The Final Storm

THE FINAL STORM is a cheap, end of the world thriller from German director Uwe Boll. This one was made in Canada and features a fiery DVD cover promising all sorts of apocalyptic action. Unsurprisingly, it never delivers on that promise.

Instead, this turns out to be a straightforward (read: predictable) three hander about a married couple and their kid holed up in their dingy farmhouse. One day a mysterious stranger comes along and proceeds to turn their lives upside down. What follows is completely without merit; this kind of cheap situation has been done to death in the past and Boll offers absolutely nothing new to the scenario. A film set in a single location with few actors needs really good writing and direction to make it work, and you just don't get it here.

Instead what we do get are a bunch of has-been actors going through the motions. Former pretty boy Luke Perry plays the mysterious stranger and does a frankly poor job of it. Lauren Holly's appearances in mainstream Hollywood films are long in the past. And main actor Steve Bacic is one of those 'never was' guys, devoid of charisma to boot. In all, THE FINAL STORM is a waste of time.

This movie was actually decently interesting, right up until the last 10 minutes or so. In fact, if I hadn't gone in knowing it was an Uwe Boll movie, I wouldn't have had any idea because it was pretty low-key. It was an end of the world type with definite religious overtones, but in the end, it just got WEIRD! I wouldn't say it went off the rails so much as it was going in a certain direction, veered off course, then overcorrected so badly that it drove itself off a cliff! The ending was so completely weird, I can't even explain what happened, other than total insanity! I would have happily given this movie a 6/10 if the ending didn't confuse and annoy me so much that it lost 3 full points. Save yourself the confusion and just watch the Left Behind movies, at least they follow the same plot from start to finish!

You can see the overhead microphone in 2 scenes. Really?! Why the following decided not to edit those images? It kind of destroys the fantasy of believing.

That for the technical portion.

The rest of the movie is very low energy, borderline boring. Not a horror nor a sci-fi movie as promoted.

The premise of the world going crazy started the movie, shifting to a family of 3 living in a ranch away from the city.

During a storm, a lost guy appears at the property and he was assisted by the family.

The relationship between the family and the stranger is basically the main theme of these movie.

While this movie will not win any academy awards, it was certainly much better produced and acted then 99% of the Syfy produced movies scifi fans such as myself typically end up enduring, etc. I would give it a 5-6 as a vote. The plot summary appearing on IMDb is not at all accurate (the son never disappears amongst other things, but Luke Perry does play a mysterious stranger with a hidden and menacing past which threatens the family amidst the turmoil of the general disaster).

The actors all give reasonable performances, they are not wooden or overacting in the manner typical of smaller budget productions. All three principals - Lauren Holly (very attractive), Steve Bacic and Luke Perry were decent.

However, one should be aware that this is not a slam bang action flick with all sorts of special effects, battles, etc. There is none of that in this movie. The movie is about a small family living in a rural area against the backdrop of something cataclysmic having occurred, but the hows and whats of that are never really delved into - rather the focal point of the story is how they are coping, the mysteries surrounding a stranger who has wandered onto their property, etc.

I would deem the movie to be more of a suspense/thriller against a quasi sci-fi backdrop.

On a plus note, it did keep our attention start to finish, and we were not hooting and hollering at grade F special effects and cheesy acting.

On a negative note, the ending was somewhat of a mystery to us. We have some theories, but you are better off to watch the movie and come up with your own.

I think overall this is the sort of movie actors do to keep paying the bills, but at least they gave it a decent go, and made the 90 minutes of the movie respectable rather then terrible.

There's no real point in discussing the movie, if that's what it is. Just because you see moving images when you press play doesn't mean it's a film. There's money here, you can tell, which makes it even worse. So many daring, imaginative filmmakers out there would love to have had this budget. But no, Boll is given yet another project to insult moviegoers. When Boll makes personal appearances he does get crowds, people just love to have their photo taken with him and get his autograph. I'm personally offended by this practice in that it only encourages him. Truly bad movie making should not be praised or encouraged. There are bad films out there that are fun, we appreciate the effort, especially if the filmmaker was sincere but fell short. But this is just another example of a man's insistence on his talent, confident in his abilities, arrogant in the face of audience reaction, time after time. I see in the trivia he blames the script. OK. This mess should come with a manual and some sort of medication. Boll is making Zombie Massacre due out in 2010. May God Have Mercy On Our Souls

If you must see this movie, do yourself a favor and wait until it's in the bargain bin at the video store. If there's any justice in the film industry, one of the main actors will be there to rent it to you.