A waste of 90 minutes of my life

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

As a Canadian, I can only say I am embarrassed and saddened that my country makes such total 100% garbage as this pathetic movie. One would think that after many years of major productions, we could come up with cinema that stands up with the rest of the world. But it's pretty obvious that our film business is a total joke. The sight of Vancouver's perennial DJ and Man-About-Town Terry David Mulligan dressed up as a General, is so utterly hilarious and totally absurd that it defies description. Everything about this movie STINKS. Story, acting, directing, special effects----you name it, on every level it's got to be one of the most God-awful pieces of junk ever.

The magnetic polars are disturbed and realigned with the result that there is much death and destruction as mankind tries to solve the problem.Not particularly good science fiction film might have worked had their been more money and some better people before and behind the camera. The first problem with the film is that the special effects aren't special. I'm all for the suspension of disbelief but there is a point where it becomes much too hard to disbelieve. Almost every effect in the film is computer generated and since there are so many I don't think the effects crew had any amount of time to do them properly. One or twice or now and again you might have been able to forgive it but the scenes of epic destruction is just asking too much. On the plus side its so bad it distracts you from the uneven performances and the plot holes you could drive a comet through.Clearly I'm at the negative polar on this film and think you should pass.

This movie is along the lines of most Sci-Fi Channel movies, but definitely a tad better - mostly because it tackles a different theme (magnetic storms / polar shift) and has a good lead character.The basic setup of the story is that a fragment of a comet has hit earth and strange electrical storms are popping up in multiple locations. There are two sub-stories: (1) a scientist (Jack Coleman from the TV series "Heroes") tries to warn the government that the storms are going to get worst, not better and (2) the scientist's son and wife are trying to escape an area hit by one of the storms.One thing that's very impressive is that the story can be effectively told within the budgetary constraints typical to these types of movies. The filmmakers put just the right amount into effects (simple, but passable), locations (small towns/open roads) and the number of characters (very few) to make it work.Furthermore, Jack Coleman and Holly Dignard (who plays his wife) are decently interesting to watch - so that helps. Both carry an air of seriousness that helps keep the atmosphere of the movie in urgency mode.If you're sick of the channel's overused themes (mutant undead/rat/insect/etc.), then this is a step up from that. It's not really good or great, but if you're hunting for sci-fi on TV and nothing else is on ... might as well watch this.

Shown tonight under the title SOLAR STORM, this turned out to be a really good little movie. Sci-Fi is famous (infamous?) for taking really good story ideas and turning them into disappointing movies that can't deliver on their promise.SOLAR STORM is primarily set in a pleasant small town in Washington State (played, of course, by Canadian locations) where a famous scientist and his wife, who's a science teacher, and his teenage stepson live in harmony until the Earth's magnetic poles start doing really strange things.It seems that a big piece of a comet's tail hit the Earth in Alaska and did some serious damage. Then Dr. James Mayfield (played by Jack Coleman from the TV series "Heroes" discovers that the sun isn't setting in the place where it ought to.It seems that the earth has shifted on its axis and the poles are in the process of reversing. The last time that happened was about a million years ago, and if it happens now there will be no living thing on the planet.Director Paul Ziller has enough sense not to bite off more than he can chew. There are no detailed scenes of destruction in big cities with thousands of extras running in terror. He focuses the attention on the Mayfields and their town, and doesn't try to fake big budget special effects.What's done is done pretty well. And the performers are strong enough to keep up our interest. Since my daughter was writing a paper for a college class I watched using headphones, and the sound effects are very effective.Need I add that the authorities- including the President and Dr. Mayfield's father , General Mayfield (the two haven't spoken for five years)- want to ignore the call for alarm and calm the population that everything is all right? Would it surprise you that Mayfield's stepson is unhappy about his mother's remarriage (it's not mentioned specifically, but the boy's stepfather is about 24 years older than his wife)? This is not a work of original ideas. A little Armageddon, a touch of DEEP IMPACT, a possible solution to the problem that's borrowed from the very fine 1961 film THE DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE, and a rescue that comes courtesy of Jules Verne's JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH.There's even a little bit of subtext about parent/child relationships and the issue of whether to blindly trust authority or to trust your instincts.Good work, Sci-Fi Channel. Well done.