10.5
Our Price: $9.98
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy Used: from $3.54 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD Cover Information
Actor: David Cubitt, Kaley Cuoco, Kendall Cross, Kim Delaney, Peter BensonBrand: LIONS GATE ENTERTAINMENT
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 165 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-08-24
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Lions Gate
Movie Reviews of 10.5
Movie Review: "We could be looking at a seismic event larger than modern man has ever witnessed before." - But 10.5 is no great shakes
Summary: 3 Stars
Living in glitzy Los Angeles has its downside, what with the landslides, the fires, the traffic, the smog, the paparazzi, the gangs, the L.A. Clippers... and, yes, the earthquakes. This mini-series 10.5 aired on NBC in 2004 and made a case for relocating to the eastern seaboard, where they only deal with hurricanes and blizzards and frostbite and such. And, really, those things aren't near as awful as the Clippers.
Being neither expert nor fan of earthquakes, I can't tell you how scientifically on point this movie is (but apparently it's not very). But if you're into disaster flicks garnished with television-appropriate special effects and cheesy melodrama and personal angst - and why wouldn't you be? - then 10.5 is worth looking into, but strictly as a guilty pleasure.
A train drops out of sight. A town goes missing. A series of famous landmarks gets demolished, starting with the collapse of Seattle's Space Needle in a quake registering a 7.9 on the Richter scale. This opening sequence proves to be jarring in another way, tailored as it is to an MTV/sports ad sensibility, with some bloke getting tricky on his bicycle - but, of course, you can't out-trick or outrace a force of nature. In short order we meet our cast, most of whom are actually quite relevant to the crisis at hand. There's the President of the United States, played with steadfast resolve by Beau Bridges; Fred Ward's semi-dashing character heads up FEMA; Rebecca Jenkins is the governor of California trying to put up a brave front, even as her family goes missing during the quakes. But, first and foremost, there's Dr. Samantha Hill, as played by Kim Delaney. She's the main protagonist of this thing.
Dr. Hill - or "Sam" - is a brilliant seismologist but a control freak, and as such doesn't work well with others. She's a deep fault expert, and, despite the disbelief of her colleagues, it's her theory which ends up saving the day. Sam speculates that a series of unidentified faults is causing the chain reaction of quakes, each successive one escalating in magnitude. If you've entertained any of the more popular notions of what might happen to California should the Big One come up, well, peep this mini-series.
To round off the cast, there's John Schneider as the governor's ex gone camping with his estranged teen daughter, and I guess nothing cements a father-daughter bond quicker than an impending cataclysm. The daughter, though, is very annoying with all the shrieking and the selfishness and the shrieking. And then there's the cocky surgeon (because there always has to be an arrogant schmoe in these things) and his more reserved fellow doctor, who's having his own family issues.
In the ranks of disaster films, this one doesn't really come close to classics like AIRPORT ((Airport Terminal Pack (Airport/Airport '75/Airport '77/Airport '79 - The Concord)), The Towering Inferno (Special Edition), or The Poseidon Adventure (Special Edition). It's definitely not as entertaining as Volcano, Armageddon or The Perfect Storm. 10.5 is middle-of-the-barrel fare. Except I'll tell you what, shopworn and clich?-ridden this movie might be, but once I tuned in, it was real hard to stop watching. It's like candy corn - you know it's not good for you, you'll feel ashamed in the morning, and you might wake up with nausea. But so what? One hallmark of disaster films is the all-star cast, something which 10.5 is lacking, with due respect to Beau Bridges, John Schneider and Fred Ward. However, I caught this mini-series when it first came out primarily because of Kim Delaney, whose Detective Diane Russell I really dug in NYPD BLUE. Dr. Samantha Hill is actually a pedestrian role, but I still think that Delaney does a fine job with what she's given. Much as she did with Det. Russell, Delaney is able to bring out the wounded vulnerability within the icy, brilliant Sam Hill. Certainly, the movie is at its most interesting whenever she's on camera.
Everything you expect to see crops up sooner or later. The citywide panic. The mass evacuations. The refugee camps. The Californian coastline getting a face lift, and there's some irony there. Also the cheesy dialogue and the personal little dramas which are supposed to provide a humanizing counterpoint to the impersonal awesomeness of Mother Nature. Delaney and John Schneider are good. The other actors vary from decent to derivative. 10.5 does try to switch things up a bit by using various editing tricks, from split frames to jittery close-ups (I was half expecting Jack Bauer to show up somewhere). I will say that these techniques do lend the story a sharper sense of immediacy.
For those interested and willing to sit thru 2 hours 45 minutes of talk, the 10.5 dvd does come with a director's audio commentary. Anyways, 10.5 was good for the ratings and drew in enough viewers that a made-for-television sequel 10.5: Apocalypse came out in 2006, in which Kim Delaney returns but the cheesy is even more in the hizzy. And yet 10.5: APOCALYPSE isn't the worst disaster film of all tme. That honor probably falls on a stinker like AVALANCHE, KRAKATOA - EAST OF JAVA, or JAWS THE REVENGE. SON OF THE MASK, by the way, also counts as a disaster film.
Summary of 10.5
Disaster Strikes the United States when an earthquake of epic proportions hits the Pacific Northwest causing the West Coast to separate form the rest of the continent and there is only one man who can save it and 50 Million people for annihilation.System Requirements:
Format: DVD MOVIE
Dismissed by seismologists and roasted by critics, 10.5 offers 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 from NYPD 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 and The West Wing's Dul? Hill in thankless supporting roles, 10.5 deliberately strives for supreme badness, leaving no clich? unturned and cursing its cast with the worst dialogue in miniseries history. It's gloriously awful and uproariously entertaining. 10.5 may not rock your world, but natural disasters were never this much fun. --Jeff Shannon
Action & Adventure DVD Video
DVD Video
- Action & Adventure
- African American Cinema
- Animation
- Anime & Manga
- Art House & International
- Classics
- Comedy
- Cult Movies
- Documentary
- Drama
- Educational
- Fitness & Yoga
- Gay & Lesbian
- Horror
- Kids & Family
- Military & War
- Music Video & Concerts
- Musicals & Performing Arts
- Mystery & Suspense
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Special Interests
- Sports
- Television
- Westerns
Movies most talked about in A Future So Bleak: Hope and Despair
Life After People (History Channel)A&E; Release date: 2008-03-18; DVD
Best price: $3.69
Price in other shops:
Last Days on EarthMPI; Release date: 2007-06-26; DVD
Best price: $10.46
Price in other shops:
The Running Man (Special Edition)Lions Gate; Release date: 2004-03-16; DVD
Best price: $7.49
Price in other shops:
Soylent GreenWarner Brothers; Release date: 2008-03-25; DVD
Best price: $9.90
Price in other shops:
Death Race 2000Release date: 1998-02-18; DVD
Best price: $5.79
Price in other shops:
Escape from New York (Special Edition)TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT; Release date: 2003-12-16; DVD
Best price: $6.99
Price in other shops:
Battle Royale: Director's Cut (Collector's Edition)Release date: 2004-06-15; DVD
Best price: $11.99
Price in other shops:
Blade Runner (Four-Disc Collector's Edition)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2007-12-18; DVD
Best price: $19.39
Price in other shops:
Metropolis (Restored Authorized Edition)Release date: 2003-02-18; DVD
Best price: $15.97
Price in other shops:
The Seventh SignSony; Release date: 1998-10-14; Published: 1998-10-14; DVD
Best price: $8.73
Price in other shops:
Similar DVD Movies
VolcanoJONES,TOMMY LEE; Release date: 1999-03-09; DVD
Best price: $2.99
Price in other shops:
Night of the TwistersGaiam; Release date: 2006-04-04; DVD
Best price: $5.06
Price in other shops:
Absolute ZeroAbsolute; Release date: 2006-09-26; DVD
Best price: $2.22
Price in other shops:
Disaster Zone: Volcano in New YorkRelease date: 2006-11-07; DVD
Best price: $4.89
Price in other shops:
SupernovaRelease date: 2006-01-17; DVD
Best price: $3.13
Price in other shops:
The Great Los Angeles EarthquakeRelease date: 2006-04-25; DVD
Best price: $13.39
Aftershock: Earthquake in New YorkLION'S GATE ENTERTAINMENT; Release date: 2001-02-20; DVD
Best price: $4.14
Price in other shops:
Category 6 - Day of DestructionRelease date: 2005-02-15; DVD
Best price: $6.89
Price in other shops:
Category 7: The End of the WorldRelease date: 2006-04-04; DVD
Best price: $2.30
Price in other shops:
10.5: ApocalypseRelease date: 2006-08-01; DVD
Best price: $2.56
Price in other shops: