Combustion

Rather routine, but watchable. Scott, an engineer who worked on the Space Shuttle was out of a job after the shuttle exploded, and lands a job as city engineer in the small town he grew up in. His family is not happy, as they hoped for better job prospects, and her job does not utilize her talents, but they need the money. In the town, fire is exploding from manholes and buildings catch fire. The fire chief, a long timer, clashes with the city engineer, Scott. We find out later there is a secret behind the difference of opinion between the engineer and the fire chief. Scott wants to look at it scientifically, and the fire chief scoffs at that idea. Not a great movie but decent enough for what is likely a low budget movie.

I found this made for TV movie very entertaining. In fact, I have purchased it on DVD to watch again whenever I want. I agree that this movie is for entertaining purposes and not mind thinking, but with that said, I thought the plot was well established. I liked that Joe Lando's character, Scott Daniels, was an intelligent man and not some "like duh!" man who didn't know how to do his job. I liked the comradely between Scott and his co-worker. And I thought the special effects were good for such a low-budget movie. The movie is somewhat predictable, but still fun to watch. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes "disaster" movies, or is just a fan of one or more of the stars in the cast. I for one watched the movie because it starred Joe Lando, but found myself intrigued by some of the other characters.

Combustion is one of those television movies that wasn't meant to do anything but entertain. At that it succeeds and has a fair amount of suspense and thrills--again for a television movie. Greedy oil entrepreneur Talbot (Michael Gross) is in collusion with city fire chief Patterson (Michael Gregory) to suck oil from beneath the city using an old oil field just outside of town. The problem lies in the methods used by Talbot to get the oil, which leads to explosions under the city causing much combustion of buildings and the loss of life. Gas escaping from the manhole covers also causes unconsciousness and sometimes death. Scott Daniels played by Joe Lando, who basically makes his living playing in disaster flicks, is the city engineer who discovers, along with his assistant, the nefarious goings-on. Since the fire chief is intent on a cover up to save his hide when the fires flair up, he tries to convince Mayor Walker (Lisa Banes) that Daniels is the fire bug setting all the fires. The acting is adequate by all and Michael Gross makes a good villain. There is an attempt at a romantic subplot involving a love triangle among Daniels, Allison Saunders (Susan Walters), and Lourie Harper (Gabrielle Carteris) that never really gets off the ground. The special effects are adequate. Because it is a TV movie the part that shows one of the heavies being blown up with dynamite doesn't really show much. He is blown to smithereens off camera.

I knew an old banjo player named Floyd Holland who before he performed would tell his audience, "If you don't expect much, you won't be disappointed." That goes double for this film.