Supernova (2005 TV Movie) User Reviews (74)

Don't waste your time on this

[cosmic_quest · 3/10 · 31 December 2005]

What can I say about this? Well, firstly, there is no need for me to give a summary of this mini-series when people can just easily refer to the standard disaster film formula: smart guy with all the answers, pretty but tough woman, cute kid, corrupt government agent/politician/business man who is only interested in some greedy proposition and some CGI effects. There isn't a sweet little dog that, of course, survives deadly situations but the script writer does toss in a serial killer who escapes. There are also destruction by meteors that seem to be intelligent with the way they just know how to land on structures of significance ('Oh look, there's the Taj Mahal- let's blow it up. There's the Sydney Opera House- get it! Look the scientist who can set everyone straight; he has to go!').

Basically, 'Supernova' has been done many times before and the previous efforts have been much superior. The science behind the concept is so ridiculous that they resort to techno-babble in the hopes the audience won't notice. Although the story is supposedly set in Australia, the director and the actors don't seem to know this and are confused whether the location should be America, Australia, the UK or South Africa (the shift in scenery and accents just gets irritating after the first half-hour). While one can't blame the CGI effects for being far from great given the lower budget of the series, this could have been avoided if it hadn't bothered to show off.

What could have save 'Supernova' was if the plot was solid and the characters were interesting but it didn't even have that. The characters were so flat and uninspiring that they just left the audience praying that sun would just swallow these people up, and the plot was tedious and too drawn-out.

If you want a disaster film, stick with 'The Day After Tomorrow' or 'Independence Day'. They too may be predictable but they know it and do it well!

Core story promising, but padded out and lost

[terra-v · 5/10 · 5 September 2005]

This is a standard end-of-the-world flick with low end special effects even for a TV movie. Some of the performances were worthy efforts, some of the dialogue was good, but not nearly enough. The plot often felt cobbled together, more like a rough draft. However, I had the sense that there might have once been a decent screenplay, but, perhaps once out of the writer's hands, it got rewritten innumerable times under the direction of some suit. You could almost hear the keys cutting and pasting in the script. The by-the-numbers feel seems to have effected the actors at times; here and there you felt they were just going through a well known routine.

The overall sense I was left with was a lack of clear direction. Not so much in individual scenes, which were sometimes good, but in the movie as a whole.

SPOILLER!!! The subplot of the protagonist's wife and child being threatened by a homicidal maniac that she had once helped put away was absurd. It belonged in another movie. My guess is that it was inserted in this one so the typically Neglectful Scientist, who has become standard in these movies, can re-bond with his family. That, and to add some thrills.

I will say, however, the actor who played said maniac certainly had the right face for it. Good casting there.

I hope some of the name actors have something better to go on to after this.

Nice to Look at

[writethomas49 · 5/10 · 3 March 2018]

I'm sorry the science is bad. I'm sorry it wasn't filmed in Australia and they got a lot of accents and details wrong. I'm sorry some people don't think much of the acting.

But I really enjoyed the scenery. It was well photographed. The acting was decent and the women were nice to watch.

All in all, It was a pleasant flick to spend a rainy afternoon on.

Awful

[mixmasterreece · 1/10 · 16 January 2006]

For those who missed the end : Luke Perry's calculations were incorrect and he had put a + instead of a - in his calculations meaning that the sun was not going to blow up. All of the great minds of America decided it not wise to check the doomsday predictions of one man, deciding instead to just take his word for it. But thats what happens when you get some Beverly Hills 90210 burnout to conduct some Astro Physics research and hire an arab, a Jamaican and a bimbo as his incompetent colleagues.

Perry's mentor who first read his findings and discovered the impending doom of the world did what anyone else would do in the same situation, namely not tell a soul and instead go hang around a beach in South Africa with a blonde local waitress

In breakthrough technology scientists can now watch giant fireballs hurtling towards earth at great speeds by using extremely intelligent satellites which can stand in the path of the fireball whilst filming and then flip round the back of it afterwards to get the perfect shot while it smashes into earth.

A fireball the size of a bus hurtled into earth blowing up a shed with an essential character in it, but had mercy on other buildings leaving them unscathed. In a interesting plot twist the Sydney Opera house was revealed to be made out of wet cardboard when a person hurtled into it after a fireball attack and smashed a hole the size of a small house in it.

Reaffirming my earlier suspicion that fireballs are mans greatest natural predator scenes of fireballs picking out humans and leaving the ground around them unscathed has effected my ability to sleep at night. Also a tip on public safety, when under fireball attack do not hide in well known monuments such as the Taj Mahal or the Eiffel Tower as Fireballs instinctively hunt these landmarks out.

It would also seem that little to my knowledge Australia and South Africa look exactly the same. It also came to me as quite a surprise that white Australians have Black African slaves that call them 'Maam'and never fear if one of them gets shot because more just keep popping up everywhere. It also bears mentioning that there slaves have safe houses on sprawling properties for you to hide out in when being hunted escaped convicts. Another point that is going to have be changed in text books worldwide is that the death penalty is an active part of the Australian legal system.

Gamma rays pounded into earth scaring some birds. When it gets hot dolphins cant handle the heat and all beach. The government decided to only protect Food stores from rioters because "They can have the booze we wont be needing it" much to the delight of rioting Alcoholics and Luke 'Black Liver' Perry. In a startling revelation about human nature it turns out that when it get hot humans decide to riot and set fire to everything around them in an attempt to cool down. Also we got a look into the mind of a rioter when the mob was faced with an angry police force instead of banding together they decided to attack their fellow rioters.

Still showing hes 'Got it' Matthew Perry found the time (in between pondering the fate of the world and saving his family from a killer) to spade 3 girls and also discuss at length why a 16 year old girl was at a party, proving that even when your wife and child are days away from dying not even the Apocalypse can stop a man like Luke Perry making a run at some Asian poon.

A sinister scheme was uncovered by the government to firstly hide the fact that sun was going to blowup, hoping that nobody would notice the fireballs, extreme heat,millions of people dying around them, the disappearance of the sun and the fact that the sea has become the worlds largest deep fryer, hoping that people would write it off as some sort of freaky eclipse or just blame it on that pesky el nino. The 2nd part of this scheme involved rounding up the worlds greatest minds, that by chance were all in Australia at the time and hiding them underground when the sun blows up. All designed for an ambitious attempt to sort out the ensuing over heating problem with a little dry ice and then bring them out of hiding after it 'all blows over' and begin construction of the new sun.

In an ambitious move Wayne's Asian Girlfriend from Wayne's World decided to drive from Sydney to St Louis with only her good looks and ill conceived idea to aid her. Unfortunately her cross continental driving trip was cut short by a bullet wound 10 minutes out of town but not before using her final breath to add to Luke Perry's swelling ego by telling him that he quite a catch.

A group of scientists decided to back up all the data and leave it for someone to find after everyone in the world is boiled to death. A child murder took little notice of the approaching Armageddon and decided instead to travel halfway across Australia to kill a little girl.Then Luke got back to his family and jumped into the bizarre and not explained sub plot, killing the murder who showed determination and a will to succeed that should be applauded, his demonstration of keeping 'your eye on the prize' will surely appear in the next Tony Robbins 'power hour'.

Also another tip for would be heroes, when you find out that world isn't going to end don't bother telling anybody, instead copulate with your wife and let everybody outside kill each other in riots.

Poorly researched

[imdb-10420 · 2/10 · 11 November 2005]

This movie is full of holes. It's the middle of the day in Sydney at the same time as the Sahara, India and what I presume to be Central America, when they're all meant to be in Australia they keep changing the side of the road that they're driving on, the number plates are not Australian (the cars either), half the street signs don't even exist here, waitresses in cafés don't wear uniforms (except at Starbucks), the only Australian accents are terrible, the desert scenes are definitely more like 14 than 4 hours drive from Sydney - everything about Australia in particular is just wrong! And that's because clearly none of it was shot in Australia. Oh and incidentally - we don't have the death penalty in Australia.

Extend that analysis to pretty much every other aspect of the movie and the only conclusion you can draw is that whoever wrote the script lives on a desert island without so much as an Internet connection. Even the Sun manages to explode on only one lateral plane (that which includes the orbit of Earth), and when the city's burning, the riot police waste their water on looters.

It's really difficult to tell what's going on where (and when) because of all these obvious inconsistencies. It wasn't until Luke Perry says "St Louis is half way around the other side of the world" that I really became convinced that they were meant to be in Australia. Couple all of that with a triumvirate of bad special effects, flat acting and a recycled doomsday premise and you've got a real stinker. A complete waste of time if you ask me.

Still, it wasn't as bad as The Perfect Storm.

Superbore, anyone?

[micdavey · 1/10 · 20 November 2005]

Everything in this movie is absolutely shocking. Ridiculous scenarios, stupid characters, mundane dialogue, if it's bad, this movie has it. But the funniest thing in this movie has to be the massive errors in geography. As has already been pointed out, no one in Sydney seems to have an Australian accent; they're all British, American or badly pseudo-Australian. One viewer pointed out that Australia doesn't have the death penalty; not quite true. You can still be executed for treason in Australia, but that's it; mass murderers spend the rest of their lives in prison. Also, the term "recitles" is never used in Australia to denote a musical or drama performance done by school kids (at least not in Adelaide, where I come from). This is an Amreican term that the American makers of this film clearly assumed would be used everywhere else in the world. However, there was another howler that had me in stitches. A section of the film is supposedly set in the Maldives. The Maldives lie no more than six metres above sea level, yet there are gigantic mountains covered in lush rain-forests. Obviously, no research went into these geographic aspects of the movie.

Supernova is a Super No No

[hjassol · 1/10 · 10 April 2011]

Peter Fonda is a famous astrophysicist who discovers that the sun is about to explode so he does what anyone would do - runs off to the Maldives to drink, eat lobster and sleep with some blonde barmaid. Luke Perry is his colleague whose wife and daughter are being pursued by an escaped serial killer as he gallivants about the countryside with Tia Carrere who is a turncoat federal agent while the earth is being destroyed by fireballs emanating from the sun. Fireballs which, by the way, have the accuracy of laser guided bombs as demonstrated when Fonda's beach hut is destroyed, killing him and blondie, while the immediately surrounding flora is left completely unscathed.

Had enough yet? No? Okay, Luke ultimately saves the world by discovering that Peter's original formula was missing a minus sign and, with that news, the sun immediately stops hurling fireballs and decides to behave like a good little sun, the worldwide rioting and looting stops, entire cities which were destroyed are now deemed "just a scratch", Luke's wife shoots and kills the serial-killer bad guy, and the rain comes to put out all the fires. All is right in the world once again, so Luke and his wife and daughter go to the beach to build sand castles and have a barbecue.

Why have I told you all this? To save you from wasting 3 hours of your life by watching this abominable piece of garbage - that's why. You can thank me later.

Bomb!

[winner55 · 1/10 · 3 October 2007]

Why, oh why, do I keep getting suckered by promotional trailers for DVDs? Anyway, if you have seen the promo trailers for this film, be warned: they are clearly concerning another film never made, brief clips of which showing up in this one for no discernible reason whatsoever.

The principle problem here is a script that thinks it's a remake of "The Day After" but which would fit just about any daytime soap-opera. Since the premise of the film derives from astro-physics, the finale - a typically empty 'happy ending', having absolutely no grounding in any science whatsoever - makes no sense whatsoever.

Although the film actually avoids religion, let's put the matter in religious terms for clarification: Imagine Judgment Day; and God is really pee-ed off and decides no one is worth saving. Suddenly, Peter Pan's Tinkerbell pops up and reminds God that if he really really believes, creation can be saved. God smiles down on a half-dozen soap-opera stars (no, they haven't repented, what's to repent?), and suddenly we're all back in Eden.... - Scientifically speaking, that's "Supernova".

What brilliant con-artist convinced anybody this film could be made? And who are the emotionally troubled people who would like this garbage? By the way, if you're wondering whether one could watch this turkey all the way through, the answer is no; after giving it some 20 minutes, sheer boredom demanded I started skipping scenes sequentially trying to find something interesting to watch. I didn't. But I did watch the whole of the finale to see if there was anything important I'd missed. There wasn't.

And there wouldn't be anything important missed if you skipped the whole film.

The spirit of Ed Wood is amongst us!

[lindensong · 1/10 · 11 November 2005]

The Sun cuts loose and attacks the Earth! This must surely be one of the worst movies ever made - an abysmal script, ridiculous sets and effects, woeful actors, outrageously poor accents, unbelievable story, ridiculous conclusion, etc, etc It's like a Godzilla movie, but without the finely-tuned character development and deeply thought-out plot - hell, it makes Godzilla look like Shakespeare.

Set in Sydney - oh really?? did they do ANY research AT ALL? Do they have any clue what an Australian accent actually sounds like? Peter Fonda has a sort of minor role - boy, he must have been pretty hard up for money to accept a role in such a turkey.

Plan 9 From Outer Space updated to the 21st century!

Definitely awful !

[sun7_2 · 1/10 · 5 January 2006]

This "movie" was broad-casted last night on a french network. I couldn't believe my eyes how bad it was. There's absolutely nothing good about it. I mean nothing. Acting was zero, "science" completely stupid, backgrounds and CGI look like being painted by a 50's artist, and so on. I understand that even better artists need sometimes to pay big taxes so they have to play in second choice productions...But please ! Not in such a crap ! About location : Cape Town, South Africa, is perfectly recognizable in most exterior scenes (Table Mountain with Signal Hill on its right when looking from the sea; the business center of the city; even in some street scenes you can see typical buildings with Old Cape Dutch style; the license plates are definitely capetonians; on a house wall there is a plate claiming that the house is protected by Chubb Security Company; in one scene you can see a train, which is a Metro one, used in CPT,...etc.).

A "movie" to forget. There's nothing else to do with it.

A genre of its own!

[lstolten · 9/10 · 11 November 2005]

Some films are so bad, they're good. I had a great time watching Supernova, not so much for its acting, plot and intellectual stimulation, but more for the lack thereof. The producers and directors most likely owned a chook farm prior to entering showbiz, as everything seems to have been thrown together much akin to the way pellets of feed are distributed to chickens. This first becomes evident at the beginning of the film where a city shot of Sydney, Australia pops up along with a subtitle calcifying the locale, and immediately after this scene and for the rest of the movie none of the movie even seems to take place in Australia (I was guessing Mexico?). The number plates are not Australian, the people are either speaking with an American accent or some weird gobbledygook that sounds like a mix between cockney English and the orange shuurr-buurrt man out of Austin Powers. I could go on forever but you really need to see for yourself. pockets of genius - "except for lawyers" "you make a great drink - you make a great drunk" It really should be in a genre of its own. It can't be easy to make a film this bad. Sideshow Luke

If Armageddon and The Room had a baby...

[meithkillington · 7/10 · 27 June 2021]

SO SINFULLY BAD IT'S GOOD!

What can I say about Supernova that hasn't already been said? Some movies just happen to have the inherent quality of being so bad that one can derive great entertainment out of it.

The acting is not as bad as other reviews would say. The script was terrible so I'd say that the acting is one of the only good things about the movie, aside from many minor characters attempting terrible accents.

If Armageddon and The Room had a baby, you get Supernova. 3 hour runtime may be a little too much and there is not much payoff at the end.

This movie probably isn't a 7 as I have rated it, but it received so many 1 votes unjustifiably. I would like to say that Peter Fonda can make any movie better, even this piece of $hit. It was superbly predictable and every trope got used.

Although this movie is terrible, it also supplies great background noise during sexy time. It's not the worst movie ever made, as other reviews would suggest.

Luke Perry Cannot Act His Way Out Of A Paper Bag

[craigman · 1/10 · 13 November 2008]

Wow, I feel cheated out of the time I wasted watching this utter garbage. It came on channel 35 (ION) in the middle of a Sunday. That's when I usually get suckered into watching something crappy, I guess, since I was feeling particularly lazy and absolutely nothing good was on the TV. While most of the other reviewers rightly pointed out out how awful this was, I don't think it will become a "cult favorite", like some said. There really is nothing redeeming about this.

Why does Luke Perry still get ANY acting jobs? All he does in this is kind of mumble and stumble around. He has the charisma of a turnip, and doesn't even know how to act angry when some killer is trying to kill his annoyingly cute wife and child! I was rooting for the bad guy to kill him. The killer inexplicably only knocks him out! Then his wife has to save him! And poor Tia Carerre. I always thought she was hot looking, but she always seems so cold and sexless on-screen. It's as if she is under orders to never flirt or act sexy, or ever kiss anyone! She is always single and childless as well.

The scenes with Peter Fonda and the lone blond woman on the beach were excruciating to watch as well. They are killed in a really stupid manner by a heat-seeking sun-chunk (don't ask). After suffering through about 3 hours to the end, I was hoping the sun would indeed put everyone out of their misery! No such luck, though. Like so many other stupid "disaster" movies and TV shows, there is always a stupid happy ending! The creators never have the stones to actually follow through on their "end of the world" scenario!

FilmCreature Reviews 'Supernova' (2005)

[FilmCreature · 1/10 · 25 September 2007]

SuperNova is an astonishingly cheeseball TV disaster miniseries--not that I expected much more than that. The acting is truly awful, the plot is utterly riddled with clichés. The Spunky Hero (Luke Perry) has to stop the sun from exploding or something like that. Tia Carrere plays his butt-kickin FBI gal pal. But there's no friskiness between these two--he's got a loving wife and adorable daughter at home.

Who are in danger from (*gasp*) a RAPIST! The series stupidly segue-ways from an exploding sun to a convicted rapist going after the Loving Wife and the Adorable Daughter.

The Adorable Daughter is played by Eliza Bennett, who sadly had to take a stop in this miniseries before she stars in the highly anticipated 2008 fantasy film 'Inkheart,' also starring Brendan Fraser and Paul Bettany. And Helen Mirren and Jim Broadbent.

You get my point. There are probably people with potential talent here, but is is, of course, wasted in this awful film. Don't pick this one up.

Made for TV!

[butterfly_tes · 2/10 · 31 January 2007]

I have read that many Australians, understandably, commented on the lack of research and logic placed in this film. While those comments are all warranted and supported by all who watch 'Supernova', I would like to put a few things into perspective.

I know quite a few South Africans who starred in this movie. Most of them having good resumes and known for their high caliber of acting. I was horrified to hear that quite a few of their voices were dubbed into ridiculous sounding 'Australian' accents without any initial knowledge before or during filming, that they were in Australia. Initially it was meant to be an undisclosed location. This knowledge alone made me take a gallon of salt in hand while watching this 'movie.' I feel that the producers of this movie not only undermined the actors but Australians too. Yes, it is simply a made for TV movie, however, when I read the comments posted about the lack of attention to detail with regards to facts such as the death penalty, accents and actors, I need to defend our local talent in SA. Granted the film starred the out of date and generally out of work, Luke Perry. It needs to be reminded that this is a B Grade movie and should be taken that way. It cannot be compared to other end of the world saga's and after the opening scenes should definitely not be torn apart to look for logic, when it is clear to all who watch this movie that logic and research have not been added into the making of this movie at all.

We have a thriving industry of actors, producers, directors and playwrights in South Africa and unfortunately due to lack of publicity and the fact that it is more cost effective to film in South Africa, these hardworking people are often reduced to acting in movies, that they can hardly bear to watch themselves.

Everyone has to start somewhere and better known actors such as Peter Fonda should have their acting ability and judgment questioned more than the 'glorified extra's' who are simply taking whatever they can get. Do you really think that any person who is indirectly or directly involved in the film industry would knowingly attach their name to this?? It is also necessary to bear in mind that producers have far more say when it comes to the final cut and editing. When it comes to blaming people about the atrocities and lack of basic research, generally the fingers should be pointed at them.

I agree with the general consensus of comments posted. I don't feel that it is the worst movie ever made as I have had to unfortunately sit through many movies far worse than this one. Most made for TV movies are second rate, not all, as there are always one or two exceptions an example: "Angels in America." In general most TV movies are cheaply made and with production eerily similar to that of fast food chains!

My comments are not to defend the movie or the actor's performances within the movie but to make viewers aware that final editing boils down to production. Once an actor has done their part it can and often is changed for mass market and quick production which always results in an inaccurate and low quality film!

bad science, bad research, and bad acting

[rickbarry · 2/10 · 11 November 2005]

Oh where to begin? Leaving the incredibly bad science out of it (and believe me, as a former astronomer I gotta say the science was so bad!), the people who made this movie did obviously NO research on what Australia is supposed to look like.

Not only did just about everyone have an American accent (and most of those who affected an Aussie accent need to fire their dialect coach), but just about every detail was way, way off. I could handle some of the small stuff (i.e. phone numbers here have 8 digits, not 7), but they got some pretty major stuff wrong too.

Whlle the cars were at least driving on the left, they all had the wrong kind (possibly European) of licence plates. Aussie plates don't look anything like what they had. Imagine a movie set in New York where all the cars had bright pink tags.

But the BIGGEST blunder that anyone who had ever set foot on this continent would recognise: Australia doesn't have the death penalty. Like in most civilised nations, it was abolished years ago. This was a major plot point in the movie, and if they had bothered to do a lick of research, they would have known they needed a major rewrite.

Sloppy

It was South Africa

[markbutcher9 · 1/10 · 15 December 2005]

I agree that this was one of the worst films I've ever seen. I'm sure it'll become cult because of it. I saw this on Sky TV in the UK, which is normally pretty good at filtering out the worst US TV - this time their schedulers let themselves down terribly.

But on the most contentious issue about the death penalty. It was in South Africa. The news report clearly, although only once, mentioned Pretoria. I think Luke Perry and Tia Carrere were in SA. The labs were in Australia - and then the US military were in the US (where they should always stay). Did some captioning go astray? Along with the script, acting, dialogue, the special effect budget and everything else that's needed for a movie? This movie was so badly researched - the scene in the 'Maldives' with a big mountain?! The country is only 5 meters above the ocean at its highest point. And as a sacristy Muslim nation - only allows alcohol on authorized islands run by the Government. Not a wooden beach side shack with a single white woman! The producers could have chosen a million other destinations that would have made more sense.

I nearly switched off, but I was hoping the producers had a surprise up their sleeve at the end - like the Earth really ending, but then the scientists discovered a flaw in their equations (which they had to repeat several times in case we missed it) and the Earth was saved - but not the movie. This is a terrible film. An earlier contributor likened it to Plan 9 From Outer Space - a perfectly fair comparison.

Bloody awful

[eggamoobymuffin-2 · 1/10 · 11 November 2005]

It seems they tried so hard to get the Aussies off side in this one. With great success! Where do I start with the inconsistencies? Lets start with, all the officials being American (I mean I know our PM is weak and easily led by Bush but really), and the news reporters British and American. Is this realistic? Cmon. This movie would've gone a lot better if Aussie A-List actors put on their flawless Yankee accents (mind you I'm sure they had better projects to work on.) Luke perry... Need I say more? The poor bastard is balding and pathetic. The rest followed suit. There is one line I found even more annoying than the rest of it. Perry's wife says that she wants to go home where she can be safer. Are you kidding? Perhaps she shouldn't be walking around her daughter and home with a gun (so illegal here BTW.) Pathetic, offensive and a complete waste of time. As as matter of fact it is on my TV now. I have chosen instead to warn anyone who feels their time is valuable. Its ashame that the production costs for this atrocity couldn't be put towards a real cause. Can this production team say 'continuity expert'?

Disgusting movie

[peter-cartledge · 1/10 · 11 November 2005]

This "movie" was one of the worst I have seen. With the representation of Australia, I wasn't sure what country I was looking at. The accents were very suspicious, something like a mix of South African, British, Kiwi (New Zealand) and Australia.

Other errors, Australia does not have capital punishment, we do NOT execute prisoners. There were no locations that I recognised, so I am not sure where it was really filmed. Sure there were some "gratuitous" shots of Sydney, but they looked like stock footage. The mountains were not like any that I recognised in Australia. The "echidna" that came out of the door in the professor's home, looked more like a porcupine to me.

When they came out of the mountains to look at the "ruins" of Sydney and in the commentary toward the end, there was nothing at all like it. In reality, when you come over the mountains from the west, the actual city is still 50 kilometres away and more of a tiny cluster of buildings on the horizon. Also, looking down on the city, behind it was a large body of water with a large landmass in the distance. Nothing like that exists.

The acting was poor, the "structure", as such disjointed at best. The licence plates on the cars bore no resemblance to New South Wales (the state of which Sydney is the capital) plates.

The graphics were third rate. In addition, anyone who knows anything about physics would know that a supernova would not "shatter" planets as in the beginning but simply boil them away. Also, the large asteroid that supposedly crashed into the sun would never have gotten that far, it would have also boiled away before being able to make impact (on what it would impact, I am not sure, since the sun has a very deep and dense "atmosphere" of super hot plasma). The sun is about 1.4 million kilometres in diameter and wouldn't even notice a little blip like an asteroid.

All in all, if I were the producer of that "movie" I would hang my head in shame. The money could have been better spent on something more worthwhile. To the writers and producers I say "If you want to make a movie like this, do your homework."

(By the way, I have used Australian spelling which is different from American spelling, so please don't get worked up over that.)

Australia? Sydney?

[nickapopolis87 · 1/10 · 11 November 2005]

Look, aside from incredible plot holes and the ridiculous nature of the film, did anyone else notice something awry? This was screened as one long movie here in Australia on the Seven Network (www.seven.com.au the network to whom the camera man that was beaten up by terrorist supporters belonged) and one thing that became bleedingly obvious to me: THE SETTING IN NO WAY RESEMBLES Australia!!! THAT IS NOT SYDNEY...No one WITH ANYTHING CLOSE TO AN Australian ACCENT APPEARS...AND FOR A MOVIE SET HERE, THERE ARE A LOT OF Americans AND British! Also, in reference the news woman reporting on the Sydney Mayoral election, Mayors in Australia have almost no power, unlike in the U.S. Our system gives most of the power to the state government, eg. police, education, public transport, health, main roads, and all of this is funded from the federal government. The local council, headed by the mayor, is basically responsible for rubbish collection, parks etc and no one cares about the elections and by no means do they run high profile elections. In fact it is usually a postal vote. And voting in Australia is compulsory for all. Back on topic, the National Intelligence people from the states would never be allowed to run their investigation in Australia! They have no jurisdiction here, and would have to run with the help of state or federal police and or ASIO. It is the nature of nationality and sovereignty that another external power does not have free reign to conduct itself in the borders of another! Sorry for the long spiel...but Christ this movie is BAD!

Dumbfounded

[JPDellova · 30 September 2011]

Almost as funny as Robot Monster, or any of the magnificent Ed Wood Classics, but without the deep scientific grasp of those earlier films.

Read a dozen or so reviews -- the reviewers put a lot more into their posts than anyone connected with this incredible turkey -- I didn't see any review mention that our sun can't supernova, it isn't the right kind of star. It can nova, and its furthest expansion will reach the orbit of the inner planets, probably out to earth, but will not fill the whole solar system, as stated by one of the characters.

Great observation by one of the reviewers on how, after surviving in those Phoenix locations, the lucky few come to the surface and get to work on constructing a new sun. Excellent! And naturally in an actual nova there most certainly won't be anyone coming up, and probably no earth remaining to come up from -- but also no sun, and that wasn't comprehensible to anyone involved with this nonsense. No one in the whole project who knew any science at all, with tens of millions of dollars to burn -- pun definitely intended.

During the opening scenes I thought the story would involve the supernova of some distant giant star finally reaching our solar system seven million later. Silly me, that would have been far too stuck in boring reality.

The weirdest part is from start to finish I couldn't stand any of the characters. Can't say that about any of the Ed Wood masterpieces.

Flawless

[johnsouders · 10/10 · 20 August 2023]

This is the best movie I have ever seen. Superb dialogue and an edgy plot add to some of the most interesting characters to grace the small screen. Relative unknowns Peter Fonda and Luke Perry create watershed moments in what will likely be illustrious future acting careers for both of them. I had never heard of a Supernova before and now because of this movie I have spent countless hours going down an astronomical rabbit hole and this movie definitely nails it at every turn. With biting commentary on journalism and shadowy government agencies you will be on the edge of your seat every thrilling moment up to the incredible twist ending.

Not good - but not as bad as it could have been

[noelcox · 6/10 · 16 January 2006]

This film (sometimes shown as a mini-series) is not good, but it is not as awful as some suggest. The basis of much of the criticism is the way in which it portrays Australia. But it is by no means clear that the events are taking place in Australia. Sometimes they are - for we are shown a caption stating this - but sometimes we cannot tell. The essential problem with this film for me was the continual uncertainly as to exactly were the scene was set.

For instance, the secret underground facility was apparently run by US officials - the flag on the wall was a dead giveaway, if the phone call to the President didn't make it clear. But the inmates could then apparently surface and drive across country, first to what we thought was Sydney, Australia, then across desert to a country house in what looked suspiciously - and obviously - like South Africa. Perhaps the backers insisted that references to South Africa be removed? The special effects were not good either, but I've seen worse on even cinematically-released films. Technically the accents were the worst feature of the film. It was not that they varied - there is some suggestion that the Laboratory is multinational - but that some of them were simply bad (the villain's fellow escapee being the worst, by far, to my mind).

For the price of a few captions, and a slight tightening of the script, the film suffered the embarrassment of failure. It cannot convince the audience when the director, producer and script writer (assuming that there was one) cannot decide which country the story is set in.

I give it cult movie status on account of making it to Hallmark

[ekwright · 1/10 · 7 October 2006]

This movie was so bad I could not resist going on the Internet to find out what others had to say. The whole thing seems to have been shot in and around Cape Town, and if you watch the credits, you can see that it was mostly a South African production. Their assumption that the rest of the world is maybe as dumb as the film makers regarding the topography of the Maldives (what we saw was False Bay, Cape Provence)and other places is disproved by the posts here.

All along I thought there were three "locations", Washington, Sydney and somewhere in South Africa. The prison guard scenes were unmistakably South Africa, as were the African Nanny scenes - I could not quite figure out how our hero (who appeared to be in Australia)ended up in South Africa whilst driving a truck, or how our heroine intended getting back to St Louis in the same truck. And why was our professor, who was apparently sitting in Siding Springs Observatory NSW waiting for evacuation orders from Washington? The accents, uniforms, geography, minor details, plot, science was all so bad it was actually funny. I wonder did the South African Government give a grant for this film? I smell government involvement here - no commercial production would ever have survived the first cut.

This Movie both sucks and blows...

[Diaboliqa666 · 1/10 · 11 November 2005]

What can I say, Oh I know how about:

Before you make a movie set inanother country spend more than five minuets there and do some freaking research!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As an Australia I am deeply offended by this...thing. According to Steven H. Berman, Don Keith Opper and John Harrison the Australian population is approx 95% American, we have the death penalty, have some kind of strange English accent and our emergency services are English. It's obvious that they didn't like our native scenery as hardly any of it appears and apparently our own Government is so inept that we need the Americans to make all the decisions for us.

For the love of god burn this thing now, never ever ever show it to another living person again! The best part of this whole thing was writing this comment. This pile of dung is not worth the brain cells, time or electricity required to watch it.

Oh yeah, it's about the sun exploding, the end of life on earth and hope regained through a mistake made by the experts...sound familiar?? In case your interested there is also a bad guy chasing the leading characters family down in an act of revenge....sound familiar? A move/mini full of cliché and cultural ignorance.