Touches You

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Film catastrophe(in both senses). The whole planet is devastated by mega-storms, hurricanes, tornadoes. All the characters, for 2 hours 49min, they fret and fuss, waiting for the end of the world. There are not missing some frogs and flies as biblical signs. To make matters worse, at the half of the movie, some villains kidnap a few young people, including the son of the main character, who tries to save the world, FEMA Director Judith Carr (Gina Gershon). The most sympathetic character is Tornado Tommy Dixon, played by the natural Randy Quaid. Other actors, including Robert Wagner, John Kapel, James Brolin, Swoosie Kurtz, Tom Skerritt and even Gina Gershon, all alike it seems they have a thick carrot stuck in their ass(I think they were aware of how bad is the script). So, it's really the end of the world? No, they changed their mind, just wanted to scare you again, like in all those catastrophic productions, they have a happy ending, as usual...

This One is more Ambitious than Most TV-Movies (it is a 2-parter) and has that Seventies Disaster Movie Template, Devastating Destruction for Your Rubbernecking Pleasure.Forget the Science, this is all about SFX and Easy to Understand People, Their Motivations, and Their Mindsets. There are the Regular Folks who Live in Trailer Parks that try and save the Pink Flamingos before they Abandon the Single Wide, the Seasoned Military Veteran willing to Give His Life for Country and Mankind...the Scientists who are Ahead of Their Time with Data that will Shake the Status Quo and Cause Fat Cats to Lose some of that Financial Weight, the Self Serving (not the people's servants) Politicians...the Comedy Relief Nut who is in it for the Thrill and the Giggles, and the Religious Types that Prey on Peoples Weakness and Fear so they can Live Luxurious and Ludicrous Lives with Gold Fixtures in Their Bathrooms.So Line em Up and Knock em Down as Landmarks such as the Pyramids, the Eiffel Tower and Mt. Rushmore are all Shown to be Vulnerable. So Everyone Watches these Things for the SFX that are Pretty Good...for a TV-Movie. The Most Disappointing Thing is that while this is Subtitled "The End of the World", One Guess if they Deliver on that Hyperbole.

But that isn't saying much. Please see my review for "Category 6" for further comments.I half expected to see Randy Quaid's character come back to life, due to plot predictability. But I did NOT see it coming when he and Shannen Doherty's character kissed. BIG yuck factor!The Lindy Booth character was poorly scripted and acted as the cheesy journalist assigned to write obits then uncovers the end-of-days plot at a mega church.Good to see Tom Skerritt back on the screen, even if it was a campy redo of his "Top Gun" character.I've not seen Category 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5. But based on the amount of re-edited scenes and various cameos, I suspect the makers of these movies were trying to accomplish what their message was: save energy by recycling. They certainly recycled enough scenes and actors in parts 6 & 7!Oy!

I'm 1/4 way through watching this.. so riveted that I'm writing this as I'm continuing watching. See that audience in The Producers, all stunned and jaw-dropped in disbelief? That's me, that is.Godawful teevee soap with an agenda to see how many OTT special effects can be bolted on in the shortest time. This is the film Gerry Anderson would have made in 1965 if the "Thunderbirds" team had access to CGI but whoever writing the screenplay had never been to the cinemaOK, there are plenty of comments on this board about the laughable script, the casting, the competition to match silly stereotypes as closely as possible, the cheesy, overstating the obvious, PC subtext.Overall, it's like a text book illustration of "How to write to a tried and tested, lowest common denominator FORMULA." In that sense, it's quite informative and worth watching if you're with a film crew or bunch of journalists seeking to hone your analytical skills. Herein is the film's "strength" and also its core weakness as a piece of as-sold entertainment.So, in terms of cinema craft.It's lit like a documentary. Colour balance is all over th place in what is maybe an attempt to produce "It's real life" atmosphere with available light footage (footage?) edited in with a hatchet.The camera is tracking around and re-framing ALL the time, like yer uncle Joe filming a wedding. Actually, the camera work is, in a sense, extremely competent. Subjects in shot are "nicely framed" but every shot has pullbacks, tracking and a "we've paid for this dolly so we're damn-well going to get our money's worth out of it!!" MTV style that is pandering to a generation of film-watchers with no attention span who need to be constantly re-stimulated by intrusive cinematography. I think that's the crucial problem about this film, visually. The direction is constantly shouting "Whoo-Eeh! Look at me!!" instead of telling a story.As I said, think of uncle Joe shooting home movies. His over-riding thought is, "Hey, this is a MOVIE camera, not a boring, old-fashioned still camera, so everything ought to be moving all the time." So, wherever possible, it does. If the subject can't move, the camera does.I just got to the part with the smug evangelist rehearsing his stadium speech - it was so hilarious I had to rewind and play it again.Gerry Anderson would have been PROUD!.Gerry Anderson, of course, would have a truck or some-such crashing into a power pylon, a tree, a bridge support… Said struck object would always fall over, usually in flames and would ALWAYS explode at least once or twice as it hit the ground. Anderson is my favourite closet pyromaniac, ably sent-up in "Team America." I'm halfway wondering if Category 7: The End of the World is a subconscious homage to the genre. The acting and dialogue would be entirely suited to puppetryI'll finish watching this now. If my opinion changes, I'll edit this post later.