Anna's Storm (2007 TV Movie) User Reviews

I expected more

[kubicam · 4/10 · 23 August 2008]

From some of the other reviews, I expected this to be a bit less of a chore to watch. Without revealing any plot elements, let me just say that this movie starts out with some awkward dialogue; the acting is laughable at times, and the plot seems to progress far too quickly. I don't claim to be a film expert, but as a whole this seemed rushed. And why did we need so many shots of the meteors from space? We get it, they're heading towards the Earth. Some mild scientific inaccuracies and cliché plot suspense elements are present, but I can't say that I didn't expect them after the first few scenes.

I'm sure this film would be bearable for a rainy day or a lazy Saturday morning, and I'm thankful that it wasn't much longer. I wasn't a huge fan of these two films either, but I'd say that Armageddon and Deep Impact would be much more worth your time.

**Mild Spoiler Ahead** (are you really planning on watching it?)

Favourite quote from the film: "Come on, if a meteorite can knock down a tree, you should be able to push it with your legs." It was a huge tree. Not much logic in that (terrible) scene, or in the rest of the film.

A weak addition to the natural disaster genre...

[paul_haakonsen · 3/10 · 12 May 2020]

Sure, I enjoy watch natural catastrophe movies, even though the vast majority of them are questionable. But I hadn't seen the 2007 movie "Anna's Storm" (aka "Hell's Rain") before now in 2020, so of course I sat down to watch it - even though the title was a rather lousy one.

Granted, I didn't have much of any expectations to the movie. Which was good, because writers Steven B. Frank and Julie Ferber Frank weren't exactly coming up with anything groundbreaking to the genre. Nor were director Kristoffer Tabori making anything outstanding from whatever material was written.

The movie felt more like a mixture of small town politics mixed with dysfunctional family bonds, and spiced off with some natural disaster. In my opinion, the movie focused way too little on the natural disaster, and it didn't really play all that much of a focal point of the movie.

Was it predictable? You betcha! Especially the ending, it was just atrocious, and it brought the movie down one rating for me. I would have rated it a four out of ten stars, but ended up on a three star rating.

The acting in the movie was adequate for the most parts, but I was having difficulties with the lead actress Sheree J. Wilson, as she just was unable to put on a believable performance throughout the entire movie.

If you enjoy a natural disaster movie that involves meteors or meteorites, then there are far better ones readily available and of much older date even. This movie was just not outstanding.

Surprisingly adequate

[aliway · 5/10 · 28 July 2010]

The second...weather related film I've seen off Syfy was definitely the better.

We follow a town which becomes the victim of a meteor shower, which threatens the very Earth itself.

Now, I didn't expect much, but the special effects were actually not that bad, some great explosions and cars flipping into the air. The meteors themselves, well let's admit it, they weren't as good as 'Deep Impact' or 'Armageddon', but they were mediocre.

The acting wasn't that bad either, some great acting in fact, but like every single other film off SyFy, some scenes were terrible. Now that's a rare, some scenes. Mostly films off SyFy have all terrible scenes. The teenagers however are quite annoying sometimes, particularly at the start when they seemed to hate their parents for no reason. We then find out the Mayor's daughter Emily (Desirée Loewen) doesn't want to move town whilst a sheriff's son Seth (Graham Wardle) is being forced to write to his mother. Why the son doesn't like his mother and why the sheriff split with his wife I don't know, I kind of blacked out. I'm guessing she had an affair. Sheeree J. Wilson does a great job at playing Mayor Anna Davenport-Baxter, but I do feel she comes on to strong at some points, and too weak at others, as does Peter LaCroix as Jack Baxter.

Oh, by the way, Anna and Jack's son is dead. We are told this and apparently his ghost is hovering around his mother. Good for him. But seriously, Anna being haunted by her dead son (Zak Ludwig) actually has no impact on the film, there was seriously no point in having that in the film. She wasn't even being haunted! She couldn't see him! There is one scene where you think she sees him, but then again she was probably crying because she was thinking "Oh God we're gonna die,".

Oh and my favourite line of the film, when Seth was trapped under a tree and Emily was trying to help him, he says "Come on, if a meteorite can knock down a tree, you should be able to push it with your legs.". Where's his logic in that? Has he felt her leg muscles or something? Probably has, but this tree was massive, where did he get the idea that a girl in her late teens can move a tree that had to have weighed a hundred tonne, give or take.

Overall, not a bad stab at an apocalypse style film. Meteors have been done before, but so has everything else.

This meteor shower is full of mischief

[gerhard-982-525360 · 1/10 · 20 February 2011]

I started laughing after I have read the short summary of this movie in our TV Guide. If a meteor shower comes from one direction and a few of the meteors have hit a small town, tell me: how supposable is it that other parts of this meteor shower will hit the same town? Don't know? You would rather win the lottery 52 times in a year than this would happen! Planet Earth is moving through space with almost 30km/sec. This means: only one minute later the planet and also the town Cottonwood have moved 900km through Space, one hour later it will be 21600km. The only reason why a meteor shower could hit the same town twice would be: this meteor shower might be obsessed "I have to destroy Cottonwood. I have to follow planet earth!" OK, not every movie I like to watch has to be physically correct. I also sometimes switch off my brain and have some fun in front of the TV. But I don't want to see a movie, when reading the short summary tells me, that the screenwriter did not turn on his brain before writing.

This comment may contain some grammar mistakes, because English isn't my first language.

Gerhard

Reign Of Sickly Sweet Small Town Values

[Theo Robertson · 3/10 · 10 January 2010]

Apparently this is a sci-fi disaster movie . I use the word apparently because it rarely becomes apparent that its this type of genre . Instead we're treated ( Not the correct word ) to a disease of the week type TVM where a hard working mom juggles a career and angst ridden off spring along with an estranged husband . You'd think that with so much on her plate the last thing she'd need would be a deadly meteorite storm and so the producers of this tripe show her some mercy by not allowing any death defying derring-do until late in to the narrative . Though to be fair they do remind the audience as to what's coming by showing a shower of GCI boulders moving towards Earth . But by this time you'll be struggling to draw breath never mind stay awake

When the meteors finally do hit the fan the disease of the week theme continues . It's really overdone as we're shown the community sticking together such as a picket line suddenly breaking up as the downtrodden blue collar proles realise that saving people from a burning supermarket is more important than striking for a living wage . We're even shown a vomit inducing scene in a hospital where a doctor explains to another character what wonderful staff he has because none of them have taken a day off work in 37 years . I'll tell you what - you might want to be absent from the room when a TV station broadcasts this sickly nonsense

THis is a garbage movie that doesnt deserve its high rating

[joshuagcode · 1/10 · 17 August 2023]

I dont know why this has an over 4 star review, it should be a 1. This is a terrible and boring as eff movie with the worst effects. The story and 'Disaster' is ungodly slow. I watched it on prime because it was rated highly and shouldnt have been. Geostorm has more going on it and that is an awful movie as well. But you know, just what I love to see: a mom fighting meteors! I did dip out of the movie before the end. I couldnt stand to watch it anymore. Also these review requiring this many characters really skew the rating system. Its probably while this pile of hot garbage got such a high review score. Only people willing to write an essay are going to be the ones that actually liked it versus the ones that hated it and dont want to warn anyone else.

Works for me

[tunetrackersystems · 7/10 · 20 August 2023]

Having come from a small town, and grown up with the "small town values" others here seem to want to denigrate, this movie struck a.positive chord with me. Whether or not the plot was completely unique or completely unpredictable (it wasn't), I felt it was a compelling story about people, not meteors, as viewers might easily comprehend from the title. The acting was very good, and I felt like the characters were three dimensional and believable. It's easy to look at every movie with a jaded eye, but I prefer in this case to look for the good in the story. "Anna's Storm" reinforces values lots of kind-hearted people still embrace. No, it's not a big budget blockbuster, there are some continuity (and other) problems, and the music soundtrack is just a guy playing three-note-chords on a synthesizer, but the overall effect of the movie struck a positive chord for me.

An intriguing piece of film making which is as much about relationships as meteors.

[llawrance1972 · 8/10 · 5 January 2008]

I have just seen this film on the Sci-fi channel. I was pleasantly surprised both by the quality of the acting and the strength of the story.

The decision to focus on the characters relationships and the every day decisions that can effect us was a brave one. I thought the image of Anna's dead son throughout the film both moving and thought provoking. It was also very interesting to have a film where the ending was really in doubt and that these characters were left on their own by the authorities, a reflection perhaps on events after Hurricane Katrina? All in all a well made, carefully thought out film without the usual stereotypes. Would it have been better with a different ending?

Meteor Cluster Bombs Spell Doomsday in Tearjerker

[lavatch · 8/10 · 6 January 2020]

"Anna's Storm" combines the elements of an ER episode with the generic disaster film. A shower of cluster bombs lands on a small town in Colorado, and the threat of Big Bertha arriving means that the everyone in the community will be doomed.

There are no villains in this film other than the indiscriminate forces of the universe. Led by Mayor Anna Davenport, the people of this provincial outpost must rally to support one another in what might be the remaining minutes of their lives.

As appropriate for a Lifetime film, the local police are completely incompetent in their response to the calamity. The crusty old police chief's only accomplishment during the crisis is to give blood at the hospital! Seth, the son of the chief, is in love with the mayor's daughter, Emily. The chief is also running for mayor, hoping to unseat Anna.

The filmmakers set up unlimited opportunities to bring out the kleenex. Anna and her husband "Doc" lost their little boy Ricky when he was run over by a careless truck driver. The family has never been the same and Anna is now planning to move to Florida. Daughter Emily is distraught at having to move away from her friends and her boyfriend Seth. "Doc" has not worked in months and now is brought in to heroically participate in triage at the hospital.

The cast was excellent in conveying the human side of disaster and the ability of the townspeople to work together during the disaster. Mayor Anna took to the airwaves with her radio broadcasts. Though not at the level of Winston Churchill's oratory, she was nonetheless inspirational in quoting from the Bible, reminding her fellow citizens that "two are better than one" when it comes to working as a team.

For a television film, the production values were excellent. Everyone will have a favorite scene to recall from this film. My personal choice is when the quick-thinking Emily hatches an idea to lift a fallen tree off of Seth's leg by tying a rope to a motor vehicle, then backing up to raise the tree. As a non-driver, she required a crash course in how to use a stick shift. She passed her driving test with flying colors!