, and Ivan Kamaras were truly bad.


4. Screenplay: 4/10 How many times do the son and daughter need to fall down or say 'are you okay?  In any case, the repeats were more than a bit much.  How did the 'rising seas' figure into the plot?  How were the planes able to fly to Australia, but not around Europe?  These were not the only plot points that make no sense.  For instance, during a cell phone conversation, the kids say that only the Eiffel Tower was standing whereas one's eyes show everything still standing around them.


5. SFX: 2/10 Hail the size of basketballs?  This was mighty unconvincing.  Even worse, one of them grazes Ryan and knocks him down and out.  In contrast, Taryn raises her dainty foot and knocks another one away by touching it.  It's nice to know that physics is controlled by PC.  The CGI of storms out at sea was also beyond unbelievable.  Why was there rain on the windshield during a snowstorm?