Firequake (TV Movie 2014) Poster

(2014 TV Movie)

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2/10
Don't Waste Your Time
P3n-E-W1s310 January 2018
I am a lover of B-Movies and usually the worse the better. I say this because usually the writer, director, and actors will generally try to give us something entertaining - and I thank them for that, a lot of my happiest times have been in front of B-Movies. However, there are times, such as this, when it appears that nobody really gave a damn about the film. Which is a shame as the concept isn't too bad for an ecological disaster flick. As we are running out of fuel we need to find new ways to generate power and Dr Eve Carter, played by Alexandra Paul, has come up with a way to use the sustainable energy from magma to create clean and free energy. The trouble is that this is where the writer ran out of good ideas and hit the cliche book for inspiration. Everything from here on out is so "By The Book" it's risible and ridiculous... and very boring as we've seen it all before. I have to give credit to Paul and her co-star Browne who played Killian, as these obviously didn't get the memo and decided to actually try and give a decent acting job with the script and direction they were given. Sorry to say that this just wasn't enough. The worst actress, by far, was Barker who played Dr Carter's daughter, Nikki. Though she was supposed to be sixteen she looked to be more in her thirties and delivered her lines with the force of a sledgehammer. As for the rest of the actors, well they ranged from dire to wooden.

The direction of the film didn't help any as the director was very poor at creating an atmosphere of tension and excitement. He just plods the audience along with the story. Instead of sitting on the edge of my seat I was twiddling my fingers in an effort to stay awake. Even the special effects that were on offer were substandard - they didn't even rise to the dizzying heights of poor. The one thing that made me smile was that all the roads in Prague appear to lead to the same intersection. When Dr Carter and her daughter are searching the town for a pharmacist and insulin, they seem to get stuck in a temporal location warp. Which doesn't allow them to leave one particularly badly staged intersection. It's also amazing that in all of Prague the bad guy can home in on them amazingly fast.

There's an awful lot wrong with this motion picture and very little that's right... and nothing to recommend anybody to watch. Stay well clear of this film.
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2/10
Clichequake
oldkingsol8 March 2015
Warning: Spoilers
There's something to be said for sitting back and enjoying a B movie once in awhile. If you aren't already into B movies, then don't bother, because this is definitely in that category.

A SyFy style movie, only lower budget. It has every. single. -CLICHE- in the book - the snotty, angst-riddled teenage daughter, the smart, dorky super-brainy scientist mom who doesn't have a clue how to be a good parent, the evil manipulative scheming b***ard who makes trouble and then blames it all on the protagonist, the ex-hippies, the love-interest in peril - everything.

I was enjoying it as much as I usually do until about 50 minutes in, when the main teenage character began experiencing a diabetic crisis. Her blood sugar was going low. So naturally, her mother began frantically doing everything in her power to find some insulin for the girl. Sugary drinks wouldn't do it, "...she must have insulin, NOW!" :-|

That basically ruined any semblance of enjoyment I -had- been getting from the movie. My tolerance for scientific illiteracy is pretty high when it comes to these types of movies, but -this-? I was so, so, so, so, SOOOOOOooo disappointed. I mean, the scientific stuff was already garbage (which I didn't mind, as it's par for the course), but you'd thought they could have at least gotten that one very, very simple, excruciatingly well-known fact right - that if your blood sugar's going low, the LAST thing you want to get for it is insulin. Unless perhaps the mother was secretly trying to murder her own daughter amidst the crisis? Now -that- could've made for an interesting plot device. ;-) But alas, that wasn't their intent.

Am I really all that much more brainy than the average actor, script-writer and studio exec that I possess the esoteric knowledge of how diabetes works? :-?

Other than that, like I said, it's typical SyFy-esque B-movie fair. If ignorance about diabetes doesn't bother you, and you usually like B-movies, you might enjoy this. Otherwise, if you don't like clichés or cheese, avoid it like the plague.
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2/10
Love B movies. Not this one
ktrawick24 May 2023
Poor acting, plot holes like Swiss cheese. The most amazing thing I found is that everyone, from cops to locals, speak perfect English with nary an accent to be heard. This story takes place just outside Progue, which I am quite sure does not have American English as it's primary language. Bitchy teen aged daughter that looks like she's in her 20s, one crazy guy trying to cover up his catastrophic mistakes by killing everyone that knows she's innocent despite his claims, main character with the emotions of pudding. What happened to all the great B movies of yore? Special effects won't save bad acting and scripts.
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1/10
Absolutely appalling
francoisecath26 December 2014
Woahhhh - got this great idea for a film, dude - superbrainy woman who is the brains behind this new energy system which is going to save the world - you can probably already see where this is going - walks away just as things start going wrong so she can be with her horrible stroppy teenage daughter who she hasn't seen for years - cretin boss decides he cant be bothered with safety systems and sets it going at full power where it breaks down immediately and threatens global civilisation - boss goes on TV to say it is all the fault of stupid woman who is the brains etc - what a total crock - YOU WILL NEVER GET THESE TWO HOURS BACK, Don't WASTE YOUR TIME
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1/10
Cliché-quake
nickiesha3 January 2016
Warning: Spoilers
If I would want to be really tolerant, I could. I could forget about the terribly written and absolutely predictable plot. I could forget the countless number of mistakes according to Czech Republic, European culture and language barriers...I mean how could not a single person in the movie speak Czech? How could Czech cops have cars with the signs spelling 'Police' instead of 'Policie' as it should? I could forget the low cost effects and the budget-friendly repeated use of scenes. I could forget the necessity of US army to come and heroically save the day and I could even forget the shots of definitely non-Czech looking post-apocalyptic ruins. I could forget the awkward and irrelevant happy ending set it what looks like an Italian suburbs. But the ONE thing I can't forget is, that the "superhero mom" who is a leading scientist wants to treat her daughter's low blood sugar with insulin. This movie is a joke.
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1/10
A disaster all round despite some promise
TheLittleSongbird2 July 2015
Such a shame that a decent, if far-fetched, idea was wasted by truly dreadful execution. SyFy have made some tolerable movies, a lot of bad ones and an even larger amount of trash. Firequake is in the trash category and one of their worst in a long time.

Firequake is a very cheap-looking movie, everything looks very drab and the camera work and editing looks as if composed in a hurry. The special effects fare even worse, yes it is low budget but is that a good enough excuse for a lack of effort and the effects looking so fake and like they belong somewhere else? Not to me. The music is incredibly generic and sometimes like a monotonous drone, nothing interesting or memorable here.

Even by SyFy standards, the script is very stilted and cliché-ridden, with forced attempts at humour, lots of gibberish passing for sci-fi and logic, plodding and often irrelevant exposition and painfully ham-fisted melodrama. The story is dull and manages to be both ridiculous and over-serious. The idea is decent but it all feels half-baked and without any tension or sense. The characters are cardboard and even more clichéd than the writing, some managing to be annoying(especially the main teenage character), while the direction is flat and the acting is a mess of overwrought and completely disengaged.

Overall, had potential but a disaster all round. 1/10 Bethany Cox
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1/10
Terrible acting, disappointing movie
ropanz12 March 2015
I had never heard of this film, knew nothing about it. I expected something of decent quality, my expectations were destroyed. Very poor acting, poor quality film. Calling it a B movie rates it too high. This is a C or a D movie. What really set me off was that the film was supposed to be set in Czech Republic, yet the police, the dam workers,the gas station workers, and everyone in the film did not speak Czech and had American accents. If you are going to make a film based in Czech Republic, at least hire Czech actors. As the movie goes on, it gets more difficult to digest and follow with interest. Probably one of the worst movies I have ever seen.
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1/10
They did read the script, right?!
kneel-1679410 September 2018
Not often have I been compelled to write a review, until now! It's not enough to say the acting is poor, but it is. The story and script is insane! None of the scenes make any sense. Where does this take place? Czech Republic? Ukraine? US? One minute it's the Czech Republic and then there is reference to how this disaster gives the US access to the Ukraine and then within, let's say an hour, they are surrounded by seemingly US troops already set up with a huge camp! It's as coherent as a 3 year old's story. I have so much difficulty that anyone involved in this, from the producers to the actors, read this before getting involved? What about the director? It's just so horrible.
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3/10
Typical SyFy movie
Leofwine_draca20 February 2018
Warning: Spoilers
FIREQUAKE is a typical SyFy Channel B-movie about a government experiment leading to worldwide natural disaster when earthquakes begin spewing lava around the word. Only Alexandra Paul can save the day by running around, narrowly outrunning the disasters, and fighting back against the authorities. This is business as usual for a cheesy, low budget disaster film, made without a scrap of originality but plenty of cheese in the form of bad CGI and worse acting. There's little to get excited about, even for fans of this particular genre.
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1/10
Some Bad Dudes In Bulgaria !
adabsiz18 December 2023
I am amazed at the audacity of the 12 producers (including two John Capillas) who invested their money into this trash !

It is truly awful ... in EVERY department . The Opel cars with Bulgarian registrations , power and internet (not to mention cell phones) working perfectly even during the explosions and eruptions which says a lot about East European system integrity , the empty countryside that looks like a part of Kansas ... the list is endless !

The film lacked one factor, however .. no usual British "bad guy" for a change !!

Please avoid this disaster even on a rainy day ... watch anything - even AEW wrestling - but not this travesty !
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AsExpected
aphilip-1771025 December 2018
Ha ha, turned on the tv, heard three seconds of dialog and exactly what the cheesy but amusing screen work would be, bad movie. been many of them in the ten years. Sharknadoes included. Some peoples expectations were clearly out of line.
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8/10
Nifty disaster thriller
Woodyanders3 November 2021
Warning: Spoilers
A new clean energy source called Helios has unfortunate side effects: After it seeps into the earth's core, it causes seriously destructive fires and earthquakes. It's up to Helios creator Eve Carter (a fine performance by Alexandra Paul) to figure out a way to resolve the situation before it's too late.

Director Geoff Browne relates the engrossing story at a constant pace, takes time to develop the characters, generates a good deal of tension, and stages the exciting action with aplomb. The solid acting from the capable cast keeps this movie humming: Zoe Barker as Eve's bitter estranged teenage daughter Nikki, Nigel Barber as evil and greedy corporate executive Declan Glas, James Weber Brown as the dutiful Killian, Kicker Robinson as the panic-stricken Copper, Kirsty Mitchell as the perky Slater Cappilla, and Derek Morse as the helpful Captain Hill. A cool little flick.
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3/10
So bad that it is.... just bad
ta-6064416 March 2024
Warning: Spoilers
Cheap, click and add special effects have made disaster movies super cheap to make, so we get a lot of them now. And that really isn't a good thing. Too often they aren't entertainingly bad they are just bad. As Huey Lewis once said "sometimes bad is bad" and this is one of those times.

There really isn't anything likeable about this movie or the characters in it. Their actions make very little sense and the twenty-something that is trying to play an angry/bratty teen doesn't pull off anything other than being annoying. They needed to back the bratty off a lot earlier for her 'turn around'.

Her blog has 6 followers and yet she acts like the entire world is reading it. The only good people in this are the ones that own (or is it just take care of?) the house but you know how being good in a movie like this will end.

The technicians that you are supposed to root for surviving are literally the ones that turned on the doomed system. The main bad guy couldn't have done it on his own so they are just as guilty.

And then come the Whys?

Why have your daughter show up 3 days before a huge event? Have her stay with a friend in the US for another week or two.

Why not explain to her how crucial this is and tell her after Monday you will spend time with her to get everything settled?

Why kill the people at the house just because the lady told them she was innocent? Guilty people say that all the time.

Why kill the lady behind the project at all? He had all the money and the media behind him, he already won the 'who was wrong' battle.

And the final why.... Why did I watch this all the way through????
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5/10
Familiar plot, character types but with a twist.
stuart-wise8 January 2024
Let's face it, there may be an infinite number of ways to tell the same story and we seem to get that in sci/fi and disaster land. So Firequake has the corporate villain who pushes ahead despite problems and then faces consequences that he tries to avoid or pin on others. Then we have the obnoxious teenager who eventually comes around to love the person she starts out hating. But Firequake does have a different element that I felt made this movie a little different. Without giving away too much, the main character takes on what would be considered uncharacteristic actions out of desperation and you have to give the creators of this movie credit for giving a little twist in an otherwise ordinary story.
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