10.5 (2004)

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

I thought the guy on the bike was funny. But I don't believe the poor dude survived, as it looked like the rubble from the space needle falling actually got him. The story itself is like something after the rapture of the church, and I told my ten year old son that's the only way I could describe it - tribulation period...I imagine it's going to be ten fold to this, but this was pretty dang good...The nuclear weapon theory was a bit over the top, and of course I could see the guy going down with the last one from a mile away - not much surprise there...I was excited to see Bo Duke (John Schneider) in this movie. I'd never picture him being married to a governor though :-) And Beau Bridges as the President of the United States...Hmmmmm.....The final scene was great. I didn't actually think that was going to happen, but it was interesting to see what an earthquake could do in people's imaginations...There's always those big fears that "the big one" in California will change the geography forever...

The usual disaster movie with its host of characters with their inter-personal relationships being shown as they prepare to battle a disaster. Three earthquakes in one day in the western part of the country may be too much to take, but this is what makes for an interesting story.The governor of California is a woman who is divorced and is in night clothes as her ex-husband and daughter go off for a camping trip.Beau Bridges shows emotion as our nervous president. The FEMA guy is not at all like Michael Brown of the Bush Administration. Once he realizes what's going on, he literally throws himself into the solution which will cost him his life.The problem with the film is that the characters are terribly cliché- the doctor and FEMA director, estranged as well as a surgeon and his wife. It seems that disasters always brings out the best in people. People come together as a cohesive unit to fight off the evil elements. We've just seen so much of this before.

Very entertaining, but for all the wrong reasons. It's a natural disaster story predicated on the debunked idea that residents of the west coast of the U.S. will one day be swimming in the Pacific where their front yards used to be. Overlooking the film's goofs for the sake of artistic license becomes impossible as the nonsense keeps coming like aftershocks.But even sillier is how this movie presents its plot-hole-infested story. Jerky camera movement is used to simulate earthquake motion. Only problem is, they used the jerky camera business even when there was no quake. Characters are all loud and annoying dimwits. The toy cars they use on the chicken-wire model "Golden Gate Bridge" scene are outrageously funny. The numbskull who runs away from a crashing tower on a bicycle. But my personal favorite is the infamous "Fault line fissure chasing a train down the tracks" sequence. It literally follows the wake of the train, even turning corners, moving just slightly faster than the train as it stalks its prey, finally swallowing it up. Then, the instant it catches its lunch, it abruptly stops. If I had laughed any harder, I would have needed to be hooked to emergency oxygen.How to fight the quakes? Nuke the fault lines, of course. As if this premise wasn't ludicrous enough, the cartoonish CGI graphics utilized in the final sequence, along with where the advancing fissure stops (literally inches from a hero, after travelling over 100 miles), were the final straw.A sense of humor is all that's required to watch this.

I love disaster movies, so I was eager to watch 10.5 when it first appeared on TV. I didn't care if it was hokey; I still loved them, but from the previews, this one looked good. Only problem was, 10.5 made me sick and I had to turn it off. I don't mean I was sickened by the plot or dialogue or the acting. I mean the constant jerky camera gave me motion sickness. With frustration, I clicked it off and wished I could've talked to the director. What WAS he/she thinking? When it came on again, and it's showing as a rerun right now, I thought I'd try it again and I've managed to watch approx one hour by looking away from the screen most of the time. But I finally gave up. Please, people. Keep those cameras still!