Au coeur de la tempête

STORM CELL is a bad disaster movie even by TV movie standards. It stars Mimi Rogers (THE X-FILES) as a dedicated storm chaser who must fight against time to save her family from a series of super-powerful twisters that threaten to wreck much of middle America, yet the film fails to build on that premise at any point.

Due to budgetary constraints, no doubt, this film ends up more as a family drama than a disaster flick. Much is made of Rogers' obnoxious and stuck-up teenage daughter who keeps getting herself into peril, to the degree that I was hoping Rogers would simply cut her losses and forget about the dumb kid; no such luck.

Meanwhile, a few scenes show a twister wreaking havoc on some homesteads with the aid of some dodgy CGI. The two plots never gel, there's no plan on the part of the heroes, they just sort of amble from place to place and survive mainly through luck. It's all very boring and uninteresting; I expected something cheesier, and more entertaining, from this genre, but it's almost laid back in it's approach. Watch out for the great Michael Ironside in a cameo role.

I was given the chance to sit down to watch the 2008 movie "Storm Cell" here in 2021. And since it was a movie that I hadn't already seen before, of course I took the time to sit down to watch it.

Now, with this being a natural disaster movie, I must admit that the movie could go either way; either be just another one of those lousy special effect disaster movies that is a disaster in itself, or it could actually prove to be an entertaining movie with proper special effects. And with the likes of Mimi Rogers and Michael Ironside on the cast list, I must admit that I had hopes for "Storm Cell".

Turns out that "Storm Cell", as written by writers Michael Konyves and Graham Ludlow just didn't have what it took to be a proper disaster movie. It wasn't a terrible movie, so I wouldn't categorize it in that particular genre of disaster movies that are so bad that they become terrible. However, the storyline told in "Storm Cell" was just horribly bland, and I never really got fully submerged and drawn into that particular storyline.

The movie was less than mediocre in terms of being entertaining, but at least it had heart and spirit, and that counted for something. Ultimately, though, then the lack of an interesting storyline just killed the movie off for me.

Visually then "Storm Cell" didn't really impress. The special effects were good enough, I suppose, albeit bordering on being inadequate at times, though. If you sit down to watch the 2008 movie "Storm Cell" and expect to be blown away - pardon the pun - by a display of amazing CGI and special effects, then you will find yourself sorely disappointed.

The acting in "Storm Cell" was adequate, although the character gallery was about as interesting as a field overgrown by weeds. The characters in the movie were rather bland and pointless, actually. Most of them didn't even display proper motivation, and the dialogue wasn't really all that impressive either, so that didn't help much.

Director Steven R. Monroe didn't manage to huff and puff enough to make a lasting impression with "Storm Cell", and it was a movie that had managed to elude my radar, and it is a movie that will just as quietly fade into oblivion.

My rating of "Storm Cell" lands on a mere three out of ten stars. There are far better disaster movies out there.

About 30 years ago, eight-year-old Ryan Grantham (as "Little" April) and teenage sister Kristy Dinsmore (as "Little" Sean) are driving with their parents in Oklahoma during a terrible storm. A man foolishly stands on his truck and is struck down. They family stops and tries to save him, leading to even more tragedy… Presently, storm tracking professional Mimi Rogers (as "grown-up" April Saunders) specializes in the study of tornadoes and how to manage them safely. A single mom, Ms. Rogers has one daughter - pretty but bratty Elyse Levesque (as Dana). Ms. Levesque is rehearsing "Romeo and Juliet" at her high school when a storm hits, then blames her frantic mother for not arriving in time to provide comfort...

Somehow managing to refrain from slapping her ungrateful child, mother Rogers takes Levesque go to visit brother Robert Moloney (as "grown-up" Sean Saunders) in Seattle. Now a policeman, he lives with pregnant wife Tracy Trueman (as Molly). She's a good hostess. Rogers finds romance with local TV weatherman Andrew Airlie (as Travis Jones), an old college boyfriend. They have a secret. Levesque is attracted to new college boyfriend Ryan Kennedy (as Ryan Laswell), who likes his women willing and able - well, maybe not always willing. Naturally, a terrible "Storm Cell" threatens the entire cast...

This "Lifetime" TV-movie does not convince with the storm as a "monster" (complete with growling sound effects), which isn't used effectively with the surprise villain. You can see how it might have been better.

**** Storm Cell (3/19/08) Steven R. Monroe ~ Mimi Rogers, Elyse Levesque, Robert Moloney, Ryan Kennedy

13-year-old April and 8-year-old Sean lose their parents in an Oklahoma tornado. At least the parents were trying to save someone's life.

Thirty years later, April is a published author and a professor at River Point University, supposedly in Oklahoma, since her daughter Dana is in high school in Wyattsville, Oklahoma. She is known as "Tornado Lady" because she is a storm chaser, and she lectures on how global warming has made the planet's weather more violent.

April takes Lew, a student newspaper reporter, out on one of her adventures. Little does she know that this one will involve her daughter Dana, who is rehearsing "Romeo and Juliet" at her high school.

What happens when April and Dana meet is truly shocking.

Sean is the sheriff of Shiloh Hills, outside Seattle. His wife Molly is pregnant, and she invites April and Dana to visit. Dana is basically a good kid, but she has an attitude and doesn't want to go. April persuades Dana to come along by pointing out that Garfield College has a great drama program and Dana might want to go there.

The last thing Dana wants is for this to be yet another of her mother's adventures. But it just so happens that the Seattle area is about to get hit with the worst storm systems in its history. Unbelievable hail, tornadoes like the area has never seen. Oh, by the way, April went to college with Travis, a TV meteorologist in Seattle.

Dana is constantly arguing with her mom, but she does have some fun, as it turns out. While in Washington she meets Ryan, the bad-boy son of a local developer who is being harassed because he doesn't build houses up to code. (The father is being harassed for his business practices; the son for his overall behavior.)

Sean and April don't get along, because April doesn't think Sean is grieving enough for the parents they lost thirty years ago, and because Sean left Oklahoma. He is not affected in the least when he sees a mother of a young boy who has died--at least not enough for her.

There is occasional excitement, especially toward the end, and it's not all because of the tornadoes. Even at the end, though, the dialogue leaves something to be desired.

Elyse Levesque is beautiful and has her moments (no, playing Juliet is not one of them), but I don't think anyone will win awards for this movie. Mimi Rogers is pretty for her age.

The visual effects are impressive for about five seconds, and for a little longer in the final scenes. I guess the budget was limited.

But for scientific accuracy this movie falls short. Is a storm system that produces tornadoes supposed to resembled a hurricane in satellite photos? Not unless it was a hurricane to begin with. This one seems to have come in from Canada, and even if it formed over water, hurricanes don't form off Seattle. Yes, I know, global warming. Weather is supposed to have gone crazy.

Also, Travis' weather maps don't make sense. I've been looking at how warm fronts and cold fronts are supposed to be drawn. If the fronts are depicted accurately, this is wacky weather. Besides, I thought cold fronts were supposed to be blue and warm fronts red, not the other say round. But then these fronts aren't behaving how they're supposed to.

Is it worth seeing? Well, I had a good enough time.

first off the teenage girl in this movie was so irrating and annoying the tornado should have taken her. with that being said the rest of the movie wasn't bad to watch at all, now everyone needs to watch this with a grain of salt because after seeing movie's like twister, and night of the twisters. how much more innonvative and new can you get. Mimi Rogers does an okay job with it.. there is some excellent tornado footage, and some characters that are worth caring about in this movie. there is some neat newsroom , weather related stuff that was cool to look at,, didn't care so much for the love interest stuff between the characters,, mainly what I liked was about the chase and how is everyone gonna find a way to get to safety,, find a shelter,, lowest level in you're home.. not a bad TV movie, right about average.