Aftershock: Earthquake in New York (1999) (TV)

User Rating:

5.1/10   

Director:

Mikael Salomon

Writers (WGA):

Paul Eric Myers (teleplay) and
David Stevens (teleplay) ...

Release Date:

14 November 1999 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Thriller | Drama

Tagline:

Terror is off the Richter scale.

Plot:

New York, the city that never sleeps, is trapped in a nightmare of horror and destruction when a massive earthquake rocks the unsuspecting city...

Plot Keywords:

Tragedy | Rock | Earthquake | New York | Urban

Awards:

Nominated for Primetime Emmy. Another 2 nominations

Cast

Tom Skerritt	...	Thomas Ahearn
Sharon Lawrence	...	Dori Thorell
Charles S. Dutton	...	Mayor Bruce Lincoln
Lisa Nicole Carson	...	Evie Lincoln
Jennifer Garner	...	Diane Agostini
Rachel Ticotin	...	Elizabeth Perez
Fred Weller	...	Nicholai Karvovsky (as Frederick Weller)
Erika Eleniak	...	Jillian Parnell (as Erika Eleniak-Goglia)
Mitch Ryan	...	Frank Agostini (as Mitchell Ryan)
Cicely Tyson	...	Emily Lincoln
Mark Rolston	...	Bruce Summerlin, Co. 51
Ray J	...	Clayton
JR Bourne	...	Joshua Bingham (as J R Bourne)
Michal Suchánek	...	Danny Thorell (as Michael Suchanek)
Jerry Adler	...	Burt Hornstein

Also Known As:

Aftershock - Das große Beben (Germany)
Erdbeben-Inferno: Wenn die Welt untergeht (Germany) (rerun title)
New York - Der jüngste Tag (Germany) (DVD title)

Runtime:

170 min

Country:

USA | Germany

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Portugal:M/6 | Singapore:PG | UK:PG | USA:Unrated | Sweden:15 | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Foo's Ho Ho Restaurant - 102 E. Pender Street, Chinatown, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Company:

Hallmark Entertainment

Trivia:

Chuck Scarborough, the author of the novel, is a veteran local news anchorman in New York City.

Boring and dumb

I was VERY disappointed in this film. No, that's not quite true. I didn't have great expectations for this TV movie, but it did not even live up to those meager hopes for a decent disaster flick. The characters, for the most part, were uninteresting and whiny and unsympathetic. The special-effects are not exceptionally good-- no better than most films today. And the story was lacking in excitement and depth.

In addition, the lack of destruction was 1) rather unbelievable, and 2) annoyingly sparse. After an earthquake in a city that is mostly unprepared for such an event, one would think there would be a great deal more devastation. Like ASTEROID, GODZILLA, VOLCANO, and to a lesser extent, DANTE'S PEAK and ARMAGEDDON, AFTERSHOCK has relatively little in the way of physical damage. Now, far be it for me to want total devastation and loss of life, but really, can't we get a little more than a few toppled and cracked old buildings? I realize that special effects are expensive, but to me, the directors and script-writers of these films don't seem to want to make any effort to make a truly "disastrous" film.

(One last point, NY City seems to get picked on a great deal in disaster films: AFTERSHOCK, DEEP IMPACT, ARMAGEDDON, GODZILLA, FAIL SAFE, INDEPENDENCE DAY, and others such as DIE HARD 3, and THE SIEGE.)