Solar Crisis

Rating:
Summary: I liked it, but not for the reason you think.
Review: Obviously this is not a great piece of work, the Japanese producers wanted to make an American Science Fiction movie, they just didn't know how. All of the elements are present, they just didn't blend correctly. It is however one of those movies you can't resist stopping and watching when you are channel surfing. It may not be worth the 90 minutes you lose, but if you don't have anything better to do with them then you will enjoy this movie. It is a must however for anyone who wants to make movies. It had everything going for it and it failed.

Rating:
Summary: A FLARE WITHOUT FLAIR
Review: SOLAR CRISIS, a Japanese/American co-production, never seems to understand what it wants to be. The main plot concerns a solar flare that will decimate the earth and kill all living habitants; a secondary plot involves a young military academy student who goes AWOL to join his father on the mission to deflect the solar flare. Thats where the movie's problem lies; the movie could have survived without the subplot at all. Makes it appear as though the writers felt the solar mission couldn't sustain the entire movie, so they threw in this other plot to make it 90 minutes. The only good thing about the subplot is the inspired performance by the late Jack Palance as a seemingly demented "road warrior."
As for the solar mission, Tim Matheson again sabotages a role that could have been played by countless other actors; Annabel Schofield makes for a lovely saboteur; and Dorian Harewood is the token minority who tries to keep things going on board. Charlton Heston is wasted as Matheson's father and Peter Boyle is his usual surly self as the corporate wizard who will stop at nothing to make money. Brenda Bakke as his sidekick slithers around, smoking funky looking cigarettes.
For a 1992 movie, the effects are adequate, and there is some suspense in the final moments, but overall, SOLAR CRISIS burns out because it's too heavy.

Rating:
Summary: A FLARE WITHOUT FLAIR
Review: SOLAR CRISIS, a Japanese/American co-production, never seems to understand what it wants to be. The main plot concerns a solar flare that will decimate the earth and kill all living habitants; a secondary plot involves a young military academy student who goes AWOL to join his father on the mission to deflect the solar flare. Thats where the movie's problem lies; the movie could have survived without the subplot at all. Makes it appear as though the writers felt the solar mission couldn't sustain the entire movie, so they threw in this other plot to make it 90 minutes. The only good thing about the subplot is the inspired performance by the late Jack Palance as a seemingly demented "road warrior."
As for the solar mission, Tim Matheson again sabotages a role that could have been played by countless other actors; Annabel Schofield makes for a lovely saboteur; and Dorian Harewood is the token minority who tries to keep things going on board. Charlton Heston is wasted as Matheson's father and Peter Boyle is his usual surly self as the corporate wizard who will stop at nothing to make money. Brenda Bakke as his sidekick slithers around, smoking funky looking cigarettes.
For a 1992 movie, the effects are adequate, and there is some suspense in the final moments, but overall, SOLAR CRISIS burns out because it's too heavy.

Rating:
Summary: Inept sci-fi
Review: This flick posits the world facing a doomsday solar flare in the near future. Tim Matheson leads a cast of boring action figures to the edge of the sun, where he will pilot a smaller spaceship into the sun while carrying an anti-matter bomb - what amounts to a suicide mission. (The science of solar flares theorizes that they form based on magnetic lines that work like rubber bands; the bomb will snap the lines and prevent the lethal flare from forming.) Meanwhile, Matheson's son escapes from his military school, and Matheson's disapproving father - Charlton Heston as an uptight career military man - sets out to find him. The flare is preceded by other solar phenomenon that's steaming up the earth (and interfering with anything that relies on basic principles of electromagnetism). While the mission must succeed for the sake of humanity, a sinister tycoon played by Peter Boyle is determined to sabotage it.

Nothing in this flick works - least of all why Boyle is set on sinking a mission that's clearly mankind's last hope (doubts over whether it may be worse than the flare or at least uneccessary seem to have been left out of the script). The plot about Matheson's son seems entirely uneccessary, even if it does allow for the obligatory showdown between Heston & Boyle. Lastly, what is the state of technology here? It looks like the near future (with concept versions of today's space and aircraft), but also with holograms and nearly sentient AI - embodied in a luscious fembot and the antimatter bomb's computer (voiced effectively by Paul Williams). "Crisis" rode the crest of early 1990's CGI (a path blazed by the new Trek show) in which then nifty effects made drama obsolete. Now its effects look dated, and the story remains as incomprehensible as before.

Rating:
Summary: Me:Possibly the only one who liked it...
Review: Yes ladies and gentlemen,there is someone who liked it.ME!I didnt notice any similarities between the ending and 2001.Well okay,some similarities with the FTL sequense but thats it.And Freddy is a bit like HAL9000 but more human.The sub-plot on earth is pretty useless except for the ending.But i liked Jack Palances character.And theres good acting in this movie also,even Charlton Heston is better than they say.