Arlis Fuson The title pretty much speaks for itself. The mayor and the fire chief are having a big feud, but when an earthquake hits New york they put aside their differences and try to help their city. The chiefs daughter is trapped in a high school and the mayors daughter is trapped underground in the subway tunnels. The mayors daughter is a lawyer and she's trapped with her client whom she just helped walk free for murder charges and now that she's in this situation with him she begins to see maybe she helped free the wrong man. Other stories include a gangster wanna be trapped in a church basement with the majors mother. A woman who must get to a grade school and try to save her disabled son. A girl who is trying to get across town to find her mother and shes being helped by a Russian Cab driver. All kinds of little stories are rolled in to this almost 3 hour made for TV movie.I must say I have seen this about 3 times, not sure why as I never cared much for it, but I keep watching it every few years for some odd reason. It is very slow at times and it's predictable and the earthquake happens fast and the aftermath is most of the movies story. I think great disaster movies need action and excitement all the way through in order to work. Hated the direction, I hate when a director shakes the camera to incorporate movement, and way too many slow motion shots here. There is often scale models used in place of subways, buildings and the statue of liberty and the directors ratio of his camera location verses the model is horrible.Acting is full of a bunch of nobodies and has beens. Tom Skeritt, Charles Dutton, Jennifer Gardner, Cicely Tyson among others, Frederick Weller playing a Russian was the best acting job here.The movie is OK but just not anything you haven't seen before in these types of films. It had a very basic feel to it which came up short with excitement - 3/10 starsone creepy line said by a helicopter reporter "the twin towers are still standing"

Amy Adler Thomas (Tom Skerritt) is the fire chief for NYC but, he is about to submit his resignation. He has bones to pick with the city's mayor (Charles S. Dutton) and rather than work things out, Thomas is set to quit. The mayor has a beautiful, intelligent daughter who serves as a topnotch public defender but who is also being courted by a top law firm. Her latest case involves a man accused of murdering his wife, but the would-be killer proclaims his innocence. Can she get him acquitted and then land the more lucrative job? Also in the city is a lady named Dori (Sharon Lawrence) who suffers with acute guilt over an automobile accident that left her young son with a limp. Her husband (Mitchell Ryan) is dismayed that she still has not gone back to work or that she will not renew their mutual hobby, mountain climbing. Meanwhile, aspiring ballet dancer, Diane (Jennifer Garner) still has to ask her parents for money to make ends meet, something no family member likes, including Diane. Crossing paths with these folks are a Russian immigrant cab driver, the mayor's caring but aging mother, a poor teenager, and a businesswoman with eyes for Dori's husband. Suddenly, a deadly earthquake strikes, in NYC for goodness sake. Some folks are trapped in the subway, some on the street, and some in the upper levels of buildings. Who will survive? Does anyone care? This film is a very poor affair, suffering from implausability and stupidity, too. It's as though someone said, let's have an earthquake strike Manhattan because having people trapped in a subway system would be cool. No matter if the chance of an earthquake hitting NYC is slim to none, let's do it. Add on a fire chief who orders men into dangerous and avoidable situations, a mayor who can take time for a chat during a disaster, and a rock climbing mama who is the only one able to rescue her son and you have a film that goes way beyond credulity. The lame acting by nearly all thespians (Sharon Lawrence starts off well but loses her believability, too) does not help matters, either. The special effects are uneven, sometimes being quite good, and at other times, totally laughable. Costumes and production values are average at best, too. If you have a yen for disaster flicks, then you might take an interest in watching this one. For, in truth, it is a double dose of dire, once as an earthquake flick, and once as an extremely poor-quality film.

Bob Stout I'd avoided this movie for years. Unlike the writers, I understand the geology under NYC, so I was expecting it to be every bit as bad as "Volcano", based on a similarly silly premise. Finally, last night I needed some mindless entertainment to help me get to sleep so I tuned in.Yes, the premise is just as silly as it sounds. However, the writers, while technically clueless, did craft one of the best disaster flick scripts I've ever seen. The acting is uniformly excellent, and the direction, after the typically slow disaster flick setup, was taut and effective. The special effects were quite decent for TV - certainly better than most SciFi channel made-for-TV films. Unlike "Volcano", the characters are sympathetic and believable. After the viewer has swallowed the basic premise, everything else goes down well. Altogether a very involving film, which is, after all, the goal of all disaster flicks.Given a chance, I will watch it again (I missed the first 10 minutes or so). Heartily recommended for disaster flick fans, conditionally recommended for everyone else.

Michael O'Keefe This disaster drama created for TV is based on a novel by a popular New York TV anchorman-turned-author Chuck Scarborough. A massive earthquake shakes 'The Big Apple' and the city is all but held hostage by the devastation. New York City Mayor Bruce Lincoln(Charles S. Dutton)and his political foe Fire Chief Thomas Ahearn(Tom Skerritt)come to grips putting their differences aside to work together digging the city out of the ruble. There seems to be more than enough sub plots stretching this Hallmark presentation to near three hours. There are some good special effects, but nothing we haven't seen before. This earthquake flick is really no great shakes. And not unlike other disaster movies there is vast and varied talent featured in the cast: Sharon Lawrence, Jennifer Garner, Fred Weller, Lisa Nicole Carson, Rachel Ticotin and Cicely Tyson.