As a writer and lover of under-ground, sometimes bad, campy movies, I can never understand why people rent movies from The Asylum and then bother to write about them trashing the fact that they are low quality, with bad acting etc. With miniscule budgets of around $200,000 or so, and two week shooting schedules, The Asylum manages to come up with a few amusing projects, don't expect high art, and disappointment will be minimized.
Another off-shoot of The Asylum is they provide an outlet for either upcoming actors or actresses, or ones who have done projects in the past to have an outlet to re-hone their skills. An example of upcoming person is actress Aurelia Scheppers who is in 11/11/11.
In Super Cyclone, TV veteran's Ming Na and Nicholas Turturro are the leads. Sultry Ming-Na plays Dr. Jenna Sparks, and Turturro plays Travis Verdon. The film is directed by Liz Adams who also directed another disaster style film for The Asylum called Air Collision Check review @ http://dansmoviereport.blogspot.com/2012/04/air-collision-movie-review.html
By upping the quality a bit on the CGI the Asylum have managed to create a new niche for themselves in disaster films in 2012. Is this studio quality, the answer is a definite no, but, Super Cyclone is translatable to TV, thus a natural market for SYFY channel type stuff.
A short film description of Super Cyclone not to "spoil" anything: Dr. Sparks warns everyone of the oncoming situation even though they are powerless to stop it. An outlying oil rig provides one of backdrops to the action and headstrong military are brought in to attempt to control the situation. Some odd science ensues, including releasing a massive amount of nitrogen to super-cool the storm to sap it of energy. Apparently this storm was man-made, when an oil rig drilled too deep, let that be a lesson to all men out there never, drill to deep, haha! Man-made efforts to stop the man-made storm. Everyone tries frantically to escape, in typical disaster style. Explosions, high waves and winds ensue, I am assuming my readers get the picture.
Ming-Na is enjoyable to watch, even in this Asylum effort. She has an expressive face, natural beauty and a strong speaking voice. Even though she has made her mark on TV in shows like Stargate SGU and E.R., Ming-Na has not starred in many feature films since playing Chun-Li in the ill conceived 1993 Street Fighter film.
As for the acting on Super Cyclone, not the worst Asylum has to offer, but I kind of wish there were more realistic emotions from most of the characters involved. Not just upon eminent doom type shots, but throughout the film, sometimes characters had just a blank stare kind of look, also at other times they were overacting, almost screaming their lines. The short shooting schedule on The Asylum films often don't allow for many re-shoots, Super Cyclone looks like a plethora of one-take shots.
Overall, I say Super Cyclone is worth a rent, yeah a bit ridiculous, but fun. The CGI and action make for a somewhat decent movie night rental, I rate the film a 5 out of 10. The first link below is for the Amazon instant video:
Link to purchase the film: (Some sources have it for as little as 8 dollars)
5 out of 10 is a total laugh... just like the movie... lolol
ReplyDeleteworst. movie. ever.
ReplyDeletescript. plot. pacing. casting. acting. special effects.
if you feel you MUST see it, wait till it comes on Amazon Prime or Netflix or cable.
don't even spend $1.25 at RedBox
you will thank me 4 this...
This movie was just bad! I have see lots of asylem c movies, but this one was a F! Actually it was worse a (Z)rated movie. Syfi won't play this move, they would go under lmfao.
ReplyDeleteMy wife and I just saw this movie last night. I would rather have had my balls in a vice with mouse traps on my nipples then to have spent $1.28 at Red Box for this movie. I have never seen such poor acting in my life. It was totally unconvincing. I've seen better special effects after taking acid I. The 80's.
ReplyDeleteApparently no one who posted here has seen the trailer (or movie) for BIRDEMIC...it makes this film seem oscar worthy. And for what it's worth I found the movie enjoyable and yes I have seen WORSE lol.
ReplyDeletesuper cyclone.... wow, forgot to move pots and pans on the wall in the boat during a 40 foot wave, and wet the roads during the rain storm... can actually see the sun shinning in most of the shots. one second rain clouds, the next actors shaking back and forth (during the storm shots and the sun shinning down on the ground.) not to mention the men that fell over board are in 1" waves while the ones on the deck are fighting a huge wind storm... groan. was much better with a 40 ponder of whisky swallowed straight down. wait for 20 min and then try to watch it through slit eyes.... the same method the director used to make it.
ReplyDeleteWe've just watched 'super cyclone' on Sci-fi and it's fantastically awful, well worth a watch. My wife and I haven't laughed so much in ages.
ReplyDeleteTried to watch this on the Space channel twice - best I managed was about 3/4 of an hour. I enjoy the occasional low budget movie but this one had so many flaws in acting, directing, continuity and effects to be unwatchable.
ReplyDelete'Two Headed Shark Attack' doesn't seem quite so bad now.
I'm watching it now. To me, it wasn't really worth the rental as it's a crappy movie. I think it was a bit much for you to rate it a 5 out of 10. I would have probably gave it about a 2.5 or a 3 out of 10. You can tell it's not real whereas 98% of movies you watch seem realistic (if that makes sense lol).
ReplyDelete