Apparently, someone is almost as big a fan of hilariously awful made-for-TV movies as I am: A double-feature of 10.5 and Category 6: Day of Destruction is now available on DVD.

And as you’ll note at the bottom, you can buy that DVD and the DVD of 10.5: Apocalypse for under $25.

That may be, dollar for dollar, the best entertainment value you will see all year.

Thanks to Dave for the heads -up.

Ok, I’m only half an hour in, but I’m already laughing my ass off.

The effects are spectacularly horrible, Kim Delaney should demand her money back from her plastic surgeon, and anyone who read a fucking word about the tsunami that hit southeast Asia knows that the first 10 minutes of the movie are complete bullshit.

But mostly, I’m laughing because they called “Bald Mountain, in Sun Valley” an extinct volcano. This is what Bald Mountain actually looks like:

Not terribly volcanic-looking, right? So they used an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT MOUNTAIN, which looked like the bottom third of Baldy with Mt. Hood photoshopped on top of it.

And what kills me is the lengths they go to for accuracy otherwise. They talk about Ketchum, Sun Valley, and Hailey (all of which are right around Baldy) being devastated.

I mean, if you’re going to photoshop yourself an entirely different mountain, at least have the decency to make up some different town names.

Although watching a little more, I suspect the Sun Valley Company, which owns the mountain, wouldn’t let them use images of the actual mountain (since they also aren’t using the names of the actual ski lodges on the mountain when they talk about rescue operations).

And then, they cut to the rescue operations…with Carlos Bernard of 24 leading them.

God, this is going to be phenomenal.

It begins tonight. It’s already begun on the east coast.

My full review will go up when I watch both parts Thursday night, since I’m watching the Desperate Housewives finale tonight, the 24 finale tomorrow night, the House finale Tuesday night, and the Lost finale Wednesday night.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I think I might watch too much TV.

UPDATE: I’m informed that the Apocalypse goes directly after Sun Valley, Idaho, a place I’ve spent a lot of time, early in tonight’s portion. I think I may just stay up and watch this, because it sounds way too awesomely bad to wait for.

It’s coming Sunday. And it’s going to be spectacularly awful.

Set your TiVos, kids 10.5: Apocalypse is coming May 21 and 23rd to NBC.

The plot, believe it or not, is even more ludicrous:

In a desperate bid to save lives – and the country – President Hollister (Beau Bridges) calls once again upon one of the nation’s top seismologists, controversial scientist Dr. Samantha Hill (Kim Delaney) and her supervisor and former boyfriend Dr. Jordan Fisher (David Cubitt), to interpret the latest onslaught of quakes. At a loss for how to interpret this continued seismic and now volcanic disruption, Hill re-discovers her seismologist father’s (Frank Langella, as Dr. Earl Hill) much-discredited hypothesis from years past that if correct, predicts even greater ruin and a complete altering of the North American Continent – a Continental Divide of the land mass.

This is going to be spectacularly awful. I’d better start stocking up on popcorn and vodka…

Everything’s not lost. Despite NBC’s decision to push back 10.5: Apocalypse, thanks to CBS, you will still have something to see this November in the genre of Bad Made-For-TV Disaster Movies.

That’s right, from the makers of the stultifyingly awful (as opposed to spectacularly awful, which 10.5 was) Category 6: Day of Destruction comes Category 7: The End of The World.

They did manage to pay for a slightly more expensive cast this time. We have Gina Gershon (who one would think can get better roles than this shit) and Shannen Doherty (…yeah, that’s about right for her) getting blown around by some nasty sneeze of a storm.

The only returning cast member seems to be Randy Quaid, whose character appeared to die in the first one, so one can only hope he’s back as a flesh-eating zombie.

Now THAT would be a much better movie. Gina Gershon with a comically oversized shotgun chasing around zombies while wearing a black leather assasin’s outfit and, uh….I’m sorry, I got distracted for a moment. As I was saying, zombies could only improve this franchise.

Although it might start moving from Bad MFTV Disaster Movie and into Bad MFTV Monster Movie, of which we already have an entry for the November 2005 sweeps period: Vampire Bats, which airs this Sunday.

God, I love sweeps.

From the fine folks over at the The Futon Critic, an update on the forthcoming sequel to my favorite bad TV movie of all time:

10.5 APOCALYPSE (NBC) - The Peacock has quietly bumped the “10.5″ sequel from its November sweeps schedule. Originally slated for November 27-28, the project will now air sometime in 2006. No specific reason was given for the move.

Gee, I can think of at least one reason why they might not want to air a disaster miniseries during November sweeps…

While re-watching the true masterpiece of the Hilariously Bad Disaster Movie genre, TV subdivision, 10.5, a thought occured to me.

Disaster movies are about the only genre in film that makes an effort to have ethnically diverse casting (and unlike action and horror movies, actually keep nonwhite characters alive for more than the first third of the film), ostensibly to “better reflect reality.”

Except that every other aspect of these movies is entirely, and often hilariously, unrealistic. I don’t think I can say it better than I did when this miniseries first aired:

Thermonuclear weapons are used to stabilize something. Because that’s clearly what I do when something needs to be stabilized: Blow it up with the most powerful explosives known to man.

Anyway, I’m not sure why I find that interesting. Well, yes I do.

I think it’s because it’s assumed that the only time the public will accept a diverse cast without question is when we’re also accepting WAY more ridiculous things without question.

After NBC attacked the West Coast with a hilariously awful earthquake movie, you knew it was only a matter of time before another network picked up on the idea.

But I don’t think anyone thought it’d be picked up on in as ridiculous a fashion as Category 6: Day Of Destruction.

God bless CBS for ratcheting the disaster ridiculousness up a notch. But they should know better than to underestimate the insane people at NBC.

Yes, that’s right, there is a sequel to 10.5 in the works:

[The] Sequel to “10.5″ will pick up where the original left off: Parts of California have drifted off into the Pacific Ocean, leaving millions dead or devastated by the destruction. But while shaken survivors might have assumed the worst was over, it turns out the Big One was just the beginning, Lafia said.

“Something’s been triggered and it’s going to move East, demolishing as many set pieces with major landmarks as we can think of,” Lafia said. The sequel “still sticks to the earthquake premise, but enlarges it to include … the full (range) of earthquake-related events.”

That means volcanoes could be reactivated, tsunamis could be triggered and all manner of fresh new hells could be unleashed.

This is going to be a fantastic May for those of us who love hysterically bad movies.

Do not waste your money on The Day After Tomorrow, as I did this evening.

I did not think it would be good. I knew it would be bad. I thought it would be so bad it was funny. Alas, it was so bad it just made me want to tear my eyes out.

See it only if you are a really, really big fan of CGI, or are really drunk.

Better so-bad-it’s-good disaster option: 10.5. Track down someone with a copy of it. It’s definitely worth it.