Opération tornades

Sorry, but if I try to give people info that'll save their lives, and not only do they NOT wanna hear it, they take a dismissive attitude toward me, I'm not gonna risk jail or my own safety to keep trying to save them from themselves! Letting people like that die due to their own stupidity is natural selection at its very finest! In my version of the movie, the folks who do take the warning seriously shelter, and all the rest are pulled limb from limb by the twister. I'd certainly have all sorts of mannequin limbs with ketchup and other goo as part of the special effects *lol*. Gerald McRaney's talents were definitely wasted on this turkey of a film!

This is one of the better made-for-TV tornado movies I have seen. Like most of these movies, they save all the tornado action for the last part of the movie. This movie had a pretty decent plot, and some known actors. Sadly, like all if not most tornado movies, the producers did not get their tornado and weather facts right. The part where they give a tornado warning, no one heads for shelter. When a tornado warning is issued it means that a tornado or funnel cloud has been witnessed by a person, or detected on radar and the people in the path of the storm should seek shelter IMMEDIATELY. The movie takes place in Oklahoma, which is in the heart of tornado alley, and the people of the town did not take any sort of action when the warning was issued.

Not a bad movie, I would watch it again.

The special effects, the acting, and the script were so bad that at times I couldn't figure out if this movie was a drama or just a bad comedy. The mayor was especially awful.

The special effects were pretty lousy, too. In one scene, the good guys are driving with the mayor following, yelling through her bullhorn that everything's alright. She then gets swept away. But a few moments later, down the same road, the tornado is seen about a mile away off in the field.

I'm sorry, but I was expecting a thriller and got a lame, unbelievable sci-fi pseudocomedy.

I read one comment about this movie and...

The poster is right about ONE thing. Joan van Ark act is excessive, thus not believable enough.

But if you know America - and I mean REALLY KNOW - then you must have come across town mayors that really behave quite similarly to what she portrays. If you know America, you know that in some towns/areas/professions one is not allowed free speech, and people like van Ark's character really use their powers to silence people or news.

Special effects wise, this movie is quite good, though it is obvious that its budget was very small. Tornadoes are shown with solid, firm, believable special effects.

The characters are solid (exception made of van Ark's and perhaps of the Storm Chasers leader) and are engaged in real world problems.

Plot is, perhaps, the main problem. It's as if this movie was made by a group of scientists or storm chasers who vowed to put on screen their troubles related to: - chasing and predicting tornadoes - and, probably, the funds for their activities.

It is a VERY SIMPLE plot.

And because of this, it is predictable AND believable at the same time. Some people watched this as if they were watching a Discovery Channel's Storm Chasers big episode with a more intimate, behind-the-camera closer look at the main players.

Acting is...a mix.

Gerald McRaney is OK, quite solid in his portrayal of a discredited scientist.

Steve Braun is a good surprise. A timid, sensitive and wise young scientist/student. Good acting.

Thea Gil swings back and forth between convincing and non-committed acting. Good actors are known to be convincing throughout the repertoire or their characters - and that's what separates them from the average actors/actresses.

David Millbern's act was not convincing, hesitant, foolish at times. I have seen better from him, I'm sure.

The rest of the cast is good enough, though Joan van Ark's actions seem exaggerated and unbelievable.

In terms of the science behind it, this movie is one of the few that portrays the "attack" of tornadoes as they really are - short, loud and violent. The physical content (cloud formation, wind speeds, debris hurling, sky colors, pressure gradients, etc) is pretty much spot on.

Is there something that differentiates this movie from others of similar vein? Yes. Simple, dry and direct plot and the crude atmosphere of small towns and tornado attacks.

It could have been better, sure. But the striking thing is, it could have been MUCH, MUCH WORSE.

Made-for-TV movie TORNADO WARNING and its sister film produced for the same network and in the same year, ATOMIC TWISTER (2002), share identical special effects and cinematography. Both have one "stand out" female breast scene to help with youth marketing. Both contain stealth tornados that pop down in partly sunny skies and dissolve equally as quick.

Real tornados are born inside the rather specific storm cells produced by clashes of warm air masses and cold fronts. Severe thunder and lightning surround the funnel clouds whirling down from inside the DARK storm clouds.

These blue sky, lightning-free stealth twisters blowing down barns but unable to release drying laundry from a clothsline a few feet away (TORNADO WARNING) suffer from a lack of realism.