Asteroid Pool
Tim Harrison (Bernard Curry) was once part of NASA where he tracked asteroid activity. But when he went public over a possible collision only for it to never happen it not only caused chaos with looting and murder but saw him getting the sack and his marriage hit the rocks. Years later and having taken work as a professor at a college one of his assistants, Julia (Caitlin Carver), comes to him with information on another possible major asteroid event which in turn he runs past his billionaire friend Herbert Sloan (Tom Berenger - Faster). With it looking like this time an asteroid is going to impact in less than 24 hours Tim, Julia, his estranged wife Stella (Brooke Langton - Chilly Christmas) and their son Nick (Peyton Wich) attempt to make it to Herbert's bunker. But as meteor showers start to spray the planet they find themselves in the woods where a different sort of danger presents itself.
For about 70 minutes "Impact Earth" was entertaining me, not that it was doing anything different from hundreds of other disaster movies as we have a disgraced asteroid tracker trying to save his family, who in typical style are estranged. Yes there were some entertaining embellishments thrown in as we have Tim not only trying to save his estranged wife and son but travelling with them is Julia who is sort of his girlfriend or who at least has a crush on him. But the developments are good as they end up having to deal with a couple of criminals looking to get to safety as well as a father and daughter in the woods. Even the over the top nature of the special effects was surprisingly enjoyable with lots of big explosions as the meteor shower peppers the highway they are trying to drive along.
But as I said for the first 70 minutes "Impact Earth" entertained me and then it went wrong and went from just scraping in as being okay to being a poor movie. And that of course comes from how Tim and his motley band of family and friends plan to save the planet from an Asteroid induced conclusion. Now I won't tell you the details but let me kind of hint by saying the solution sounds more like a trick shot someone would try in a game of pool or snooker. It is of course ridiculous and it is because it is so ridiculous that all that was okay in "Impact Earth" ends up wasted.
What this all boils down to is that "Impact Earth" whilst never going to be a great sci-fi disaster movie could have been an okay one. But that desperate need to deliver a big ending sadly ends up ridiculous and dragging this down.
