A Disappointing Continuation

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Blistering performances.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

CATEGORY 6 can readily be summed up by pointing out that it was shot in Canada, although it is set in Chicago. An aging Brian Dennehy leads a huge cast in this badly made disaster flick as huge storms head for Chicago and a hacker brings Chi-town to its knees, power-wise. Dennehy is OK even though he is clearly just collecting a paycheck. Thomas Gibson of "Criminal Minds" mumbles his way through as the TV movie's secondary lead. And Randy Quaid plays a colorful tornado chaser who is a near-duplicate of his character in "Independence Day." The film is talky and tedious, and the effects are on a high school level. There's even stock footage that doesn't match particularly well with the locale (palm trees, anyone?) I managed to sit through most of this before finally giving up.

Fist of all don't listen to the negative critics here this movie was made for TV and was the highest rated Mini-Series in 2 years for CBS (because it was good)Part 1 had 19.4 million viewers, Part 2 17 million. If you've seen some of these wackadoo Sci-Fi Channel movies this is not one of them. Area51 FX used a combination of actual stock footage blended with cgi and LightWave3D Modeling to create the FX with a budget close to $15 million. Keep in mind of just over a thousand reviews on IMDb 12.5% give this movie a 10 over on Amazon of 34 reviews it scores a 3.5 out of five. Not to shabby some people just like to pick fun movies apart as if this was meant to be Shakespearean its not its meant to be what it is a DISASTER MOVIE. Some movies with larger budgets have their flows to like 2012 which had a monster budget and awesome FX had a single family plot line while all heck breaks loose around the world same for DAY AFTER TOMORROW. This excellent TV-movie gives us several characters, some better than others and while I liked the other movies mentioned so much so that I bought them on Blu-Ray I just ordered the sequel CATEGORY 7 on Blu-Ray after watching this one on Sci-Fi channel over the weekend. Great fun, Very Good Special FX, some funny and interesting characters, likable acting and actors for me these days with some lame movies on TV this was a cut above 8 out of 10 stars for keeping me seated the full 3 hours.

Mind numbing foolishness, but entertaining in its own zany way.For some reason in made-for-TV disaster flicks, the lead characters and their families all seem to have personal problems bigger than the natural disaster. Conveniently, during the crisis. Lots of problems. Usually dumb problems. It's not enough to show millions of people getting clobbered by hurricanes and tornadoes. No, families need to be in crisis too for some reason.Many such contrived subplots come your way in Category 6, ranging from infidelity to a pregnant woman being stranded on a stalled elevator. One character does all the following: learns of her dad's infidelity, involves herself with a goony looking boyfriend, is involved in two robberies, is stalked, gets locked in a building during a power outage, is held as a hostage, and even gets shot. Plus, she whines a lot.Schlock stock characters are in abundance: nervy TV news person, evil corporate jerk, crazed tornado chaser (Randy Quaid), etc. Quaid's over acting is a re-do of his ID4 character, only cranked up another ten notches. He yells constantly, gambles his neck for no reason, and generally looks like he could use a lobotomy. Along the way he endangers the lives of some stereotypical foreign tourists. They, like you, are completely confused at what they're seeing.When the film occasionally deals with the crisis, it becomes so weird that it's funny. CGI is a farce: people and objects seem to be two feet off the ground long before the funnel cloud is anywhere near them! Electric short circuit bolts go right through victims and come out the other side. Many things explode for no reason. There were probably more, but by this time I was laughing so hard I didn't notice.It's only fair to note that that the actors appear enthusiastic (not counting the teens) and they make the most of the script. The film ends up being watchable in a detached "ok it's nonsense, but it's fun nonsense" sort of way. I'll give it a 5, just for the laughs.

Anyone who complains about Peter Jackson making movies too long should sit through this CBS "event". There's about 45 minutes of story padded by 2 hours of unnecessary subplots, featuring bland by-the-book TV drama clichés. Bad science is a staple for crappy weather disaster movies, so I'm not going to complain about that. Silly science can be fun to watch if it's executed in an amusing fashion. What kills this movie is it's 10 subplots... all of which could be excised without destroying what is supposed to be the central plot. The one character that is entertaining to watch in Category 6 is Tornado Tommy, despite being a very annoying stereotype.Note that I also didn't bother commenting on special effects. Their quality should come as no surprise.Not recommended.