American Meltdown (2004)

This was the worst TV movie I had ever seen. The visuals were so dang choppy it made me dizzy. I hated the constant zoom in and zoom out, and the frequent Black and White to Color switch. I also thought that The story didn't make any sense what so ever, and it was another clichéd Action Movie, with a hero a bad guy, and a few hostages. I could make a better movie than that with my own camera, why? I can hold it steady, something the director couldn't do. Over all truly the worst I have ever seen, you thought Disney was bad? I didn't even bother to watch the whole thing because I'm sure I could guess the outcome, and the visual were the worst I have ever seen.

it's patently obvious that the writers (who have some "x-files" episodes under their belt) are big fans of "24", even going so far as to get leslie hope (jack bauer's k.i.a. wife in "24"-season 1) on board here...the plot twists and general feel are that of a "24" episode that's been compressed into a 2-hour time slot, and that ain't a bad thing since all the unnecessary sub-plots inherent in a regular season of "24" are virtually eliminated by time constraints..a taut job of direction by chechik who's done solid work before on "diabolique" (and a severely crappy hatchet job on "the avengers") ...opening credits somewhat reminiscent of the end of "fail safe"...nicely underplayed performances by the principals (particularly bruce greenwood) who could easily have been tempted to go way over the top here, and some legitimately funny lines to break up the tensionif you enjoy "24", this puppy is right in your wheelhouse...

If you thought NBC's 10.5 was stupid, you'll be happy to hear that FX reached into the bowels of made-for-TV hell and squished it's fingers into this pseudo post-9/11 poop. Not only was the plot stupid, it was a complete ripoff of 24 and a bad ripoff at that. The filming style was the now overused "docu-action" look, complete with cuts to grainy B&W "rawcore" footage. I'm not quite sure what that means, but it sure sounds like something the DP said to the director before filming. I don't know what they were going for here but it reminded me of the guy at the office who thinks Powerpoint presentations with "fly-ins" and "animations" are "cool."The story is that 6 "terrorists" take over a nuclear power plant in southern CA. That's right, nuclear power plants, where hundreds of people work, where there's security precautions up the ying-yang. For the sake of reality, they put 2 off-duty CHiPpies in the mix. Because, they'd be able to stop 6 people, right? Six. I mean, even Bruce Willis had to deal with more terrorists over at that stupid Nakatomi building.Leslie Hope (TV's Teri Bauer) plays a CHP officer who has problems talking on the phone after she's shot in her bullet-proof vest. Her voice sounds like a Sally Struther's TV ad, whiny and monotonous. Her character is only a plot device, and after she performs her one small duty, she is promptly disposed of. Yes, Teri Bauer is died! Bruce Greenwood stars as FBI S.A.C. Tom Shea, who continually points out how he punches foreign diplomats in the face. His boss is out, so nobody over at the Dept. of Homeland Security believes his prognosis of the situation. He's the sensible one out of a group of paranoid public officials afraid of taking blame for any type of catastrophe. He's calm, he's strong, he's BORING.There is absolutely nothing redeeming or entertaining about Meltdown - OK, well maybe Teri Bauer getting died was pretty unnecessary and funny - other than that, nothing redeeming.

I was anticipating the premiere of Meltdown after I saw billboards for its release two weeks prior and I must say that it did not disappoint. In the beginning it appeared to be a typical terrorist flick depicting Arab speaking people or fundamentalist Muslims as those invoking the terror-as if others do not commit heinous acts in the name of religion.However, the movie took an interesting turn when it was revealed that terrorists that had taken over and were currently occupying the San Juan Nuclear Power Facility were not in fact Muslims or even Arabs for that matter. They were very much American, highly decorated American commandos to be exact. What follows is a series of events proving that those enshrined with our security are often the first sent off to be slaughtered.It was also interesting that every point of the movie which could be related in real life (news anchors, the name of the power plant) were intentionally fictionalized, whereas in other situations actual news anchors from various stations are used. Too close to home? Too real? Perhaps, only time will tell.