By RICHARD ROEPER Movie Columnist August 7, 2014 2:06PM
“The Walking Dead” actress Sarah Wayne Callies (center, with Richard Armitage) gives one of the more convincing performances in “Into the Storm,” a disaster movie about tornadoes bearing down like alien ships on one small town. | WARNER BROS.
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Even with an 18-year special effects advantage, “Into the Storm” doesn’t come up with anything as memorable as the flying cow in “Twister.”
Come on, “Into the Storm.” How could you not give us a flying zoo elephant or a flying Sea World whale or a hot air balloon race gone terribly wrong or SOMETHING of that ridiculous nature?
Granted, we get to see commercial airliners and school buses and 18-wheelers spinning through the air like children’s toys, but all the pounding music and intense sound effects and CGI wizardry on display only remind us we’re seeing a very silly film about a bunch of one-dimensional characters battling the most powerful storm in the history of, well, history, as if they’re in a slightly more sophisticated version of “Sharknado 2: The Second One.”
In a world in which the Weather Channel is a 30-year institution and storm chasing is a profession and we get weather alerts on our phones, and hundreds of people have used a phone or a Flip Video cam or some other portable device to capture footage of a magnificently frightening tornado or hail storm or hurricane, the idea of “Into the Storm” is a legitimate premise for a movie, even more so than in the olden days of weather-based disaster movies such as “The Day After Tomorrow.” (That was like a whole 10 years ago.)
Indeed, “Into the Storm” does have some pretty nifty effects, and some of the actors do a credible job of selling the hackneyed dialogue that feels as if Captain Obvious was at the keyboard, but there’s about as much character development as you’d find in the first draft of a “Transformers” screenplay. Of course you don’t go to a movie such as this for the dialogue and the drama, but if we don’t care a whit about the characters and their respective dilemmas, a multiple-vortex tornado ripping through a used car lot is just a multiple-vortex tornado ripping through a used car lot.
“Into the Storm” takes place over the course of a single day, when the all-American town of Silverton finds itself under siege to a cluster of tornadoes that bear down like the alien ships in “War of the Worlds.”
Richard Armitage (“The Hobbit”) is Gary, the vice-principal of the local high school. He’s raising sons Donnie (Max Deacon) and Trey (Nathan Kress) on his own since the tragic death of their mother in a plot device, I mean, car accident. Armitage is a British actor who looks and sounds like a poor man’s Hugh Jackman. His Gary is such a stern taskmaster, he lives through about three tornado attacks before even loosening his tie and taking off his sports coat. Lighten up, Dad.
(In another bit of lookalike casting I’m sure is pure coincidence, Principal Walker is played by Scott Lawrence, a thin, 50ish, African-American actor with protruding ears. At the school’s outdoor commencement ceremony, Principal Walker keeps rambling on as the pounding rains descend upon the crowd. Finally, FINALLY, he suggests they move inside. Once everyone’s in the school, Walker’s useless. Ahem.)
The likable Matt Walsh from “Veep” is Pete, a veteran storm chaser in a yearlong slump. Pete’s a hardcore type who’s more concerned about getting inside the eye of the storm than he is with the safety of his crew.
Sarah Wayne Callies (“The Walking Dead”) is Allison, a multi-degreed scientist who’s all about the data — that is, when she’s not Skyping with her adorable 5-year-old daughter, who keeps wondering when Mommy’s coming home. (Apparently Daddy’s never coming home.)
Throw in a couple of disposable supporting characters and comic relief in the form of a couple of local yokels who dream of becoming YouTube-famous by shooting viral video of the storm, and away we go.
Director Steven Quale (“Final Destination 5”) frames “Into the Storm” as a movie within a movie — another one of those “found footage” films where sometimes we’re watching video as shot by the characters, and other times it’s a movie, and there’s never really any explanation for the split personality. Quale keeps things moving along at a brisk pace. Walsh and Callies give actual performances. Most of the other actors, including the ones playing the teenage characters, aren’t particularly convincing. It doesn’t help anyone when characters say out loud what the scene is already showing us.
Every once in a while, “Into the Storm” provides a real jolt: a stunning image of the tornadoes; a tree smashing through glass; a supporting character dying in spectacularly cartoonish fashion. Mostly, though, it’s pounding rains and driving winds, CGI tornadoes and overturned cars, and people we don’t care that much about gingerly stepping their way through the wreckage.
We spend half the movie resisting the urge to tell these people (in the immortal words of Monty Python), “RUN AWAY!”, and the other half rooting for the tornado to scoop ’em up and take ’em away.
Twitter: @richardroeper
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