Disaster Films

[JackPeyton]

Anyone else a fan of Disaster Films?

Now, when iw atch one i dont expect true-to-life facts, great acting, or the best movie ever made. As long as the acting is ok, the effects are not awful, and its intersting im hooked.

Walmart has a special right now, a 2 pack of 10.5 & Catagory 6 (and another pack of the seq to both). These filsm were on NBC/CBS a few years back and both were really good.

I also just bouth Volcano. Okay - not that great but it was fun. Tommy Lee Jones & Anne Hace try there best to sell it. But a Volcano coming out of the tar pits in L.A. and being stoped by freeway barriers? Even i couldnt buy that.

Dantes Peak was on on tv the other day and iw atched it. I avctually thought it was a really good movie.

The Day After Tomorrow is one of my faves.

The Towering Inferno & Posidon Adventure are classics. I also really love the remake of Poseidon.

What about all of you?

[EricaKane70]

Dude I thought you meant movies that bombed at the box office. Anyways I liked dante's peak, the day after tomorrow and titantic.

[UCLAN]

ROFLMAO HYSTERICALLY!!!!! I, liked Dante's Peakt oo. I also liked Volcano. I thought it was an unusual idea. Liked the 10.5 miniseies. Take a look at an 80s or 90s movie called Testament, about nuclear bomb being dropped. Very laid back. I also liked Silver Streak, comedy diaster movie about a runaway train with Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor

[EricMontreal22]

I actually find the genre fascinating although I think I prefer them--especially the first big era (from Airport in 1970 to the late 70s or so) almsot to study hwo they ripped off each other rather than as films.

But I loved how the 70s always had those past their prime celebs in soapy plots and then BOOm diaster strikes. Airport was the brain child of uber gay uber producer Ross Hunter and many of the celebs did it as a favour to him. But Irwin Allen became the star producer for the films to follow. While there have been resurgences especially thanks to computer effects the old style disaster movies now seem to be more the domain of made for tv miniseries (I just saw an advertisement here in Canada for CBC airing a UK miniseries FLOOD)

[Matt]

Love, Love, LOVE disaster flicks. However, all my favs are all the great '70s movies. Hollywood just doesn't make good disaster movies anymore where it has an all-star cast trying to live through a calamity and you don't know who's gonna make it out alive. When they try disaster movies today, I always look at the cast and go "Who the hell is that?". 1970's 'Airport' is credited with launching the genre's heyday, but I really don't find it to be *that* much of a disaster film (as we usually think of them) as much as a grand soap opera covering the events of one night where multiple, separate stories and characters converge. The series didn't cross over into true disaster mode until 'Airport 1975', but even then it was more of a suspense movie. 'Airport '77', however, was a *true* disaster flick (and highly underrated, IMO). 'Airport: the Concord' was a joke where the film essentially spoofed itself (the concord can fly upside down and do aerial accrobatics? puhleez!). Oh, btw, I have all 4 'Airport' movies on DVD.

As far as I'm concerned, the film that really launched what we knows as the disaster genre was 'The Poseidon Adventure'. That film set all the rules the rest of the films would follow -- all-star cast, multiple stories, huge disaster that brings all characters and stories together, and nearly a body count sense of suspense where you really don't know who's going to live until the end. Of course, IMO, the best disaster flicks always involve people in formal wear that obviously gets ruined by the end of the film. lol

IMO, 'The Towering Inferno' is *the* best disaster movie ever made and, if I'm not mistaken, the #1 boxoffice hit of 1974. It's a movie so big it took two movie studios to make (the first time that had ever happened). It's a long film, but amazingly I never feel it drags. There's always something happening. Then you've got John Williams's amazing score and absolutely stunning visual effects (which, IMO, are still impressive 34 years later, especially considering it was made long before the era of CGI. That was *real* fire, folks!). I think it's a still an impressive and enjoyable film even today. It holds up and I think even brand new viewers will enjoy it. Hell, just watch it because Susan Flannery won a Golden Globe award for Outstanding Newcomer for this movie! I remember the first time I ever saw TTI was when I was a kid when it premiered on network TV. It was on NBC and was such an event it was split into 2 nights. It actually gave me nightmares and I really believe that my long-term phobias of falling and being burned alive come from seeing this movie as a kid. And, oddly, I still love it. lol

Of course, Irwin Allen (The Master of Disaster) could never match the success of TPA and TTI again and the rest of his films weren't very successful. Hell, 'The Swarm' was just plain silly.

Another classic, underrated disaster movie is 'Earthquake'. IMO, it's a very entertaining flick, but you've got to overlook some of the weak effects. The warping of the screen to simulate the bending of buildings isn't convincing and the elevator drop with the cartoon blood splatter is utterly laughable and completely out of place. But, hell, it's fun!

[EricMontreal22]

Don't forget Earthquake was written by no less than Mario Puza LOL (and directed by mark Robson of Peyton Place and Valley of the Dolls infamy--and the classic 40s horror film noir Seventh victim). I read somewhere with Puza's name they were trying to amake a "clasiser' disaster film--but I don't think anyoen thought it was. Still it did well and had that special rumble effect in certain theatres.

you're right Airport was a bit less of a disaster movie but it did have the multiple soap operatic storylines and the diaster--Airport 1975 was focused on one small place/story

I saw the Swarm as a teenager--a friend heard it was so bad and wanted to rent it--wasn't it a MASSIVE flop and helped to kill off the genre of celeb laden disaster films? It and the Paul Newman flop When Time Ran Out (volcano movie) Oh and Rollercoaster!

The true precurser was the 50s, Oscar winning film, The High and the Mighty about a disaster onboard an all star-laden airplane. Track it down if you haven't already,.

(this reminds me I was gonna rent the Poseidon Adventure sequel to see just how bad it is...) Another element I love in those 70s disaste rmovies is when they had an over the top theme song like Poseidon did

[Matt]

That over the top theme from the Poseidon Adventure ('The Morning After') won an Oscar that year for Original Song. Likewise, 'We Me Never Love Like This Again' from The Towering Inferno won an Oscar for Original Song, too, and the film itself was nominated for Best Picture.

[Roman]

I hope you all have the SE of TTI. What a disc! Interviews, tarilers, tv spots, and the film has been remastered. It has never looked better. Also, IA took the endings of both books the film was based off of and put them in the film. The Tower and The Glass Inferno were written after the Twin Towers were build. The authors wanted to write a fictional story about what would happen if either of those skyscapers were to catch on fire with people trapped at the top.

One of the covers actually had one of the Towers on fire. It is chilling, and the books are both out of print. I wonder if either author knew how tragically prophetic they were.