Alien Tornado

The usual silliness from the SyFy Channel. Jeff Fahey - who remains a solid, dependable stalwart of an actor, as always - plays a farmer who has to contend with tornadoes on his land. Except, of course, this being a sci-fi movie after all, these weirdly glowing tornadoes are actually electrified extraterrestrials!

Yes, it's as silly and as cheesy as you'd imagine from the title and premise, a film packed full of terrible special effects and worse acting. Aside from the aforementioned Fahey, viewers are treated to Kari Wuhrer (who looks like she's a fan of plastic surgery) as a glamorous stormchaser and David Jensen (complete with whiny voice) as a leader of some nefarious government agents also out hunting the aliens.

The action, when it occurs, is invariably disappointing, because the producers just don't have the budget to do justice to the premise. So viewers are left laughing along at the premise and enjoying the mildly diverting adventures. Yes, this is terrible, but also terribly inoffensive with it - just your average B-movie fun.

On a windy day in the country, pretty in her pony-tail Stacey Asaro (as Kelly Walker) gets off the school bus and checks her mailbox. Thrilled at receiving great SAT scores, Ms. Asaro shares the news with scruffy-looking, bearded daddy Jeff Fahey (as Judd Walker). He doesn't seem as excited. Although she claims to be 17-years-old, daughter Asaro probably lies to cover being in high school for several extra years. She should be both unashamed and happy, and Mr. Fahey should be jumping for joy. Their celebration is interrupted when the wind builds to a dangerous tornado. Meanwhile, in Chicago, storm-chaser and climate expert Kari Wuhrer (as Gail Curtis) detects a tornado on her laptop. These tornadoes are not normal. They glisten with green light, shoot out lightning bolts and move around like they're a form of intelligent life...

Syfy should probably stop trying to make serious science-fiction and just concentrate on comedies. That doesn't mean sci-fi movies can't be made on a low budget. The Syfy channel simply doesn't know how to do them. In fact, good science-fiction films can be made on even lower budgets. The aforementioned players take their assignment much too seriously, although the two leading women wear tight tank tops. The name appearing most often in the credits is Ken Badish, with Jeff Burr directing. They succeed mostly with cartoon-like villain David Jensen (as Armstrong) and likewise toned Sheriff Willard E. Pugh (as Norman "Norm" Mackey). The one who really captures the true worth of her surroundings is corpulent Claire Conti (as Denise Gordon). Her performance as the bubbly, obese climate assistant is a tornado of fun.

** Alien Tornado(2012-04-21) Jeff Burr ~ Jeff Fahey, Kari Wuhrer, Stacey Asaro, Willard E. Pugh

Alien Tornado (2012)

** (out of 4)

Another epic from SyFy has a farmer (Jeff Fahey), his smart daughter (Stacey Asaro), a tornado blogger (Kari Wuhrer) and a small town cop (Willard E. Pugh) noticing that the latest tornadoes aren't being reported by the media and there's just something completely different about them. It turns out that aliens are actually controlling them to take out Earth for a numbers of reasons but the biggest is that they're tired of our Bandwith bothering them. Again, it always shocks me that so many people watch these SyFy films and then complain about their low-budgets, silly plots and all around "C" material. I mean seriously, you're coming to a movie called ALIEN TORNADO so why are you expecting something great or some sort of lost classic? This film is mainly going to appeal to those who enjoy low-budget movies that are cheesy and instead of delivering first-rate material they just offer up mild entertainment. There were a lot of entertaining things in this movie as well as a few interesting cast and crew members. For starters, Jeff Burr is best remembered for LEATHERFACE: THE Texas CHAINSAW MASSACRE III and it was good seeing him back making a movie. He handles the material a lot better than most of these SyFy movies and I thought he at least kept the thing moving without it getting too slow. It was also great seeing Fahey. People complain about these movies but at least they give some good character actors a chance to be a lead. I thought Fahey was very good in his part and he did a very believable bit. He just wasn't picking up a paycheck and that's a lot more than most can say. I also thought Asaro, Wuhrer and Pugh were good in their parts and the four worked extremely well together. While the screenplay doesn't build up their characters much, the actors at least give strong enough performances to where you can care for them. The special effects of the tornadoes are quite cheap but I did like the design with the neon green lights. The story itself was quite silly and never really made too much sense. This was especially true during the final when we're given the explanation of what's going on. Again, if you're looking for a sci-fi masterpiece then it would be best to check out 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. If you're looking for cheap entertainment then that's why movies like ALIEN TORNADO are made.

I watched because, Hey I'm a big fan of Kari Wuhrer, no matter what she is playing in. Well, she actually hasn't But, really she had two different outfits on when she got in the car she had white top and blue jeans, get's out the car and has a pink top and black pants...come on who is in charge of wardrobe..CUT!! But, seriously all and all not great, but not exactly horrible.. The special effects were good, the storyline was original.. The acting was OK, it's SYFY what do you expect, those of us that like Sci-Fi watch it because we like the idea of it all, not because of the realism.. So sit back and if you watch the movie, just watch it for what it is.. Entertainment...

Jeff Fahey is the only reason to watch this movie. In fact, most of the movies Jeff Fahey leads or costars in are like that. Oh, wait a minute. I just thought of another reason to watch this movie.

Imagine your great Aunt Mildred sitting on her sofa in front of the TV with her friends Gladys and Harriet. They are sipping some tea which they spiked with a bit of whiskey and are giggling while nibbling on their sugar cookies. They are watching this movie and appropriately gasping when the tornadoes appear or when someone gets sucked up by a tornado (a comical vision which offers no real fright) or when the bad guy puts on his rough act with the good guy (serious overacting here by nearly everyone in the movie but for Jeff Fahey and the lady who played his daughter, Stacey Asaro). Great Aunt Mildred leans forward and shouts at the TV, "Aw, shut up ya big bully!" Friends Harriet and Gladys loudly agree between giggles and sips of tea.

If you want a B movie which has some good stuff with a few laughable things in it, this isn't it. There is no good stuff. But there's lots of laughable things in it. Watch it with Great Aunt Mildred. It will make her happy. Seriously. She deserves quality time with you.