Combustion

Combustion is one of those television movies that wasn't meant to do anything but entertain. At that it succeeds and has a fair amount of suspense and thrills--again for a television movie. Greedy oil entrepreneur Talbot (Michael Gross) is in collusion with city fire chief Patterson (Michael Gregory) to suck oil from beneath the city using an old oil field just outside of town. The problem lies in the methods used by Talbot to get the oil, which leads to explosions under the city causing much combustion of buildings and the loss of life. Gas escaping from the manhole covers also causes unconsciousness and sometimes death. Scott Daniels played by Joe Lando, who basically makes his living playing in disaster flicks, is the city engineer who discovers, along with his assistant, the nefarious goings-on. Since the fire chief is intent on a cover up to save his hide when the fires flair up, he tries to convince Mayor Walker (Lisa Banes) that Daniels is the fire bug setting all the fires. The acting is adequate by all and Michael Gross makes a good villain. There is an attempt at a romantic subplot involving a love triangle among Daniels, Allison Saunders (Susan Walters), and Lourie Harper (Gabrielle Carteris) that never really gets off the ground. The special effects are adequate. Because it is a TV movie the part that shows one of the heavies being blown up with dynamite doesn't really show much. He is blown to smithereens off camera.

I knew an old banjo player named Floyd Holland who before he performed would tell his audience, "If you don't expect much, you won't be disappointed." That goes double for this film.