10.5
Dismissed by seismologists and roasted by critics,10.5offers everything you'd expect from a cheesy camp-classic disaster flick. Originally broadcast on May 2 and 3, 2004, this $20 million NBC sweeps-week miniseries achieved its ratings goal (20 million viewers) by promising a respectable cast and spectacular digital effects to simulate "the Big One"--a series of fault-ripping earthquakes that re-shape the entire West Coast of the United States. The first quake hits Seattle, toppling the Space Needle in a ridiculous opening sequence, and within minutes deep-fault expert Kim Delaney (no doubt regretting her departure fromNYPD Blue) is busy convincing the President (Beau Bridges) and his geological advisor (Fred Ward) that only a series of nuclear blasts will "heal the rift" in the shifting tectonic plates. With John Schneider andThe West Wing's Dulé Hill in thankless supporting roles,10.5deliberately strives for supreme badness, leaving no cliché unturned and cursing its cast with the worst dialogue in miniseries history. It's gloriously awful and uproariously entertaining.10.5may not rockyourworld, but natural disasters were never this much fun.--Jeff Shannon