Say what you will about cheesy Hollywood movies with ultra thin plot lines…
Because when it comes to entertainment, if the special effects deliver, people will go see ’em. Especially when the timing’s right, like it is with Hollywood’s new twister thrill ride, “Into the Storm.”
There’s no escaping that climate change and a media feeding frenzy have catapulted tornadoes onto the front pages, as town-after-town has suffered catastrophic storm damage in recent years. Greensburg, Joplin and Oklahoma City to name three.
Who doesn’t want to see what these nasty buggers look like up close and personal?
And “Into the Storm” delivers those goods and in spades.
Those old enough to know better than to go to a movie like “Into the Storm” no doubt recall the 1996 blockbuster Twister with Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton – a pair of stars that mattered at the time.
No such luck this time out.
Because 20 years of advancements in special effects have rendered technology the star of “Into the Storm.”
The actors – Richard Armitage and Sarah Wayne Callies – come in a way distant second to the movie’s dazzling special effects.
Special effects that range from a gas station fire turning an entire funnel cloud into a menacing fireball, to a Universal Studios style roller coaster ride for the movie’s lead storm chaser character, who realizes his dream of driving his armor-plated tornado truck into the eye of the storm and is whisked away on high for the thrill ride of a lifetime.
I won’t waste your time outlining the weak as a kitten plot, wherein a small town high school totally ignores the weather warnings and conducts its outdoor graduation ceremony right before the BIG One hits.
Seriously?
Special effects aside, think teen movie that’s long on dumb decisions and short on common sense, as “storm trackers, thrill-seekers, and everyday townspeople document an unprecedented onslaught of tornadoes touching down in the town of Silverton,” according to IMBD.
Personally, I prefer movie guy Jon Niccum‘s sum up of “Into the Storm” as “a harrowing, eventually exhausting string of idiotic risk-taking followed by bold rescues.”
And of course those special effects that will lure you into going and make it more-or-less worth your while, I suspect.
The final reward being the mercifully short 89 minute running time.
I’m grading it a B – same grade Jack recalls giving Twister back in the day.
Hey that’s Jon Reep, comic, co starring in the pic, a regular each year at Stanfords…great guy and married to a local gal. Known best as the DODGE HEMI GUY on tv.