Jeff Masters reviews "Into the Storm" -Bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaahahahahahahahhahaha [View all]

[malaise]

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=2763
Disaster Movie 'Into the Storm' is a Disaster

By: Dr. Jeff Masters

From the beginning of tornado disaster movie, "Into the Storm", we are treated to the most magnificent special effects that Hollywood can create. In the eighteen years since the infamous "Twister" of 1996, computer graphics technology has progressed remarkably. The spinning fire tornado and jetliners hurtling through the air in "Into the Storm" make the flying cows and clumsily rendered tornadoes of Twister seem quaint. Unfortunately, as is the case in nearly all disaster movies, the plot, dialogue, and acting of "Into the Storm" are a disaster. The movie opens humorously, with a scene featuring two low-wisdom yahoo storm chasers who look like they came straight out of "Jackass". They put on the most believable acting job of anyone in the movie, but unfortunately, are only minor characters. The rest of the movie features main characters whose acting ranges from mediocre to bad. Not only is the acting bad, but none of the characters are sympathetic, and there is very little character development. As a result, we have no one to root for. The characters range from bland (meteorologist Allison) to annoying (Vice Principal Gary, whose school gets devastated by a tornado) to drab (his son Donnie, who gets trapped in rubble with his wanna-be-girlfriend Kaitlyn), to downright obnoxious (storm chaser Pete.) The scene of Donnie and Caitlin trapped in tornado rubble and recording their final words on their cell phones for posterity is quite possibly the most melodramatic and painful disaster movie scene in cinema history. I had to shut my eyes and think about how good "Sharknado" was by comparison to shut out the interminably long debacle of dialogue and acting.