La vallée des tempêtes

As children "Liz McAdams" (Meredith Monroe) and "Ellie Wilson" (Pascale Hutton) are playing outside when a tornado appears. Racing back to their house Ellie watches as her mother is swept up into the cyclone and suffers from guilt and trauma from then on. Many years later Liz has become a meteorologist who has recently separated from her husband "Matt McAdams" (Cameron Bancroft) partly because of the traumatic experience she also lives with since that day. Anyway, as luck would have it, Matt has been working on a project to help predict bad weather systems and because of this he just happens to be in the same area as Liz when another extremely bad storm system appears with the capability of reproducing the same deadly results. Now rather than reveal any more of this film and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it I would just like to say that this made-for-television picture uses the same standard recipe as several other movies of this particular genre. That said if anyone is expecting something different or more exciting than previous films of this type then they will probably end up being a bit disappointed. Additionally, there isn't much action and the graphics could have used some improvement as well. To make up for these weaknesses the plot relies upon inter-personal drama and in that regard it managed to maintain my interest for the most part. Of course, others may or may not agree with my assessment and that is perfectly okay. In any case, while it certainly wasn't a great film by any means, I didn't think it was necessarily that bad either and I have rated it accordingly. Average.

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.

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.

Slow plot with melodramatic off-on-again-maybe estranged couple get buzz of mutual affection after weathering a tornado. The storms were not convincing, and the story was shallow and took forever to move along. I was pleased with the actors and their performances but they didn't have a story to work. I felt like turning this off several times but was watching with a friend who says it was "better than what we were watching before" which was a bad documentary. I think it was supposed to be a twister suspense story but was instead a long winded tale about a vaguely relevant family's story of recovery of trauma from a tornado 25 years earlier. Good color. Poor story. I would not recommend it. You wait until the last minute to find out what disaster might bring, but I felt let down.