Tornades sur New York

A very predictable TV movie dealing with a disaster striking a leading US city. This time it's New York and electrically-charged super-tornadoes are to blame, leading to much destruction and chaos, albeit on a super-low B-movie budget.

It's fair to say that NYC: TORNADO TERROR offers nothing that hasn't been done before, and better. The special effects are dodgy, the characters are cardboard and the acting wooden. There isn't even a Michael Ironside or Lance Henriksen hanging around to bring a certain quality of gruff gravitas to the proceedings.

And yet, and yet, this isn't the worst I've seen. It's better than the same director's METEOR STORM, for instance. It helps that there are some unintentionally funny scenes, like when the group of survivors are menaced by a ball of lightning INSIDE a tower block. The silly special effects are easy to laugh at, as are the attempts to build a sense of overwrought menace. NYC: TORNADO TERROR is certainly a wretched production but one that provides a few laughs if you're in the right mood.

de Boer stars as a meteorologist who witnesses something unbelievable and (no surprise, since she's the lead) is the only one who can provide an answer as to what's going on. She can even provide a solution to the problem, but (big surprise here) the mayor thinks she's a fruitcake and there's no real threat to the city.

Usually someone like de Boer is what attracts me to a film like this, as I liked her when she co-starred in the final years of "Star Trek: DS9." But I'm a weather freak when it comes to tornadoes and I usually watch whatever film comes on and I see it in the guide. I apologize for the sarcasm as far as "no surprise...big surprise," but it seems like film writers and directors can't seem to get your attention unless it happens in a city like New York City. About the only thing that I find real is the attitude of the mayor and I found myself being reminded of the mayor of New York in "Ghostbusters." I guess that's why they need to make this sort of thing happen in NYC, as anyone in the central part of the US, who live with tornadoes every summer, realize the threat, but you need millions and millions of people in a centralized area to not take cover when something like this would happen.

There's no way I could give a movie like this anything above two stars. It ranks right up there with the movie I saw about volcanoes in the Big Apple last year!

The film has brief moments of attention grab like the disaster sequences, other than that you start to lose your interest in the film after those parts are done. The movie suffers from a slow pace and a plot that is dull.

NYC: Tornado Terror is terrible, I recommend you only watch the film if your expectations are low or if you're watching only for the action.

Stock, low-budget disaster flick in which the poor Big Apple gets yet another pasting; this time from schools of electrical tornadoes caused by disturbances in the upper atmosphere (due, surprise, surprise, to global warming) that lead emergency crews and weathermen a merry and deadly dance.

Our heroes are Deputy Mayor James Lawrence and his meteorologist wife Cassie, played with suitable gravitas by Sebastian Spence and the lovely Nicole de Boer - definitely the prettiest Trill on Deep Space Nine - who must battle not only the elements but pinheaded bureaucrats (including Lawrence's boss) in order to test Cassie's theory for a solution to the storm gangs.

Strictly rainy day fare. My vote: 4, + 1 for the chance to see Ms. de Boer again.

Possibly (one of) the worst TV films ever.

A huge atmospheric problem centred over the US, as usual, has a grudge against New York and its inhabitants. Apparently global warming is here to bite Americans in the ass.

Besides the annoying TV newslady commentating throughout the movie, far harder to watch is the very crappy special fx. The acting is cringeworthy, but this isn't to say that the actors can't act. Well, they can't in this one, but I think that has more to do with the ridiculous dialogue and poor directing.

Actually, this movie has really got me bored. I may have finished watching it, but I couldn't bother to carry on writing about it. DON'T BOTHER WITH THIS ONE!!!