Derek Charette This movie is an example of why I stopped watching movies altogether for over 3 years. Lately I have had a lot of spare time, so I have gotten back into movies again. The problem with most movies, is that they are excruciatingly dumbed-down to a 6th grade level of comprehension. After taking a few years away from movies, it has become crystal clear how dumbed-down movies truly are. This movie is an example because of the terrible, over dramatized acting, stupid decisions by the characters, predictable story line, and predictable everything for that matter. Bad movies (most movies) require either the characters to make extraordinarily blind and ignorant decisions, or predictable, over the top or completely unrealistic events in order to create conflict and move the plot forward. These factors then greatly effect the continuity and realism of a movie. If I wanted to watch a bunch of nonsense, I would watch cartoons instead! For example, in the movie, as the characters are driving to the North Pole (Yes, the North Pole), the outdoor temperature is so hot that it is blowing vehicles up.. however, while they are traveling, sweating like beasts in 130ish degree heat, and their truck explodes (after they escaped with only a second to spare - ridiculously predictable), the characters are almost all wearing layers of LONG SLEEVED shirts, pants, and one is even wearing a hoodie JACKET. Now somebody PLEASE tell me, how or WHO in the right mind, while directing or producing this film, had the bright idea to have the characters wear long sleeve shirts, pants and jackets in the sweltering heat??? Any person with half a brain would know that if this situation was occurring in real life, people would be wearing the least amount of clothing possible, but not sweaters and jackets!! This is only one example. Judging by the sheer ignorance that produces most films these days, I honestly believe that even myself would be able to produce and direct a movie that would easily blow at least 2/3 of all movies out of the water.

Leofwine_draca MELTDOWN: DAYS OF DESTRUCTION, a would-be TV disaster movie from 2006, is only worth watching if you're wondering what happened to Casper Van Dien's career after STARSHIP TROOPERS (answer: not a lot). It's essentially a heatwave-based thriller, featuring some science guff about an asteroid passing close to the Earth causing our planet to move closer to the sun.What it all boils down to is a kind of road/post-apocalypse movie, as Van Dien and his colleagues/friends and family are forced to try to get to a place of safety while contending with intense temperatures. Strangely, despite the supposed heatwave, most of the characters continue to wear long shirts and/or jackets - at least the cult '60s flick NIGHT OF THE BIG HEAT made the effort of making the protagonists look all sweaty and dishevelled! Given the poverty-row budget, most of the threat comes from various looters and bad guys, and it's all done in a gung ho fashion and fairly well paced. But the writing is predictable and the characters non-existent, with none of the cast making much of an impact. About the only scene in the film I enjoyed was the bit with the exploding cars, which was novel; the rest is merely humdrum.

Tayrick Being a fan of sci-fi films, I was initially attracted by the title, but as it appeared this was going to be yet another near-disaster movie of the "asteroid/comet/meteor about to hit the earth and wipe out humanity, but Hooray! America will save the world" genre which has been done so many times before, I nearly didn't bother to continue watching, and with hindsight I'm sorry I did. However, what did sway me was the unusual premise that the asteroid's gravitational effect as it narrowly missed the earth pulled our planet nearer to the sun. (It wasn't clear whether Earth was continuing to approach the sun or whether it was simply in a stable new orbit, but maybe I was losing concentration if that was stated.) However, while raging fires are sweeping across the globe and two rival groups of characters (the goodies and the baddies) are desperately trying to get to a plane to fly them to the Arctic, the possibility is aired that the gravitational force of the other planets might pull the earth back into its proper orbit, and the sign that this has happened would be that rain would once again start to fall. So when the rival factions get to the airport and learn that the plane - their last hope of survival - has crashed, a battle takes place and surprise, surprise - the goodies win. But just as our heroes seem doomed to burn up anyway, Hey presto! Down comes the rain! Gosh - those planets worked pretty fast to get the earth back in place in such un-cosmic haste! My advice is: don't waste an hour and a half watching this!

LadyLiberty Meltdown opens on a scene of scientists preparing to conduct an important test on a missile system developed to deflect asteroids should they be on a collision course with earth. Nathan (Vincent Gale) mentions some misgivings to his, but the test appears to be an unqualified success. Then the asteroid breaks apart, and the largest piece is pushed into a direct collision path with earth. Fortunately, the huge rock skips off of earth's outer atmosphere and ricochets into space. Unfortunately, the glancing blow is just enough to alter earth's orbit, and the planet begins to spiral closer to the sun.While all of this is going on above their heads, Los Angeles cops Tom (Casper Van Dien) and Mick (Greg Anderson) are on a stake-out. They're supposed to collect evidence against a suspected drug dealer, but the deal they're watching quickly devolves into a shooting match. Afterward, Tom takes a few minutes to be interviewed by a local television reporter who also happens to be his girlfriend, Carly (Stefanie von Pfetten).At a nearby hospital where Mick is treated for a minor injury, Tom has a brief chat with his ex-girlfriend Bonnie (Venus Terzo), who is a nurse. He tells her he's concerned about the fact that their 17 year-old daughter Kimberly (Amanda Crew) is dating a man named CJ (Ryan McDonell). Once Tom explains to Bonnie that he's discovered CJ has a criminal record, she's a little worried herself.It's not long, however, before everybody has something else to worry about. The temperature is rapidly rising all around the world. Carly is one of the first non-scientists to learn what's really happening. Nathan, who is her brother, calls her to say he may have a way that they can survive. Carly calls Tom; he, of course, promptly contacts Bonnie.In relatively short order, the motley group is on the road. Before they can reach their ultimate goal, however, they've got to make their way through bands of looters, deal with a catastrophic water shortage, and manage to travel in temperatures that are high enough to kill.Casper Van Dien is a good looking guy, and I actually enjoyed him in Starship Troopers. That may be because he's good in action scenes. It might also be because he didn't talk much in that movie. In Meltdown, he's unfortunately given just enough lines in situations that are just dramatic enough to showcase his entirely average acting abilities. Amanda Crew is also okay, and Ryan McDonell isn't bad, either. Vincent Gale and Stefanie von Pfetten are also both reasonably good, but Venus Terzo is sadly on a par with Van Dien.What really makes or breaks a movie, though, is the story and the script. While the story here is okay and actually has some real potential, the script is just awful. The science part of the science fiction is non-existent starting with the asteroid pushing the earth out of orbit and escalating with the notion that the "gravitational balance of the solar system" might "pull the earth back" into its usual orbit "over time." When the temperature in LA hits 120 degrees, cars start blowing up.You know what's even worse than the bad science? The bad continuity. Okay, really hot. Why are people in the movie not only wearing long sleeved shirts, but jackets, too? Why are people mugging each other for bottled water instead of turning on the taps at home? Why are the streets completely empty, but the freeways completely full? And why are the freeways full of unexploded? It's almost superfluous to note that the sets, costumes, and production values were good, especially when that only forces me to say that the edits were not.So basically, you take a pretty good story idea and combine it with mostly mediocre acting, a terrible script, low-end special effects, utterly irrational plot twists, and poor edits, and what do you have? A movie that's even less than the sum of its inconsiderable parts. I'm sorry to say that I can't recommend Meltdown: Days of Destruction to anyone.POLITICAL NOTES: There is mention here that Congress finally loosened the purse strings enough to fund the tests that start the movie rolling. While the tests here were wholly irresponsible (targeting an asteroid with a nuke and not knowing the composition of the big rock is, in fact, well beyond irresponsible and approaching the insane), the fact is that such scenarios are a very real danger to the planet. Unfortunately, we've tracked nowhere near all of the near earth asteroids that could be worrisome in some orbit some day; and our ability to spot something on a collision course with us is limited at best.Once we do discover we're going to be hit, we quite literally have no system in place to deal with it. There are no nuclear-tipped space missiles we can launch; the space shuttle is completely incapable of going beyond earth orbit, and if it were, we couldn't launch enough of them or launch them quickly enough for it to matter. I'm not big on the government doing anything beyond its constitutional mandates, but I certainly think protecting the planet from destruction coming at us from outer space could be construed as defending the country, don't you? FAMILY SUITABILITY: Meltdown: Days of Destruction is rated R for "some violence." I frankly didn't find the violence here anything beyond a fairly typical T-rated video game. If your teens are keen on seeing Meltdown and you can't talk them out of it, the R-rating shouldn't dissuade you from letting them see it. It's not, however, a good idea to leave the younger kids in the room with their elder siblings. While the shootings aren't too graphic in the main, some of the dead bodies are.