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.

Oh, Michael! What are you doing in this nonsense movie? We know Stargate SG1, Atlantis, Universe, whatever, are all finished, but aren't you getting some royalty fees from all the repeat showings that are transmitted all over the world? Do you really need to earn cash from this type of film? One interesting item: the actress who plays 'Zoe' - Saskia Hampele - is now playing 'Georgia' in 'Neighbours' - the Australian soap. That's about all I got from this film. The science is rubbish, computer graphics is pretty average - apart from the plane crash, which was awful - but Michael put in a star performance.Not quite a Stargate performance, but close.

Yet another time it's embarrassing to admit you're Australian, even if this nightmare did eventuate out of the US. Hey, another reviewer said the Australian accents were either fake or overdone. The tragedy is, all the Aussie characters *were* played by Australian actors. Need I say more??!! I am astonished that so many thought this movie was reasonable enough to fit in the 'mildly entertaining, OK way to waste 90mins' type category. I only saw just over half of it, (& that's only because I had the TV on as background noise) but trust me, you only need about 5mins to get the gist. The only way these incredibly cheesy 'epic' save-the-world disaster movies work is if they have a mega-buck budget spent on some majorly impressive special effects, keep as far away as possible from trying to incorporate any sort of 'real science', don't in any way try to teach us anything, have some larger than life iconic and at least half-decent actors who can pull off the appallingly bad dialogue well enough for us to be charmed into suspending disbelief & letting them take us on the ride.This film has none of those elements. NONEDo not waste your time. Unless someone pays you to watch it. Like, I mean, A LOT of money!! ;)

I rarely review films, but that was so dreadful it deserved a moment of my time (even though I had just wasted 90 minutes of my time watching it) to write and say...absolutely dreadful! No need to say anything else, but I will elaborate a little.The special effects were terrible - the same effect appeared to be used in several locations and when it's supposed to be minus one hundred degrees, i'm sure it would be possible to see your breath. The not so good acting was getting me down...I was getting irritated with the characters - they were so dim (although the direction could have something to do with that). The plot - how far fetched? There were also so many errors and goofs, along with holes in the story. Absolutel dreadful! I had to give it one star, because I could'd give it 0.