TheStorm

The Storm (2009)

The story for this two-part T.V. movie revolves around a shady businessman and his efforts to protect his military contracts. See Mr. Terrell’s company has developed a way to control the weather and has plans to sell it to the military as a weapon. Of course he doesn’t tell the genius, Dr. Kirk, who developed the technology that it is going to be a weapon. No he has the good Dr. Kirk believing that they are doing this to save innocent people from storms and droughts and other bad things. When there is a big accident and people get hurt Dr. Kirk quits and Terrell sends some hired hit men to frame him for murders… Though I’m not sure why they just don’t kill him. One dead reporter later and he is on the run. Other subplots include a paramedic and his pregnant wife, who of course goes into labor during the huge storms. Also there is a bit about a weather service guy that reconnects with the girl that got away with the storm as the backdrop.

I’m a sucker for disaster movies and the cheesier the better. But the Storm just doesn’t do it for me. First of all you have 3 separate stories, the scientist, the paramedic, and weather service guy that never connect in any way. The best disaster movies always have these plot lines collide in some way and at some point. Since they never connect I just get the vibe that the two subplots only really exist to stretch the runtime of the movie so that it could be a “2 night event”! Plus with all the subplots the movie gets really slow in spots and never seems to get into a rhythm as it jumps between characters. If you cut out everything except the scientist plot line you might actually have a decent little disaster flick. But at 3 ½ hours and with all the characters The Storm is a confusing mess that I found myself getting bored with.

Being an event movie they did get some fairly well known names to play the characters. But again I think they miss a golden opportunity and waste a whole lot of acting talent. In the lead role, and with the most screen time you have James Van Der Beek, who I guess is okay. But personally I would much rather see David James Elliott, John Larroquette, or even Luke Perry then watching Dawson stumble thru the whole “scientific weather nerd” shtick. If that isn’t bad enough all three of the actors that I just mentioned as well as Teri Polo, who is a fine actress, are absolutely wasted in small supporting roles. The only fun that I had with the cast was watching
Treat Williams chew up the scenery as the villain, Terrell.

With a disaster movie we have to talk about special effects. In a word I was disappointed with what the movie delivers. You get the cheesy static shot of a building lobby with different people running by as the camera shakes around and someone drops shredded paper from above. There is also liberal use of rain machines blowing spray onto actors standing in doorways and sitting in vehicles. Also toss in some stock footage of actual disasters for good measure. And I’m actually good with all this. But there is a surprising lack of cheesy CGI effects. We do get a brief bit of lightning striking buildings, an airline in distress, plus a tornado here and there, but that is about it. If I’m going to spend more than 3 hours watching a disaster movie I want a heck of a lot more computer generated mayhem than this! Yes I know that I normally complain about CGI, but a made for T.V. disaster flick gets a free pass on this. Hell I expect it.

In the end The Storm is a bad movie and everyone should pass on it. Even if you are a disaster movie fan, like I am, I think you’ll be disappointed. So I’m not recommending The Storm.

1 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer