Stargate Theatre

Arctic Blast

Welcome to the first edition of Stargate Theatre as I watch and comment on movies (Theatrical and TV) that feature the regular cast members of Stargate or contain multiple appearances from semi-regular or significant guest stars. This format also allows me to do a single voice podcast as arranging for people to join me has proven harder than expected and we all have better things to be doing with our time.

On the premiere of this particular show format is the Michael Shanks environmental disaster movie “Arctic Blast” which was released in 2010 and is very much a “B” movie although truth be told is no worse than many big budget movies in the same genre, it just doesn’t look as good CGI wise.

So in Arctic Blast we have the scientist Jack Tate ( Michael Shanks ) who works for an environmental research group called ICRO (International Climate Research Organisation) whose ship alas for its crew are at the focal point of an atmospheric rift which allows super cold air to strike the surface of the planet and flash freeze everything in its path. This sets the scene for a hard working and often ignored number of individuals trying to do the right thing as innocents die and the powers particularly Walter Winslow ( Bruce Davison ) that be say they know best. As the death toll mounts and the rifts in the atmosphere appear around the globe it all comes down to the research and courage of a handful of people. Naturally a good amount of melodrama is thrown into the mix as Jack is on the verge of a divorce and his daughter is in conflict with him plus a hint of a workplace romance as well. You see what I mean, Arctic Blast is just 2012 or The Day After Tomorrow on a much smaller budget.

Overall this is perfectly acceptable disaster movie as long as you accept the limitations of the production. The script needed more work and certainly much of the CGI was not good but the location shooting was well done and they spent their budget well on military stock footage. The acting was perfectly acceptable, none of the major characters were lacking in terms of script delivery but only so much an actor can do with any dialogue but again you know what you are getting with a movie like this.

So that was Arctic Blast, worth a watch if like me you like the “B” movies and I’ll admit I will probably doing a lot of movies in this budget range, just saying that the Vancouver production area churned out a lot of such productions and drew on the same talent pool as Stargate.

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