Rating: NR
Genre:
Thriller
Release Date: 10/20/2009
Dubbed: English
Sound: DD5.1
Run Time: 90 Minutes
Distributor/Studio: Morningstar (TNT200)
Originally titled
American Meltdown, this speculative made-for-cable
melodrama begins as a group of six terrorists, bearing names like Khalid, Shafig, and Ziad, take over a nuclear power plant in San Juan. It turns out that the terrorists' actions are merely symbolic, and that no real harm is intended -- but things get tragically out of control, and soon the military and the government are in full spin mode to gloss over and wash their hands of a deadly nuclear meltdown that threatens to destroy everything within driving distance of the plant. In a virtual reprise of his characterization in the TV series
24,
Arnold Vosloo portrays the head of the terrorists, who are more "home grown" than anyone is willing to admit. The film is shot in a punchy, fast-cut, hand-held "breaking news" style, alternating dizzily between color and black-and-white to give it a
documentary feel.
Meltdown was presented by the
FX cable channel on June 6, 2004.
~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide