Lightning Strikes (2009 TV Movie) User Reviews

Sizzling Lightning Monster Flick

[Eventuallyequalsalways · 5/10 · 23 November 2009]

I respect the opinions of other reviewers on IMDb, but sadly, from time to time, you spot a tendency for the writers of these movie reviews to follow the leader. If the first guy says a movie is lousy, the rest play copy cat. I'm going to play Devil's Advocate for this film. It is not a bad movie. It is an entertaining movie. The plot is a little predictable (small town setting; pumpkin festival bringing in the tourists; rugged Sheriff trying to protect the citizens; stupid Mayor squashing Sheriff's effort to warn the citizens; professional monster hunter in town to deal with the menace) and it is not much of a stretch to surmise the script's inspiration was Jaws. It is obviously a low budget film and most of the actors have thin resumes. But if you are looking for a Saturday afternoon fun session sitting around with the guys knocking back a few beers, and this flick comes on the SyFy Channel, ignore the naysayers who wrote such negative reviews, and give this film a try. It will reward you with a couple of hours of solid entertainment.

"The only way to save Billy is to send me straight to Hell!"

[TheLittleSongbird · 5/10 · 5 November 2012]

I don't think Lightning Strikes is as bad as some of the other reviewers say, but I do think it is a movie with a lot of problems. Having seen almost all so far of SyFy's work over the past two years or so Lightning Strikes is nowhere near their worst nor is it an irredeemable movie. If anything, despite being very problematic, it is actually one of their more watchable efforts. There are good things at least. The music is decent, not mind-blowingly good but at least it fits the atmosphere of the movie. The finale is exciting and by far the highlight of the film, there is at least some suspense and the pace really picks up here. The creature does look good, much more serviceable than the ridiculous-looking ones that SyFy usually churn out. The human characters, with one exception, are clichéd and not developed so well, but at least have some likability, have an awareness of their predicament and show some decent chemistry. And the acting especially from Kevin Sorbo and David Schofield(who has the best line of Lightning Strikes, see in my review title) is above average. I was mixed on the technical side, the editing was at least comprehensible and the lighting had some atmosphere but the settings, reminiscent of someone's basement shows a serious hindrance in budget and apart from the finale the special effects are not great(though not as bad as those of most other SyFys). On the other hand, there are a number of bad things. First and foremost, the character of the mayor, he is incredibly irritating by how much of a stupid sissy he is and he is very overacted by Todd Jenson as well. I wish we learnt more about the creature as well, there was a really intriguing idea but the movie just doesn't do very much with it. Apart from one good line, I generally did the dialogue much too talky and very clunky in tone, while the story generally is slow and predictable with too much of an emphasis on the disaster movie genre rather than doing anything to develop the creature. The killings were rather weak too, lacking in any surprises or shock value and some of them are too brief as well. So all in all, a mediocre movie that still is above most of SyFy's movies. 5/10 Bethany Cox

Bulgarian cheapie

[Leofwine_draca · 3/10 · 14 September 2021]

Another sci-fi cheapie from SyFy. This one was shot in Bulgaria in the dark like so many and stars Kevin Sorbo in the cliched small town sheriff hero role. The story borrows from the storm chasing genre with a twist in that a sentient and malevolent alien being lives inside lightning storms, directing them to attack and kill unsuspecting folk. David Schofield is the notable guest actor who's a lot better than the material, while the rest is strictly by rote: cheap and cliched, with poor FX and derivative situations (including yet another JAWS-inspired mayor who puts profit ahead of safety).

a lightning storms a comin'

[TerryMcC · 1/10 · 12 September 2009]

I have watched a lot of movies in my life, and from the biggest A productions, to quickie drive-in fodder from the 50's, to quirky little independent films, and Lightning Strike is without a doubt the silliest film I have ever seen! And I mean that in a bad way.

I don't know where to start, the bad acting, the bad writing, the ham handed "character development," the fact that it's sort of a steal, bordering on a parody of Jaws, only with "a lightning storms a comin'" instead of a great white shark, or the seemingly endless scenes of Sheriff Hercules trying to talk the mayor to get people out of town because "a lightning storms a comin'" and getting people indoors would do no good, we have to get them out of town (storms don't happen outside of town?) so many times I thought the film had looped back about 20 minutes and started again.

Perhaps it's that according to his film you can dodge lightning if you see it coming first, I think that's the main thing that broke the needle on my silly meter.

Alright, alright I get it, the Saturday night Syfy movies are almost always dogs, and you know that coming into one and 19 times of out 20 you're going to end up getting just what you deserve for tuning in, but this puppy I fear abused that privilege.

Totally A Bad Waste Of A Movie Space.

[JohnEmrys · 1/10 · 17 September 2009]

I watched this movie once then went through it again, trying to assure myself that this was a movie. I cannot believe that a well know actor such as Kevin Sorbo associated with this movie. In fact I would like to know how this movie was even made and produced. I wish SyFy would give me the budget to make a movie. I could get some IMDb fans to write a better script and outline and make the town correct than this piece of garbage. The town was complete disaster. Maybe because it is filmed in Bulgaria. Plus quite a few movies like "Lake Placid 3" are using the same town square and site. You have to be kidding when the fire station completely fake with wooden slat doors that you can see from a distance as fake. (Same station is there for Lake Placid 3) The curb to the station is not even indented and when you look at the station from across from the other building rooftop (Lightning Arrestor Equipment Place). You can see through the buildings top windows with scaffolding showing through. Plus you can see that the whole town square is fake from looking down from that rooftop. It amazes me that allot of movies are being filmed on this site, and they cannot invest proper money for an American town. Plus you notice the actors breath in the bar scene are all showing due to the cold. Talk about not paying the heating bills. SyFY better clean up it's act on these movies because they are definitely not movies like "The Blob that was a B movie in the Fifties. I think a B movie from the 1950's had more potential than this movie. I cannot believe that these new crop of movies that are being shown on SyFy are being made. Talk about insulting the viewers intelligence about plots, scenes, stories and acting. Maybe 1950's reruns would be better till they sort this sorry mess out.

Lightning strikes...

[another_fake_shemp · 3/10 · 13 October 2010]

I found this film was like a roller coaster of emotions. Will lightning strike? Will it be blue lightning? Is it going to split a car in two. Is it going to kill that boy? Will a generator with a lot of negativity allow the rod to conduct electricity? Is it really an alien living in "lightning space" who comes down in bolts and murders hapless people? All these questions were answered perfectly well in this straight to TV movie, and these are questions that I have often asked myself in my 34 years of life.

Unfortunately, the question "why this town" was never answered, but thankfully, we are left open for a sequel whereby Donovan fights the alien dude in the lightning realm.

Tedious thriller filmed in Bulgaria is lacking in every department...

[Doylenf · 4/10 · 23 November 2009]

LIGHTNING STRIKES is one Sci-Fi channel movie to avoid.

KEVIN SORBO stars as the sheriff of a small town--supposedly in the mid-west of America--whose mayor is upset that the storm chasers are predicting a "big one" will wipe out the town. These "chasers" are on a mobile unit full of electronic equipment as they make their diagnosis of when and where the storm will strike.

It's foolish nonsense, not helped by the bad script, the fake looking settings filmed mostly in a studio set in Bulgaria, and the false special effects that reduce the whole chill factor to zero. Must have been a tough location. You can see how frosty the air was when the actors open their mouths to speak--even in indoor scenes!

Hard to see why anyone bothered to produce this witless wonder. Whatever real menace they could have used by making the storms more realistic (such as the moment where we can see a figure in the lightning) is practically non-existent.

Almost no redeeming qualities

[splunkett2 · 2/10 · 13 September 2009]

The first 5 minutes of this movie caught my attention. It was downhill after that. Hunky Kevin Sorbo played the sad-eyed sheriff of a cardboard one-intersection town with an idiot mayor who sported cheesy bleached hair. Awful production values throughout. The townspeople strolled casually through the streets, ignoring the sidewalks, and even the annual Pumpkin Festival was held in the same intersection. The storm-chasing scientist and his two grad student assistants were morons. ****Spoiler**** The monster had potential, but there wasn't even the usual low-budget explanation for his existence. The crusty monster-hunter was interesting but underused. I stuck around for the well-telegraphed climax--waste of time.

More goofs

[mirjam_1234 · 2/10 · 1 August 2010]

I would like to add a few more goofs to the ones already listed:

Isn't it illegal to park in front of a fire-station?

The sheriff's house is so far from town that you need a car to get anywhere (son is complaining that he can't go anywhere because his car still isn't fixed), but close enough that a half-dead woman from the hospital can reach it on foot in 5 minutes.

If they are going to ride a van into a lightning storm, shouldn't they have tested it first?

Why are they using a voltmeter? It is emphasized several times that it is extremely important to start the anti-lightning machine at the right "amperage": 1000 Amp's. And the machine is indeed started up at 1000 Volts.

I have given it a 2 out of 10 because it was so funny.

Impressively worthy dialogue

[scorpivs · 10/10 · 23 February 2013]

When I can't decide whether something is cliché, or if it's classic, I term it 'clichassic.' That much having been said, I found the dialogue of "Lightning Strikes" to be refreshingly unoffensive yet current, conscious and stirring, and the furthest thing from 'canned.' This is particularly important in an industry plagued with nonsensical artifices such as 128 mph kicks to the face at approximately .03 cm per second enhanced or replaced by an over-priced piece of software and a cameraman who can't hold still. For that matter, anyone who enjoys B-movies on the face value of laughing at B-movies would understand what I mean when I say this feature did not have me laughing. On the remote chance it is but a string of over-spun network-surplused-chatter -- which I am not suggesting nor do I have any reason to believe, it certainly is worth watching ... and at worst, well-conceived. A good 'listen.' That it has Kevin Sorbo in a serious part is simply a good sign and a healthy indicator of the state of the 'entertainment' industry. I fully intend to not only add "Lightning Strikes" to my personal collection, but to watch it again. Enjoy!

Better than the other reviews say

[bpeck13 · 7/10 · 13 March 2010]

I liked this movie. Although the plot was a bit hokey (and what sci-fi movie doesn't have a hokey plot--after all, it is science-FICTION), it was still a decent movie.

Kevin Sorbo does a good job of the sheriff putting up with a real dorky and stupid mayor. The mayor is more concerned about the annual pumpkin festival getting ruined than caring about a storm that is coming in fast and could devastate the town while the sheriff takes the threat seriously.

The evil alien that IS the storm is the hokey part, but if you get past that dumbness, the movie is just fine.

Well Done Sci-Fi Horror Flick

[stuart-wise · 9/10 · 25 February 2024]

I wish I knew what haters of "Lightning Strikes" would consider a great film. Maybe I am just easier to please but I did not see the problems with this movie that some other reviewers have noted. Certainly for a TV movie it was well above some of the other things you see, and Kevin Sorbo adds some, well. Gravitas to the picture. While admittedly there are some elements that have been part of other films, such as the "show must go on" mayor despite the danger at hand, such as in jaws, "Lightning Strikes" hit an interesting chord pitting science against myth, with the resolution probably both. If the idea of a conscious energy being doing evil is a stretch, this is after all science FICTION. There was of course the parent-child tension but thankfully the movie did not end with a kiss though there is some suggestion that if there were a sequel, that couple would play a prominent part. Special effects were pretty good and not too gory.

Better than average

[SanteeFats · 6/10 · 10 November 2014]

You have some thousand year old entity who uses lightening to kill people. Why is not explained. Some guy shows up whose son was killed by this being and after being hit by the lightening he is immune to it. He builds a lightening rod structure on the top of a building trying to trap this being in a never ending void. There is also a woman whose son has been killed to open the movie and she is also immune. She has even faced the killer. There is the professor and his team who are tracking the storms but do not believe in the entity, well one does towards the end. He brings the shielded generator to the roof top because the one they have is not shielded. Kevin Sorbo plays the sheriff which is why I watched this movie. I really enjoy watching him. Anyway the contraption works, the killer is trapped in the void along with the old man. The mayor is a real piece of work. Typical smarmy small town politician. Not a bad movie all in all.