Simply Perfect

As Good As It Gets

Absolutely Brilliant!

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

Brian Trenchard Smith's 2010 film Arctic Blast centers on the disastrous consequences of the highly likely occurrence of a hole in the ozone layer caused by a solar eclipse. This hole then leads to extremely cold temperatures that instantly kill people, and freeze crew ships. However, the surrounding bodies of water are fine. At this point, I really hope you are picking up on my sarcasm. Despite the brilliant acting, the science behind the film was probably stolen from a nine-year-old child's geography binder. To emphasize, a nine-year-old who has an over-active imagination. For example, this fatal disaster of a hole in the ozone layer, is created by a solar eclipse. This is completely invalid because these ozone holes are actually created by CFCs (Chlorofluorocarbons- chemicals containing chlorine, fluorine and carbon atoms). This chemical is mainly found in industrialized aerosols. Another flaw in the film's disastrous hole is that they claim it was caused by the mesosphere holding so much air that it freezes the air below. This is wrong because the mesosphere is way too thin to hold high amounts of air.The film's opening credits state that the temperature of the mesosphere can decrease to -140˚F (despite being an Australian movie, where the Celsius scale is used). This is invalid because the mesosphere can only reach down to -90˚C, which is -130˚F. The credits also say that the ozone layer is the only thing that protects us. This is wrong because for example, the mesosphere also protects us. It can protect humans from solar radiation up to wavelengths of 175 nm. As for the validity on the effects that the extreme cold had on the body, they were all correct. Just kidding. These were wrong too. The film showed us that the temperature was so cold, that humans instantly froze to death. This is invalid because it is not as instant as you think; frostbite for example can take up to thirty minutes after the body gets into shock. What's also puzzling abut the human body science behind this movie, is that though the people and crew ships were cold enough to freeze, the bodies of water were somehow still intact. In the end, they save the day by having nature fight nature. They decide to create lightning in the mesosphere to fight off the rifts. This is also wrong. Weather occurs in the troposphere, not the mesosphere. Besides the invalidity of the science behind the film, there are some lessons to be learned from the human responses to the disaster. The humans reacted stupidly, except for Jack the main character. He was the only smart person throughout the entire film. (That's saying a lot because he had the intelligent idea of saving the world by putting weather in the mesosphere). For example, the instant Jack realizes there is a disaster coming, others as well as his crew shrug it off and tell him to keep his mouth shut because there is no factual evidence. Jack's father-in-law exhibits the greatest display of stupidity. As he is warned about the cold-front, he says "cold fronts can't kill". However, when the warnings are officially broadcasted, people bombard stores to buy blankets, propane tanks and heaters. Unless the heaters are wireless, they were pointless because the fog clouds knocked out all the power in its sight. Thus, the reactions were stupid and not well-planned.Overall, the lesson learned is that humans should react to disasters using more of their brain cells, and actors who play scientists are not real scientists. I enjoyed the Australian accents though.

Many films which purport to be Science Fiction are, in reality, Science Fantasy. I have studied Science for most of my long life and taught it for many years in High School. Science Fiction may extrapolate the current laws of Science into hypothetical situations but must not directly contradict the current laws of Science at the time of writing: It is impossible for an object to exceed the speed of light as in the warp speeds of the Star Trek series; If time travel were possible, then one could go back in time and kill an ancestor, from which it follows that one would never have been born, which is known to be false: Reductio ad absurdum; so much for the Back To The Future and the Terminator series etc.It has actually been postulated that global warming could cause another Ice Age, at least in the northern hemisphere, by raising the sea level and thereby interfering with the Gulf Stream, which brings warmth to the north.Many of the reviewers of Arctic Blast complained that the Science was bad. Many occurrences were very far-fetched but none of what I saw broke any actual rules of Science. I noticed several but accepted them as useful plot developments. It was a gripping Science Fantasy with a good warning message about Mankind's disruption of the environment. I was drawn to it because it starred Michael Shanks. The acting was good and the characters were believable. My wife and I both enjoyed it.

Title: Arctic Blast Directed by: Brian Trenchard-SmithStoryline: We start off with a narrator reading white text on a black background. Straight away this reads as a tell tail sign that this movie doesn't have the most professional people work on it, mainly as this is a very amateurish way to open a movie. We then move to a CGI shot of the earth, which actually looks very decent and makes up for the opening narrative. You then see it zooming into the continent of Australia. You guessed it, the movie is going to be set down under. We're introduced to an atmospheric physicist called Jack who is talking with his friend, Alex his who is on a boat studying the ozone layer. We also learn that Jack is having marital problems, and to make things worse a hole in the mesosphere has opened up and is letting in supercooled ice fog which freezes everything in it path. It just so happens that it opens up right in front of the ship Alex is on. Needless to say, everyone on the ship is frozen. We also learn that Jack is a bad parent as he forgot his daughter's 16th birthday, but seeing as this is a thriller movie, she is going to be in danger at some point and he is going to need to save her. Two more people are killed by this ice fog and the people who's job it is to look out for these things are still completely unaware of this killer ice fog rolling into the coast. We are also shown that one of the characters, Zoe is diabetic. Keep that in mind as chances are it'll come back into relevance later in the story. The ship Alex was on drifts into shore and Jack gets a call about it so they go and investigate to found out what happened to it. We are also introduced to the "Higher authority won't believe the scientist" cliché when Jack tries to warn Walter about the cold front. Because of this, Jack goes behind Walter's back and uses a back door to access a military satellite to get a better look at the cold front. Jack's daughter skips out on school to go surfing with her friends on the beach where the cold front is expected to hit. Jack goes to the school his daughter is suppose to be at and finds out from her friend that she has gone surfing with the others and he has to get to the beach in time to rescue her. He is able to rescue her but not her friends as he outruns the fog in his truck. The cold front hits the bay and starts to freeze people, but you also get a scene which shows a plane trying to land, surely air traffic control would have stop all departing and arriving flights before they get too close to turn back as a state of emergency had be declared hours earlier. But once Jack and his daughter get to the lab Zoe's blood sugar is low and along with the added problem of more rifts opening up across the world creating more cold fronts. Walter ignores Jack's solution for the ice fronts and makes his own which naturally fail, and if you look carefully at one of the background computers in the main office you will see what seems to be Facebook on the screen. Once Walter realizes he was wrong, he comes groveling back to Jack hoping he has a plan. Zoe collapses due to low blood sugar so Jack has to go out and brave the cold to get her insulin. The main problem with this is that he uses a car to get there, petrol and diesel freeze around -40ºC. The ice fog has been said to be -90, we do not know if this is in ºF or ºC, either way the fuel in his car should be frozen solid along with oil, break fluid, anti freeze and other liquids essential for the car's use. His plan is a success and the rift starts closing, and because he saved all of Australia and possibly the world his wife instantly forgives him and falls in love with him again. Acting: The acting is actually believable, especially with the tension scenes between Jack and his wife. But shame the same cannot be said about Alex's death scene. The daughter seems quite whinny that her dad works too much, but her acting skills range from being annoying and unbelievable to providing a decent performance. Graphics: The CGI for the supercooled ice fog isn't all too bad, but it is CGI for the ice vortex that the fog came down in, was less than impressive as it did look like obvious CGI. The CGI for the plane explosion was similar to that of what you would see in cheesy 80's action movies when something would explode. Overall Feel: Well, the whole premise of a rift in the ozone causing flash freezing is utter nonsense, the ozone does not stop the cold mesosphere from reaching earth. The ozone does two things, it absorbs almost 99% of the suns UV radiation and it traps vital heat inside the planet. If you don't mind a movie that isn't scientifically accurate and has borderline decent CGI, this is a great movie for you. The characters are generally quite well rounded and believable for the most part, the camera work is decently simplistic to a sense where you can see what is going on and it is presented professionally. The people who made this movie looked like they were actually trying to make a good movie and I give them props for that as it is a good movie if you can get over it's scientific inaccuracy and lacking effects. A good, fun, well-rounded movie worth watching.

Lately since I have been streaming movie from a company I will not name I am seeing a lot of movies I would never look at. Also lately I have noticed Bruce Davison has been in a few of these disaster flicks. So I wasn't sure if I saw this before I watched it. Because I said to myself I might have saw this because Bruce Davison was in some type of earth coming to a end movie not to long ago. Well it wasn't the same movie technically. I was thinking of Mega Fault. Same movie except this one dealt with ice and the other dealt with fire. The movie was entertaining in its own unbelievable way. See I have learned a long time ago to suspend all of the science I accumulated leading to a Chemistry degree and just go with the flow.Seems like the ozone level was destroyed because of a lunar eclipse and ice pockets are forming at first in the Australian area of Hobart. So of course the best meteorologist in the world works there and he is the first to see what is going on. He seems to be working for a NOA type of agency which looks like it is headquartered in Philadelphia. This is when Davison comes in He seems to be the head of the agency. Now I am not sure if he was suppose to be a bad guy but he turned into one in the middle of the movie when he ignored the guy from Hobart who had the solution to stop this, and decided to keep him out of the loop. Why I do not know. But he had his own plan and that is what they were going to use. All I have to say is he turned into a good guy with a tragedy I saw coming befell his wife. I am not going to tell you the end but all you need to know that there is a bratty 16 who is the meteorologist daughter, a young co worker who is a diabetic and does not believe in bringing anything sweet with her to work. Just look what bad science that was used when she got sick. And the meteorologist whom all hold the fate of the world in their hands.Also we have the usual wife mad with hubby because of his job, but realizing at the end that he saved the world so she will keep him. I have seen worse. And I am sure all of you who have read this have. The movie looked like Stephen Kings Fog. With the movies low budget they probably used the same fog and made it wider. Next time suspend any belief that any of these movies is based on good science or else you will be blinded by it and the movie.