Countdown: The Sky's on Fire (1999)

Wonderful character development!

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Using my best Comic Book Man voice I say, one of the worst........ movies.......... EVER. There is more cheese in this film than in the entire state of Wisconsin.I take that back. Wisconsin is too nice a place to associate with this loser. Sorry Wisconsin. As of this writing, I'm STILL waiting for something to happen in this movie.It is not a total loss though, if viewed in the proper setting. Have your own MST3K night! Pop some corn, chill a bottle or two, and maybe do the twist,,,nudge,nudge ;o) . You'll soon be "riffing" as if you're trapped on a space station ! Peace out from sunny Tennessee.

OK, so this will never win an Oscar but it wouldn't win a Razzie either! This is the televisual equivalent of an airport trash novel. A little love, a little danger, a little science mixed together to make a quick, frothy eco-drama.The story concerns the damage that Mankind has inflicted on Mother Nature and the fact that even the most benevolent of entities will get hacked off from time to time.Basically, it is a morality tale that we reap what we sow. As we blindly pour CFC's and the like into the atmosphere and the earth, eventually something will happen.In this case the "happenings" stretch from the ridiculous to the sublime. The beached whales, psychotic birds and my personal favourite the full grown human held hostage by maggots and spiders (OK when it comes to the second creepy crawly I can see why she did what she did urghh).The characters never really have the opportunity to develop more than two dimensions, but even then the actors carry it well and I have to say to their credit this movie could have been "hammed up" a heck of a lot more. Even the "it might just work.....it has to" solution to the situation was handled well and didn't feel to easy a plot feature.As for the main stars, John Corbett (Dr. Evan Thorne) managed to convey the eco-scientist without either hysterical apocalyptic panic or cold detached "I told you so". He made the character reasonably believable (for all it's dimensional limitations as previously noted).Bradley Whitford (John Morgan), favourite of mine, added some credibility to the film just by being in it. His character again was played middle of the line. Not so closed minded as to be Anti-science/Anti-tree hugger but not so open minded as to be looking for his next quote from Revelations! The love interest/action parts were left to the two "youngsters" Josie Bissett (Jennifer Thorne) and Ben Browder (Racer, never knew if this was his whole name, first name, surname or nick name! But it was pretty annoying as a name anyway). Here we have the double love interest (Jenny is Racer's Fiancé and Dr. Thorne's sister), the obligatory hero (Racer is a Airforce Jet Pilot) and the human element (Both are affected by the situation at one time or another). They were credible performances and again not over the top or soppy! So all in all, it is not a film I would give up shopping or visiting friends to watch. But saying that if I saw it on Channel 5 (UK) or TNT (US) one quiet afternoon I would happily while away and hour and a half with a good cuppa and a digestive.

Provided your belief is suspended about 60,000 feet above sea level (in-joke) this is a brainless, harmless way to spend 90 minutes. It isn't great science so don't expect too much.Some of the actors are really quite good and it is fun to see them out of their normal milieu. Bradley Whitford is a smooth, skilled, understated actor with just enough quirks to make him always interesting. John Billingsley is always delightful although it would be nice to see him stretch outside his typecast and nearly trademarked nerdiness.Corbett is quite competent but not in Billingsley's or Whitford's class. The other leads are jobbing actors, good enough, but without the high skill level to make something interesting from their cardboard characters.Keep your belief well suspended and don't be too critical of the science and this is a way to spend 90 minutes of a boring, rainy day.Anyway Billingsley's always fun to watch with his weird mannerisms.

And perhaps it should be left for the scientists to fiddle with. This movie clearly shows that the disaster genre is even more volatile than our ozone layer. If it had been a comedy the sheer unbelievability of this plot would be acceptable, but posing as serious it definitely isn't. So poorly made it is almost tragic."Hey! I have ten minutes to spare. Let's go patch up the environment!"