The Name Says It All...
Added 9/22/2009
If the Producers and Actors came foreward and exclaimed that this movie was a hoax, a saterical jab at "Drive-In Movie" movies and/or a teaching guide of what to avoid in making modern films. Really... Was this film a bad joke?
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A Poor Man's "Day After Tomorrow"
Added 6/19/2009
First, you have to go into these direct-to-video flicks with a certain mindset, my wife calls it 'dumbing down'. But insults aside, taking a laid back approach with a bowl of popcorn and an easy chair works - especially after a hectic day, nothing beats a good B-movie.
Absolute Zero was clearly attempting to ride the coattails of it's more famous predecessor, but on a shoestring budget. Still, for all it's shortcomings, this is a decent example from the Saturday SciFi fare. Believe me, they can be MUCH worse. (laughing) And sometimes a really good one actually gets made. i.e. Maximum Velocity.
It was really nice to see beautiful Erika Eleniak - she's aging well. I suspect she'll continue to look stunning even in her sixties - ala Jaclyn Smith/Jane Seymour. And this is one of the better Jeff Fahey vehicles. Believe me, the man can act if given proper direction as this film proves - and fans of tv's 'Lost' can attest to as well.
My only serious complaint, and this is to all these B-grade directors: If you're going to show an animal in distress, especially a dog, show it being 'saved'. Nothing po's the general public more than hurting man's best friend. Don't believe me? Ask Vick his thoughts on the subject. Take a few seconds of film to show the dog being saved - you'll win legions of fans, even if they hate your film.
Bored and looking for some lite fare to pass away a night? Check this flick out.
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Could have been better
Added 6/11/2009
Absolute Zero is only interesting for its story about climatical change and polar shifts. The rest of this performance is poor to very poor.
The story in itself is allright, let alone some scientifical errors. Not to mention that Jeff Fahey plays David Kochman, and not a guy named Koch. The acting is average and the SFX are sometimes poor.
But it's the characters that are most annoying. Fahey's boss is only concerned about money, and has it so bad that he tries to grab some fallen papers, when the cold sets in. So he dies. Pretty convincing character, guys!
This student Phillip is also very annoying, even when time is running out and everything will be frozen, he is still begging for a date with the girl. I say STUPID, no one is so lame!
And don't forget, Science is Never Wrong. That's the catchphrase in this movie, and that's beside boring, not true. Read Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, in which is explained that the perception of science changes through times, example± Copernicus and Galilei.
So Science is Never Wrong, even this little girl exlaimed it. Weird, kids about her age rarely have interest in science, so that's stupid character #3. She and her mom doesn't even cry when daddy dies....
It was already too late when I discovered that the director and writer are the same from another lame movie Volcano in New York. That was bad, this performance is not better. So this movie is hardly worth two stars. Two, only because'I'm interested in this theme. Luckily CineTel Films are producing a film about this theme, simply called Polar Shift. I'll just wait for that one, while Absolute Zero catches dust on my shelves!
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You Don't Watch This One for Scientific Accuracy
Added 4/16/2009
It is easy to poke fun of ABSOLUTE ZERO. It is an end of the world as we know it film, full of scientific implausibilities and impossibilities. Still, there is just enough human drama that somehow manages to fizzle through the generally low level of scripting, FX, and hamminess. Jeff Fahey is a scientist who discovers that the earth will soon encounter a phenomenon called Pole Reversal. Under this scenario, the earth's poles exchange relative position, an occurrence which has happened many times during the earth's 4.5 billion year history. Exactly what would happen to the planet is still unclear but it is unlikely to result in a capsizing or tilting of the earth on its axis. ABSOLUTE ZERO is a weird blending of a deep freezing America from the film THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW with a capsized earth from the novel THE HAB THEORY. Much of ABSOLUTE ZERO is full of teasers that lead up to the climax. The opening scenes of a melting Antarctic ice cap are truly interesting. The long dead remains of a frozen human being dated from just before the last capsizing further pique the viewer. Jeff Fahey gives a competent performance as one who tries to convince his disbelieving boss that it is already too late to do anything but evacuate any area near the equator. Erika Eleniak is his erstwhile girlfriend who has since married another, had a child by him, and now must care for both despite the oncoming upheaval. The FX are third rate, which one expects from the shoestring budgets of the SCIFI channel. The last few minutes are no more than the ticking clock of most disaster films that do not get decided until the very end. Even viewers not well versed in science will undoubtedly gape in disbelief at the implausibility of events. What emerges from watching ABSOLUTE ZERO is the realization that it could have been a much improved film had director Robert Lee focused more on the drama and less of the melodrama of a truly monstrous catastrophe of biblical proportions.
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No more yelling!
Added 3/26/2009
I bought this movie because I LOVE disaster movies. I liked the special effects (although a little brief), I liked the idea of the problem.
The acting, however, was a little...missing. Jeff Fahey's idea of acting is doing a LOT of yelling, deserved or not. The death of one of the characters wasn't taken seriously (no, I won't say who it was), and the Jerk didn't get his due in a timely fashion.
I enjoyed watching it, but it is a typical B movie. I don't know I'd watch it again, but I might have the flu someday. :)
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