Foudre mortelle

I have watched a lot of movies in my life, and from the biggest A productions, to quickie drive-in fodder from the 50's, to quirky little independent films, and Lightning Strike is without a doubt the silliest film I have ever seen! And I mean that in a bad way.

I don't know where to start, the bad acting, the bad writing, the ham handed "character development," the fact that it's sort of a steal, bordering on a parody of Jaws, only with "a lightning storms a comin'" instead of a great white shark, or the seemingly endless scenes of Sheriff Hercules trying to talk the mayor to get people out of town because "a lightning storms a comin'" and getting people indoors would do no good, we have to get them out of town (storms don't happen outside of town?) so many times I thought the film had looped back about 20 minutes and started again.

Perhaps it's that according to his film you can dodge lightning if you see it coming first, I think that's the main thing that broke the needle on my silly meter.

Alright, alright I get it, the Saturday night Syfy movies are almost always dogs, and you know that coming into one and 19 times of out 20 you're going to end up getting just what you deserve for tuning in, but this puppy I fear abused that privilege.

LIGHTNING STRIKES is one Sci-Fi channel movie to avoid.

KEVIN SORBO stars as the sheriff of a small town--supposedly in the mid-west of America--whose mayor is upset that the storm chasers are predicting a "big one" will wipe out the town. These "chasers" are on a mobile unit full of electronic equipment as they make their diagnosis of when and where the storm will strike.

It's foolish nonsense, not helped by the bad script, the fake looking settings filmed mostly in a studio set in Bulgaria, and the false special effects that reduce the whole chill factor to zero. Must have been a tough location. You can see how frosty the air was when the actors open their mouths to speak--even in indoor scenes!

Hard to see why anyone bothered to produce this witless wonder. Whatever real menace they could have used by making the storms more realistic (such as the moment where we can see a figure in the lightning) is practically non-existent.

When I can't decide whether something is cliché, or if it's classic, I term it 'clichassic.' That much having been said, I found the dialogue of "Lightning Strikes" to be refreshingly unoffensive yet current, conscious and stirring, and the furthest thing from 'canned.' This is particularly important in an industry plagued with nonsensical artifices such as 128 mph kicks to the face at approximately .03 cm per second enhanced or replaced by an over-priced piece of software and a cameraman who can't hold still. For that matter, anyone who enjoys B-movies on the face value of laughing at B-movies would understand what I mean when I say this feature did not have me laughing. On the remote chance it is but a string of over-spun network-surplused-chatter -- which I am not suggesting nor do I have any reason to believe, it certainly is worth watching ... and at worst, well-conceived. A good 'listen.' That it has Kevin Sorbo in a serious part is simply a good sign and a healthy indicator of the state of the 'entertainment' industry. I fully intend to not only add "Lightning Strikes" to my personal collection, but to watch it again. Enjoy!

I don't think Lightning Strikes is as bad as some of the other reviewers say, but I do think it is a movie with a lot of problems. Having seen almost all so far of SyFy's work over the past two years or so Lightning Strikes is nowhere near their worst nor is it an irredeemable movie. If anything, despite being very problematic, it is actually one of their more watchable efforts. There are good things at least. The music is decent, not mind-blowingly good but at least it fits the atmosphere of the movie. The finale is exciting and by far the highlight of the film, there is at least some suspense and the pace really picks up here. The creature does look good, much more serviceable than the ridiculous-looking ones that SyFy usually churn out. The human characters, with one exception, are clichéd and not developed so well, but at least have some likability, have an awareness of their predicament and show some decent chemistry. And the acting especially from Kevin Sorbo and David Schofield(who has the best line of Lightning Strikes, see in my review title) is above average. I was mixed on the technical side, the editing was at least comprehensible and the lighting had some atmosphere but the settings, reminiscent of someone's basement shows a serious hindrance in budget and apart from the finale the special effects are not great(though not as bad as those of most other SyFys). On the other hand, there are a number of bad things. First and foremost, the character of the mayor, he is incredibly irritating by how much of a stupid sissy he is and he is very overacted by Todd Jenson as well. I wish we learnt more about the creature as well, there was a really intriguing idea but the movie just doesn't do very much with it. Apart from one good line, I generally did the dialogue much too talky and very clunky in tone, while the story generally is slow and predictable with too much of an emphasis on the disaster movie genre rather than doing anything to develop the creature. The killings were rather weak too, lacking in any surprises or shock value and some of them are too brief as well. So all in all, a mediocre movie that still is above most of SyFy's movies. 5/10 Bethany Cox

I hated this movie I wanted the lightning to strike everyone the sheriff in this movie always plays in these Horrible B movies also where did they get the idiot Mayor He was not old enough to be out of diapers everyone in this movie needs to take acting classes SCi Fi channel has always played horrible movies and they just keep getting worse whoever came up with this idea for this movie needs a better imagination also another thing looks like the entire town was shot on some poor parking lot with fake storefronts and what about the name of the grocery store there was not one good thing in film.