The Reel After the First One....

Rating: 6/10 (7 March 2005)

....is when it's time to give up on this flash in the pan. Much like another 2004 entry, Van Helsing, the first 30 minutes or so are breath-takingly good and the rest is just filler. Here the disappointment is more intense if only because the initial concept is so promising. Weather expert Quaid determines that global warming is going to trigger cataclysmic (and I mean Act of God cataclysmic) weather changes. His warnings go unheeded until most of North America is a skating rink. Almost all of the fascinating special effects are loaded up front. The rest of the movie (Quaid walking to Manhattan to search for his son) seems like a (bad) made-for-TV-movie - hokey, unbelievable, disjointed and uninteresting. Maybe they spent their whole budget on the first half hour. Sorry, wish it weren't so.