The Last Baron Here in Kuwait we take what we can get in English, especially if you don't know Arabic. This clodhopper came on one of the local movie channels and since the other choices this evening were even worse, I gave it a try.I have rarely seen a more incompetent, badly written piece of shlock. This one takes the cake. Obviously the budget was low and what there was was spent on the sole "name" star - Stephen Baldwin, as could be plainly seen from the ridiculous sets used for ground control as well as the shuttle interior, which looked like it had been recycled in slightly updated form from one of those wonderful 1950s "C" movies.The plot was just horrible, with so many ridiculous blunders and plot "twists" that the end product was ridiculously sophomoric. At one point I wondered aloud if this had been a high school drama class script, it got that bad.As the "goofs" section points out, throughout the movie when the shuttle is flying around the moon and in the chasm, you can hear jet engine sounds which I found not comical but just sad. The actors themselves toss out their lines so totally unconvincingly and devoid of any emotional range that I think some of the lesser-known ones like Amy Price-Francis and Dirk Benedict were just phoning in their performance to get their (probably minuscule) paycheck.Don't waste your time on this piece of dreck. If I were Stephen Baldwin, I'd been trying to get this one expunged from my filmography, it's that bad...The sad thing about "Earthstorm" is that it shows to what pathetic depths the once-proud SciFi Channel has sunk. What happened there? There is still a huge market for science fiction, but NBC Universal apparently chooses to disregard those of us who like this genre and instead fill their broadcast schedule with clunkers like this as well as "pro wrestling," which is definitely fiction, just not "science fiction."

briginsh I recently reviewed the documentary, Earthstorm, narrated by Stephen Baldwin, and I wish to show my appreciation for the great feats the characters achieved...**Jessica Heafey as Major Rachel Fine.flies shuttle with joystick from liftoff directly to moon in less than 20 minutes.jettisons main fuel tank (usually kept until orbit) at the same time as boosters - tank (which would be full of fuel) does not blow up and shuttle does not fall back to earth.avoids asteroids and large sections of broken-up moon - again, using joystick.flies shuttle into middle of the moon with joystick - "it's gonna be dark down there" says the cap-com - but, amazingly, it is not too dark.flies shuttle back from moon having jettisoned the new nuclear engines and the main fuel tank - no doubt this was done by rerouting fuel from the Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) thruster fuel tanks to main engines - usually this would power main engines for a few seconds only, so she must has substantially increased fuel efficiency of shuttle by a factor of some billions.**Stephen Baldwin as John Redding.fattest person in space.walks straight from space shuttle cabin to cargo bay.coolly stands in cargo bay while shuttle is navigated into center of the moon - not even holding onto anything!single-handedly holds nuclear weapon steady in hold - ensuring its safely as shuttle takes moon rock hit.single-handedly correctly judges nuclear blast and thereby welds cracked moon back together by newly discovered magnetic process.**mission controlsuccessful launch of shuttle with no-gos from flight and booster.first launch of shuttle in severe thunderstorm.communicates with shuttle while it is on a ledge in the middle of the moon.built expressive computer voice with ability to detect recovery of moon fault!Pro: mission control has backup generator power - but (con - sorry!) it does not kick in automatically - and then goes out again at the crucial magnetic nuclear detonation stage.**Boeing/NASA.developed nuclear pulse engines for shuttle - which can be heard even in space!installed artificial gravity on shuttle - no one strapped in while in orbit and on moon approach.first torpedo-tube style magnetic nuclear launch from shuttle.substantially upgraded shuttle's durability - previously vulnerable to foam and ice hits, here is can take extensive hits from moon rocks.produced astonishingly maneuverable shuttle with high fuel economy (see above).installed very-useful side windows in cargo bay.in a surprise move, deployed shuttle without bothering to stock it with any spacesuits; also, this "specialized" shuttle has only one deck level and only 3 crew-members.**Overall, pretty harmless and overall enjoyable movie, especially if you are a dweeb who likes spotting mistakes. It's a scifi (syfy?) original so you shouldn't expect Citizen Kane....

fuzzytheanimalsanchez There's two ways to look at Earthstorm.You could go all "Roger Ebert" and complain about the bad acting, the predictable plot, the horrible dialog, etc.Or you can enjoy this film for what it is. I mean, c'mon people, it's produced by the Syfy channel and it stars Stephen Baldwin for crying out loud! If you really thought this was going to be a fantastic science fiction thriller, you are oh so mistaken.I personally was laughing out loud non-stop throughout this b-movie classic. Stephen Baldwin's pathetic attempts at acting provide for near dead-pan comedy (unfortunately he really is trying to be serious).The film is definitely not for everyone. But if you do enjoy beyond-bad-b-movies, enjoy!

tclambert Makes us miss Mystery Science Theater 3000, (MST3K). The SciFi channel seems determined to make the worst science movies possible. Our family thinks SciFi should resurrect MST3K in some form so they can show these movies twice, once straight (-ish) and again a year later with the MST3K crew heckling it end to end. This one would be loads of fun for them. Moon cracked by an asteroid impact! Crack on Moon expected to expand until part of the Moon flies off! (Gravity? On the Moon? Don't be silly!) Fighter plane shoots down a meteor with an air-to-air missile! They plan to pull the Moon back together with magnets! (Gravity? You're just being silly again!) One character says, "We don't know if the Moon even has an iron core." (In fact, we know it doesn't. Its density matches the mantle of the Earth, which is what it is made of.) Shuttle flies to the Moon! Making airliner noises! People this stupid deserve to be killed by an asteroid collision.STILL it does not beat Doomsday Rock for worst science movie ever. This one did not have any ancient aborigine cave paintings.