Inferno a Los Angeles

INFERNO is a very poor disaster movie, made on the cheap on a TV movie budget. Every deficiency in the story is more than apparent because this is so cheap and cheesy looking. I could have overlooked the problems had the writing not been so predictable and clichéd, making this difficult to sit through.

The disaster stuff involves a flaming fireball heading through the heavens towards the Earth, meaning like NIGHT OF THE BIG HEAT it's one of those films where the characters start off cool but sweat and lose more of their clothes as the narrative progresses. Apparently this aspect of the narrative wasn't interesting enough as the writers instead focus on the various human interest stories which overlap and combine at times.

Leading the cast is James Remar, cast against type as the heroic scientist for a change (he's propped up cinema as a bad guy for years), but he's as wooden as the rest of the actors involved. Story lines include a down-on-his-luck doctor who somehow has to overcome his problems to treat the injured, plus a teenage gang member who must be "saved" by his dedicated teacher. Needless to say such moments are even cheesier than the mawkish sentimentality of VOLCANO and turn this into a right old mess of a film.