Inferno Reviews

Clearly intended to capitalize on the success of ARMAGEDDON, this low-rent catastrophic thriller unfolds with the urgency of a Baywatch episode about UV-ray damage. The largest solar eruption ever recorded produces 140-degree temperatures in Los Angeles, wreaking havoc with people's behavior. General Maxwell (Daniel Von Bargen) finds that declaring martial law doesn't cool things down, but the hot spot proves a testing ground for unexpected heroes. They include hard-drinking medic Dr. Coleman (James Remar), who renews his Hippocratic oath in time to save the severely sunburned, and schoolteacher Mr. Desmond (Anthony Starke), who extricates his high school students from an invasion by unhinged national-guardsman Simpson (Fredric Lane). Villains also emerge, like mechanic Ryan (Kathyrn Morris), who persuades her co-worker, Eddie (Jonathan LaPaglia), to blow up a bank vault during the crisis. Determined to win back his ex-girlfriend, life-guard Erica (Stephanie Niznik), Eddie kidnaps her from a makeshift medical center — can Dr. Coleman save her? This half-baked meteorological thriller doesn't make viewers care about its cast of scorched character, and by the time a rainstorm yields a symbolic rainbow for the survivor characters, viewers will be in a silly-movie stupor. Disaster pics are designed to give mankind a Biblical poke in the eye, but every turn of events falls into place, exactly as you'd expect and this film's two-dimensional characters seem less shaken by an angry Jehovah than tested by ancient genre formulas.