La vallée des tempêtes

I'll give this one a (huh?) out of ten.

In terms of plot, we have another Twister clone, only without the budget, and without the F/X, and apparently without a screenwriter who's seen the last 17 Twister clones already made. Compared to most Lifetime fare, Tornado Valley really doesn't stand out from the pack, good or bad. It's a bland, formulaic, run of the mill childhood tragedy, adult baggage, dysfunctional family flick that keeps Hallmark and Lifetime from being 24 hour infomercial channels.

Now for the good stuff. We have the Storm Protection Center in Norman, Oklahoma (in reality, the Storm Prediction Center in Norman), a name which got some giggles from me. What, they have a national storm shelter in Norman? "Hey, there's a bad storm, let's head up the Storm Protection Center."

Then there's Matilda, a device that looks like a plasma globe from Spencer's Gifts at the mall, which can not only help with predicting when and where tornadoes will, but will also prevent "billions of dollars in collateral damage". Huh? So, I'm to believe that Matilda can teleport crops, forests, and office buildings out of the path of a tornado? Maybe it's the funky patterns in Matilda's plasma globe that will distract the tornado from hitting people and buildings?

Remember to keep an eye out for the eco-nadoes. No trees, grass, or small forest animals were injured in the making of Tornado Valley, because these tornadoes only eat humans, houses, and tractors, refuse to drop any hail or rain, and are only slightly windier than a ceiling fan. Could be Matilda working subtly from the start...

You may be wondering how I came up with my review summary title "Rub-a-dub-dub two (2) girls in a tub", well if you are curious then you will have to relax and watch the entire film just like I did. Trust me, it will be worth your while and disregard the negative reviews associated with this movie title.

Granted, this is by no means a film classic, nor is it a master disaster film, and the balanced storyline between an imminent disaster (tornado), a lifetime of self blame, and a broken marriage (between Meredith Monroe and Cameron Bancroft) all play a part in this decent drama/thriller.

There was even a very touching scene between the fine performance of actress Rachel Pattee who plays Meredith Monroe's young daughter Becky, and Becky's distraught Aunt Ellie (Played by Pascale Hutton) who is self confined to her farmhouse and left speechless by the family tragedy that occurred 25 years earlier. Becky lovingly is able to reach deep inside her Aunt Ellie's feelings of guilt and fear and draw a simple smile from her Aunt Ellie. It's a touching scene that makes you proud that such a caring neice does exist and we all wish little Becky was our daughter/neice and/or friend.

Regardless of what the other reviewers said, (maybe they get off on wham/bam type of films and their more impressed with overly graphic displays of imitated CGI) I really liked this schmaltzy melodramatic made for TV movie, and the performances by the entire cast were all above par.

I give the film a praiseworthy 7 out of 10 rating. It is well worth watching and look for the two girls in the tub to understand my review summary title.

If you took out the storm aspect of this movie, you'd end up with a pretty good American pastoral family movie. The acting is pretty decent, and the storyline interesting. However, this movie appears to be marketed as a weather thriller, which it is not. The climactic scene takes a total of 5 minutes of the movie.

A few partial nods to twister with story elements. Very cheap and crappy effects twister scenes might account for 5 mins they seem to have spent more money on the command center tech than they did the CGI. Good looking cast decent story line (family drama). I only gave it a 4 for the drama this is not a twister film. You spend more time looking at people looking at monitors and the sky talking about the coming system.

I can't say that this film is actually "awful." It's just not very good. There's not as much action as you might expect and the CGI tornadoes are pretty weak. (Everybody stands around in bright sunlight and a little wind comes up. The next thing you know, a tornado funnel that appears to be about 20' across just drops down into the meadow and pulls somebody away...very slowly. There's no sense of collateral damage, ferocious winds, or even darkened skies. No rain, hail, or flying debris. It's sort of a four-year-old's conception of a tornado.)

This would be bad enough, but the "family story" side of it is also pretty maudlin. I don't know who originally broadcast this, but I'm guessing it was the Hallmark Channel. Absolutely no bite to it.

Definitely not worth your time.