My initial response to this film was unfairly snide, searching the lead actor's face in vain for simple change of expression. But although it took some time, I was finally able to find redeeming value in this tepid disaster film; this apparent new sub-genre of divorced dads winning back their families by saving them from natural disasters might have some worth if you take a drink every time you see someone on the phone. Of course having a character talk on the phone does not contribute any sense of urgency or suspense. In fact watching people talk on the phone in films is as annoying as watching them talk on the phone in real life - but this film is annoying enough to leave you falling down drunk. Three sips for speaker-phone, two sips for a headset, this film promises a good time.

In short, the film has good acting, reasonably good drama, but bases itself on such bad science that it completely loses its credibility.

This film uses a very standard disaster movie recipe, replete with the scientist warning the people in power of the danger, mysterious deaths that have to be investigated, then thousands of people dying in a catastrophe, the people in power acknowledging the scientist was right, the scientist saving the world, and even the all important scientist-marriage-is- in-trouble-but-saved-by-the-disaster cliché. It even has a green eco-warning about pollution.

Scientifically, the movie is incredibly flawed, and this distracts greatly from enjoying it. The main premise, that the ozone layer keeps the cold air in the Mesosphere, is not the only major flaw. Many of the special effects of flash freezing at -100F, a deadly ice fog that appears to be slow enough to outrun on foot and fast enough to catch a speeding car at 100kph simultaneously, weather balloons launched from Queensland making it to 500 miles south of Tassie in 20 minutes by using a 'South Polar Jetstream' (which would have to be doing 7,700 kph to accomplish this), and even include a medical misrepresentation of the symptoms of hyperglycemia in a diabetic person. Other technical problems include the main character hacking a military satellite to obtain weather data, and being an all around genius with an unlikely quantity of giftings in meteorology, computers, and mechanical disciplines (but of course hopeless at relationships).

*Spoiler* - one scene that was particularly terrible was the main character rushing off to get insulin for the diabetic character, JUST AS the computer was finishing the simulation necessary to save the entire world, leaving a 16 year old to figure out what to do. Who would do that? And of course once she does figure it out, the diesel generators go out, thereby again requiring the protagonist to return to complete the upload. Seriously? It's the most dramatic scene in the movie, and is just as flawed as the main premise.

Dramatically, the acting is actually very good, and the storytelling plot line moves at a good pace - it's never boring or too fast to follow. There's good character development and the accent mixes are believable and explained. The locales are generally believable and well constructed.

Overall, if you can suspend your intellect for a while, it's a pretty entertaining movie and worth watching. But if you are into hard science fiction, or are bothered by scientific inaccuracy (in order to create plot devices), then you might consider choosing something else. I give the movie 3 stars purely on acting and drama, with the remainder missing due to the aforementioned technical problems.

"Arctic Blast" started out with lots of potential, though you knew right from the very beginning that there wasn't talk about a major blockbuster movie here. But still, the plot seemed promising and the CGI effects weren't too shabby.

But of course it was all flushed down the drain, when the producers started having these arctic rifts open up in the atmosphere in multiple locations around the globe. Had they kept it to the one near Tazmania, as the first one was there, the movie had been all that much better. Surely if a weather phenomena like that hits Australia, the rest of the world would know about it. But suddenly there were arctic rifts over London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Amsterdam, and no one seemed to know about this in advance. You'd think there would be alarms going off at meteorological stations and such. But no...

Actually, the plot of the story was solid enough and truly had potential. It was just killed off by too much ambition and the need to cause too much havoc and destruction.

You would think that fog at -90 degrees Fahrenheit would be able to freeze the surface water solid, when it apparently can freeze a huge ship and people instantly. Throughout the movie there were a few mistakes and bloopers here and there. But nothing in the caliber that it really made the movie laughable.

Of course, you should take "Arctic Blast" for what it is, a fairly low budget natural disaster movie. And it is an ambitious one at that too. And the end result wasn't too bad. But of course, there was the traditional sugar-coated happy ending. Come on! Firing missiles into the rift makes it all alright? Alrighty then...

There are better disaster movies available on the market. But "Arctic Blast" is worth a watch if you got nothing better to do and if you like natural disaster movies. Just prepare yourself for a movie that wants to do big stuff but doesn't really manage to keep hold of the ambition.