…NBC has a made-for-TV epic coming up this Sunday and Tuesday – that’s right, it’s such an epic that it’s been split into a two-night affair – called “10.5: Apocalypse.”
It’s a sequel to the 2004 TV flick, “10.5,” and the effects are about as impressive as anything you’ve seen in a TV movie, but for God’s sake, don’t watch it without first taking a dose of dramamine. Director John Lafia has a technique that involves performing a sudden, shaky zoom-in on anyone who says a single word…kind of a poor man’s Sam Raimi. Maybe it’s supposed to give the proceedings a documentary-like feel, since the entire film was done in HD and, apparently, with handheld camera, but, personally, I burst into laughter, so often was it happening during an ostensibly tense scene. My wife finally asked if we could turn it off until such time as she was out of the room, because it was making her nauseous. I can’t say as I blame her. If you can get past that, though, it’s a fun – if utterly cliche-packed – ride, with Beau Bridges as the President of the United States, the ever-smoldering Kim Delaney as a sexy seismologist, Frank Langella as her estranged father, plus performances by Dean Cain, Gabrielle Beauvais-Nilon, Oliver Hudson, Carly Pope, and, oddly enough, Melissa Sue Anderson from “Little House on the Prairie.”
Don’t worry if you accidentally forget to watch the second half (because lord knows everyone’s done that at least once with a miniseries), because you can just about guarantee it’ll be out on DVD before Christmas…if not Labor Day.
