Leofwine_draca I caught this on TV under the title Cat. 8: Armageddon. It's a SyFy Channel disaster movie made in a two-part miniseries format rather than the usual slot. Otherwise, all of the plot elements are the same as you'd see in a usual movie. This one was filmed in Canada like many others (blame the tax breaks) and surprisingly doesn't feel slow despite the three-hour running time.The story is about a failed scientific experiment affecting the Sun and causing solar flares to strike Earth. Attempts to fix the problem only serve to make things worse when the planet stops spinning on its axis. Of course, the only person with the power to save the world is a renegade scientist, played by screen veteran Matthew Modine.Half of the running time follows Modine and his friends and family attempting to evade the ruthless authorities who plan to stop him for no good reason. The other half involves the President attempting to keep a control on things. There's also a human villain, the Secretary of Defense, working for his own ends and only making things worse. The usual gamut of cheap acting and lousy CGI effects plays out, but this is notably more likable than many SyFy efforts, feeling like a throwback to earlier disaster movies such as DEEP IMPACT more than anything else.

William Rich A masterpiece of classic juvenile science fiction. Captures the pure joy and innocence of those glorious summer afternoon porch swing reads of youth. Excellent casting, special effects, and overall outstanding production values provide an easy and thoroughly enjoyable and healing suspension of belief adventure. I am researching the production crew to find other similar productions. The 10 line review minimum seems somewhat heavy handed. I personally appreciate quality over quantity. Having just finished the movie, I am simply trying to capture the good feelings from my youth that the movie gave me, as simply and honestly as possible. I simply hope that others will see the movie and come away similarly happy. To my surprise, it appears my line counting English teacher of my youth has also invaded my revelries. Alas, even now I still have mandatory lines to complete. My cat seemed to enjoy the soundtrack as it snoozed near by. Hopefully, this will be line 10 -- yes!

PanoactionImagineer Its a shame someone like Mathew Modine was suckered into this. He is good as usual at keeping a solid character portrayal but thats where it all ends. After that this is probably one of the hardest things I have ever made myself watch. A real lousy implementation of VFX. The fact that his partner did not complain to someone is totally unreal. Let us not forget of course the complete misrepresentation of scientific fact. Finally what happened to the payback against secretary of defense and his sidekick. The ending is a complete let down. Who ever funded this must be regretting it now! Don't waist your time unless you wan to see how not to make a sci-fi. This is more like a bad drama.

Warloq At the outset, let it be understood that there is virtually no suspension of disbelief to be found in this sci-fi folly.Science, and science fiction fans more importantly, understand that some scientific capital must be invested in a science fiction narrative to make it at least partially believable. No such investment occurred here, and therein lies the beginning of a bailout that never happened.The absence of suspension of disbelief is well supported. There clearly was a vulgar absence of scientific research within the arena's of the scientific disciplines upon which the (weak) foundation of this cinematic effort was based.Enough of this. Sci-fi fans of any stripe will understand the elements that are lacking. And that would be all of them. Satellites falling from orbit to impact Earth within MINUTES of critical solar events? International Space Station hitting the Earth and delivering an impact equivalent to the destruction delivered by hundreds of megatons of nuclear bombs? The I.S.S. is pretty much comprised of what amounts to little more than aluminum foil. The electro-magnetic effects of solar events assailing the Earth in mere seconds?It's hard not to laugh out loud at the sheer absurdity of these film elements. Oh wait. I did laugh. Out loud.The acting was careless and amateurish at best. Even veteran actor Matthew Modine delivered a performance that was stiff and over-rehearsed. The characters of the President and Vice President of the United States were just plain spooky and damned creepy. Personally, I feel the characters of the Prez and the Veep required lobotomies. That may seem a radical concept, but they *are* playing US politicians -- the majority of whom have already been lobotomized, I'd venture to guess. If you watch this film to its conclusion, I have the contact number for Lobotomies-R-Us.