Right now I'm watching Disaster Zone: Volcano In New York on SciFi. And as if the title alone wasn't enough to clue you in to the cheesiness, the tv guide description of it is "A geologist and an intrepid band of tunnel workers must save New York from an underground volcano."
Intrepid band of tunnel works. Underground volcano. NEW YORK!
So even before it starts, it already dancing on the line that separates "so godawful that it's cheesily good" and "so godawful that it's painfully bad". Let's give it a shot and see which!
12 minutes in and we have evisceration with spilling guts, full-body scalding and accidentally live explosives. And while the explosives were defused (with exactly 1 second left to go, of course), CGI lava started flowing out of a crack at the TOP of the tunnel to set 'em off anyway. After the Intrepid Band of Tunnel Workers (IBTW, Local 147) were already halfway back up the shaft to the surface.
Okay, there are a lot of lookalikes in this movie. The head of IBTW, Local 147 looks like a younger Sly Stallone, there's this homeless guy that looks and sounds like George Carlin and the geologist looks somewhat like Allison Janney.
As an aside, let me just state that I absolutely loathe the fucking shaky handicam fetish that's overtaken a lot of TV these days. I blame The Blair Witch Project for starting it and 24 for making it popular. Note to filmographers: it doesn't make your film look "realer" or "edgier"; it just makes it look like your cameraman was having a seizure.
Okay, so it's actually in the third, somewhat rarer category: "so cliched that it's boring". The problem is being caused by a damn-the-consequences scientist funded by a grasping, corrupt power-hungry politician. The authorities completely disregard Our Plucky Underdog Heroes, and thereby ignoring the true problem for far too long. The only 2 women who've appeared in the movie for more than a single scene are both being explicitly presented as inexperienced, ineffectual intruders into "men's jobs". ::yawn::
Intrepid band of tunnel works. Underground volcano. NEW YORK!
So even before it starts, it already dancing on the line that separates "so godawful that it's cheesily good" and "so godawful that it's painfully bad". Let's give it a shot and see which!
12 minutes in and we have evisceration with spilling guts, full-body scalding and accidentally live explosives. And while the explosives were defused (with exactly 1 second left to go, of course), CGI lava started flowing out of a crack at the TOP of the tunnel to set 'em off anyway. After the Intrepid Band of Tunnel Workers (IBTW, Local 147) were already halfway back up the shaft to the surface.
Okay, there are a lot of lookalikes in this movie. The head of IBTW, Local 147 looks like a younger Sly Stallone, there's this homeless guy that looks and sounds like George Carlin and the geologist looks somewhat like Allison Janney.
As an aside, let me just state that I absolutely loathe the fucking shaky handicam fetish that's overtaken a lot of TV these days. I blame The Blair Witch Project for starting it and 24 for making it popular. Note to filmographers: it doesn't make your film look "realer" or "edgier"; it just makes it look like your cameraman was having a seizure.
Okay, so it's actually in the third, somewhat rarer category: "so cliched that it's boring". The problem is being caused by a damn-the-consequences scientist funded by a grasping, corrupt power-hungry politician. The authorities completely disregard Our Plucky Underdog Heroes, and thereby ignoring the true problem for far too long. The only 2 women who've appeared in the movie for more than a single scene are both being explicitly presented as inexperienced, ineffectual intruders into "men's jobs". ::yawn::