Posts Tagged ‘disaster film’

Movie Review – The Towering Inferno (1974)

During the early 1970s era of “shake and bake” disaster films, one of the biggest and best was 1974’s The Towering Inferno.

Set in San Francisco, California, The Towering Inferno tells a story of the opening of the world’s tallest building, and a party that celebrates its completion.  Faulty wiring causes a fire to start halfway up the building, and it’s not long before the party guests discover that they’re trapped at the top of the glass tower.  As the flames continue to grow and climb their way up the skyscraper, the people are forced to deal with the threat as they try every way possible to escape from the deadly fire.

Directed by John Guillermin and with music by John Williams, The Towering Inferno stars Hollywood legends Steve McQueen as a battalion chief for the fire department, and Paul Newman as the architect of the skyscraper.  Supporting them are a group of familiar actors and actresses including William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Fred Astaire, Richard Chamberlain, Robert Vaughn and Robert Wagner.  Also in The Towering Inferno is O.J. Simpson in one of his first acting roles.

The Towering Inferno begins with Doug Roberts (Paul Newman) returning to San Francisco for the dedication ceremony for the Glass Tower, the world’s largest building, a building that he designed himself.  The Glass Tower is owned and was built by James Duncan (William Holden), a wealthy person who is looking forward to showing off the prestigious building to the top members of society.  He insists that Roberts be there later that evening for the dedication ceremony. Read more…

Movie Review – Earthquake (1974)

The 1970s were known as being the golden era for disaster films.

From 1970′s Airport to 1972′s The Poseidon Adventure to the pinnacle of disaster films in 1974′s blazing hit, The Towering Inferno, it’s no wonder that movies from that time period were also known as “shake and bake.”

Disaster films would continue to be popular through the 1990s and 2000 era, but it’s still argued that the early 1970s produced some of the best disaster films of all time.  One of my personal favorite disaster films is 1974′s Earthquake.  Earthquake has its minor flaws and wasn’t the best of the disaster films, but my fascination of earthquakes and the realistic profile of “the Big One” striking Los Angeles keeps this disaster movie near the top of my listing.

Earthquake follows the lives of several Los Angeles residents before, during, and after the devastating earthquake destroys much of L.A.  They’re forced to deal with the situation along with their emotions while dealing with aftershocks and a variety of dangerous situations.

Directed by Mark Robson, written by George Fox and Mario Puzo, and with music composed by John Williams, Earthquake has a handful of popular 1970s movie stars in its cast.  Today’s audience will most likely only recognize a couple of the actors including George Kennedy as Lew Slade, a tough cop who resents bureaucracy and red tape in the police organization, Richard Roundtree as Miles Quade, a stunt motorcyclist hoping to impress a Las Vegas casino, Walter Matthau as a town drunk, and Hollywood legend Charlton Heston in the starring role as Stewart Graff, a building engineer caught in the mess of the Los Angeles earthquake.

Earthquake (1974) – (c) Universal Pictures

Earthquake begins with Stewart Graff (Chalton Heston) out jogging and returning to his home in Los Angeles, California.  He continues exercising as his wife, Remy Royce-Graff (Ava Gardner) tries to pick a fight with him.  Stewart refuses her attitude and takes a shower.  When he returns to the bedroom he finds Remy on the bed and barely conscious.  It looks like she swallowed a bunch of pills in an attempted suicide (again).  Just as he’s about to induce vomiting, there’s a small earth tremor.  The movement jolts Remy awake and shows that she was faking the suicide attempt.  Disgusted at his wife’s dire attempt for attention, Stewart leaves for work at the engineering firm. Read more…

Movie Review – Deep Impact (1998)

In honor of the massive Russian meteor that impacted near the city of Chelyabinsk, today we’re reviewing the 1998 natural disaster film, Deep Impact.

Released in 1998, Deep Impact is a film that showcases several lives as a doomsday comet is on an impact course with planet Earth.  Astronauts try to disable the comet, but their efforts merely split the giant asteroid into two large pieces.  The larger of the two pieces is several miles wide and capable of eliminating all live on Earth.  There’s little that the people can do as the asteroid hurls on a path towards Earth.

Deep Impact was released in the same year as Armageddon, another science-fiction doomsday story involving a killer asteroid about to wipe out all life on Earth.  While neither film scored highly with the critics, Deep Impact is often viewed as a slightly more realistic story when it comes to the astronauts trying to stop the asteroid.  Despite that, Armageddon was still the box office winner in the U.S.

Directed by Mimi Leder, Deep Impact stars Robert Duvall as Captain Spurgeon “Fish” Tanner, an astronaut on the Messiah spaceship.  Tea Leoni plays the role of Jenny Lerner, a news reporter who learns about the comet and becomes an anchor reporter once the president announces the news.  Elijah Wood is Leo Biederman, a young high school student and amateur astronomer who helps discover the comet and is swept into fame from the discovery.  Morgan Freeman plays the role of President Tom Beck, leader of the United States of America.  Supporting the cast are Leelee Sobieski as Sarah Hotchner, Maximilian Schell as Jason Lerner, James Cromwell as Secretary Rittenhouse, and Kurtwood Smith as Otis Hefter, an administrator in NASA.

Deep Impact (1998) – (c) Paramount Pictures

Deep Impact begins with some students in a high school’s astronomy club looking at the night sky.  A teacher assists the students with their studies and takes note of a star that Leo Biederman (Elijah Wood) notices in the sky.  They take a picture and send the information out to Dr. Wolf.  Out in Arizona, Dr. Wolf (Charles Martin Smith) takes a further look in the area where Biederman noticed the unusual object.  He checks again and is startled when the computer processes the information.  The object is not a satellite as the teacher originally guessed.  It’s a comet and it’s going to impact the Earth.

The network is down at the observatory, so Dr. Wolf has to drive the urgent information to The Powers That Be.  He labels the information with his name along with that of Biederman (look closely and notice how “Biederman” is misspelled versus the film’s end credits).  Dr. Wolf jumps into his jeep and races down the mountain.  He gets distracted when using his cell phone and crashes off the road, accidentally killing himself in the wreck.

Fast forward a year.

Jenny Lerner (Tea Leoni) is a low-ranking news reporter at MSNBC.  The main news story right now is that Secretary of Treasury Alan Rittenhouse (James Cromwell) is suddenly stepping down from his position without stating a reason.  Jenny hears a rumor that he’s removing himself because of a mistress named “Ellie.”  This could be true as Rittenhouse is both a married man and a devoted father. Read more…

Movie Review – Twister (1996)

When it comes to Hollywood making movies about meteorological events, whether it’s large or small scale, it’s often hard to find that right blend of real science and movie magic.

Sometimes you just need to shut off your brain, sit back, and enjoy a Hollywood blockbuster movie.

This is the case with 1996′s hit movie thrill ride, Twister.

Directed by Jan de Bont, Twister stars Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt as Bill Harding and Dr. Jo Harding, two storm chasers in the process of getting a divorce while trying to implement their new data-gathering weather instruments in the path of a tornado.  The technology will allow them to accurately record the wind speeds and other aspects of the tornadoes, giving scientists better data to study and make more accurate warning systems.  The problem, however, is that the data-gathering instrument, nicknamed Dorothy, has to be placed directly in the path of an oncoming tornado.

Cary Elwes plays the role of Dr. Jonas Miller, a rival storm chaser out to make money instead of pursuing the storms for the science.  Jami Gerz has the role of Dr. Melissa Reeves, Bill’s new fiancée who happens to work as a reproductive therapist.  Some of the fellow storm chasers are played by Philip Seymour Hoffman, Alan Ruck and Jeremy Davies.

Twister (1996) – (c) Warner Bros.

Twister begins in June of 1969 out in the Great Plains.  An ordinary night at Jo’s parent’s farmhouse turns into a disaster as an F5 tornado (the strongest class of tornado on the Fujita scale) bears down on their home.  Young Jo and her parents rush outside to the underground storm shelter.  The powerful tornado arrives and Jo’s father tries to hold the door closed to protect the family.  The tornado’s winds rip off the door and carry away Jo’s father, killing him. Read more…