Fireball (Region 1 Edition)   Starring: Ian Somerhalder, Lexa Doig and Aleks Paunovic MTI Home Video RRP: $24.95 039414581911 Certificate: PG-13 Available 22 June 2010

Following a fire at the local prison, fire inspector Ava Williams (Lexa Doig) is called in to investigate, only to find that one of the inmates has transformed into a pyrotechnic killing machine and is out for revenge...

Fireball (2009 - 1 hr, 29 min, 40 sec) is a made for television science fiction thriller directed by Kristffer Tabori from a script by Kraig Wenman (presumably there was a shortage of the letter ‘C’ in L.A.).

Okay, the first thing to say about the film is that it’s a made for television, low budget feature. Apparently it has been shown on the SyFy Channel, meaning that the special effects will be, at best, functional rather than special. That said, taken on its own merits the film isn’t too bad an example of a cheap and cheerful popcorn movie.

The movie opens with Tyler Draven (Aleks Paunovic) engaging in a bit of mindless violence, very badly, so badly he ends up in the local jail. For reasons, which defy logic, the place catches fire. Rather than burn to death the fire combines with Tyler’s steroid riddled body to transform him into a living flamethrower.

Having lost his hair, he had lost his mind some years previous, Tyler decides to use his new gift to kill anyone he has a grudge against and when he runs out of them he heads to the nearest nuclear plant to blow that up as well.

Doggedly following his every move Ava Williams, the one woman expert on fire, is ably aided by Federal Agent Lee Cooper (Ian Somerhalder). The pair make a good match and the film is able to show some real chemistry between the two characters, although Ava’s encyclopaedic knowledge of fire and its causes does wear a little thin at times. There is only so much technical information wanted by your average audience.

The disc I received was a screener and even that took a few attempt to play, the only extra on the disc was a trailer (1 min, 53 sec).

Like most of these low budget genre films, you might give it a watch after a few beers if it was on the TV, I’m just not sure that you would feel the same if you had to part with hard earned cash.

5

Charles Packer