The Storm (2009– ) User Reviews

This must be one of the worst mini series ever.

[jvanhalderen · 3/10 · 10 August 2009]

Even though there are a lot of movies or miniseries out there created on a low-budget, they often can surprise you by having a good script, acting or an original story line. Specially in the sci-fi genre, where you can get more extreme in the fantasy part, I tend to give a movie more slack.

This mini-series however annoyed me after the first 10 minutes. The idea starts out OK, a secret military project has created a device to manipulate the weather. Early in the start of the series it gets activated and it will be obvious to you that you can find better special effects on you-tube made by 10-year old. OK, bad effects, I can live with that.

Then it all gets worse, a lot of characters get introduced which totally do not contribute to the story in any way. They needed a setting to show us how this bad weather effects the general public, so they introduce not 1 or 2 but 3 complete side-stories which could have been taking from any bad drama series on TV. In addition, the editing was so terrible that they pasted the scenes of the boredom after each other, letting you watch up to 20 minutes to irrelevant stories. The worse of these being a woman of course who is pregnant and gets trapped in a nasty place..guess what happens.

The second part that annoyed me is that this movie did not get any (or very bad) review before actually shooting it. Any film student could have filtered out the cliché parts, bad sequencing and put a more scientific realistic view to this concept. They most likely would have done it for free.

But then the worst part. The actors that accepted a role for this piece of crap. They often do not realize the damage they cause to their own career, instead it's only the money they are interested in.

Luke Perry: Maybe not my biggest fan as 90210 certainly is not my genre but still, I've seen him take on some pretty good roles for example The 5th Element and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He has set a certain standard in the movie industry for himself. A standard we come to expect when advertising a movie featuring him. I'm pretty sure he didn't even read the script, such fail.

James van Der Beek: Maybe the only one that took his seriously. The character he portraits has potential, maybe not completely original but non the less, it could have made a fine character for any SF series. I feel his disappointment in ever excepting this role.

David James Elliott and his JAG buddy Patrick Labyorteaux: I guess their JAG money ran out. Again actors, stop taking roles blindly just for the money, you can do better than this.

All together: bad directing, mediocre acting, very bad script, worst editing and terrible effects. All on a very promising idea.

A storm of gimmickry

[MartianOctocretr5 · 4/10 · 3 August 2009]

There's supposed to be world wide extreme weather, and, if you wait long enough, the movie occasionally addresses that. Usually, however, it's a poor man's version of Oliver Stone's conspiracy tales. Also, the director tries to bedazzle you with a smoke and mirror approach, deluging the screen with cutesy-cutesy gimmickry.

There's a rogue in the government who's heading an agency that's covertly conducting experiments to harness and control the weather. He's (naturally) a hawkish fanatic, who wants to use nature's power to blast everybody to smithereens. He has a bunch of puppets: a dumb 4-star general, some dumb scientists, an endless supply of dumb assassins, and a dumb script. Things get out of hand; (what else is new?) and this guy (when he doesn't play golf or romance a girl in his sinisterly dark office) ignores warnings that the experimentation is dangerous. You don't mess with Mother Nature, you know. But he doesn't care.

The constant use of gimmickry, in place of solid directing, is harder to overlook than the goofy plot line. Whenever somebody's having a phone conversation, (and I mean every single time) this director cranks out split-screens: sometimes, two, sometimes three, sometimes four scenes at once. Often, one or more of the windows shows something that has nothing to do with anything. Then, there's the falsely accused guy chase. Every time he's running, they flash over-exposed shots into the sun, even though this is supposed to be taking place in the middle of the biggest rain storm of the century. If this is supposed to be the innocent guy's view, then he needs new glasses.

The second-in-line scientist guy, who has no clue what he's doing, says the same line over and over (namely, that he has no idea what he's doing) when talking to the conspiracy leader. There are several disconnected stories, all with people continuously yelling at each other. A couple reconciling, an EMT with a pregnant wife, a female cop who has dumb superiors, and conspirators offing more victims than the lethal weather does.

With all its problems, it's still somehow watchable, if only to laugh at. The actors try their best with the mess they're given, and the whole thing is a mindless diversion. It's certainly a better watch than some of the other summer replacement programming out there.

Three hours?

[dbborroughs · 4/10 · 15 November 2009]

The military is having a billionaire create a weapon that controls the weather. It can be used for both good or bad. Even though the makers feel its ready to go the military wants one more test. When the device is turned on to a large hurricane something goes wrong and the machine unleashes horrible weather across the globe.

This is a two part miniseries that plays like a 3 hour movie on DVD. I have yet to quite figure out why this needed to be so long since the story pretty much kicks in in the first ten minutes and just goes. By the end of the first half the film is close to wearing out its welcome and odds are you're going to be groaning that there is another 90 minutes to go. The cast which has Treat Williams, James Van Der Beek, Luke Perry and John Larroquette is fine but the rest isn't. The script is too long, the effects are passable and the camera is constantly in moving even when it shouldn't be.

Its completely unwatchable, but at the same time I would keep this in reserve for those times when you want something to fall asleep to when you're sick in bed.

Other comment

[david-law-3 · 5/10 · 1 September 2009]

The only other comment I read about this "mini-series" was woefully incorrect. The poster stated that this was made during the writers strike with "scab labor". That is very wrong. This was made a year after the writers strike, late winter 2009 and used mostly union actors. I think for the budget they were working with they did a creative job. Every production isn't going to be 'Gone with the wind', a cable mini-series is just what you got here. No more, no less. It is easy to bash productions but give them a break here. I was very surprised at the names that were in this. There were some obvious stretches of the imagination here, but if you suspend your disbelief you can get through this just fine and be mildly entertained in the process.

this was made with scab labor

[friend0850 · 1/10 · 31 December 2009]

Not only is this film completely unwatchable and morally depraved...it WAS made with scab labor. The workers on the production went on strike for fair wages and benefits like the actors and production people were getting. It was refused to them and they were locked out. Everyday the union actors drove past the former crew and new crew members were transported in blacked out vans. I believe the quality suffered quite dramatically. They shot the majority of the rest of the shoot in one location inside guarded gates. This film is very badly made and I think it is a fair review to look at what happened during the making of it.

A previous reviewer made false claims of what happened I believe to mislead people... I don't think it is a coincidence that he shares the same name as an actor in the film.

Worst mini-series ever!

[MsBuckeye · 1/10 · 31 August 2009]

I thought I had watched some pretty bad mini-series, but this one was, without a doubt, the worst show I've ever seen. There were no redeeming qualities, not even with any of the actors. Can you guys be so hard up for money you have to perpetuate such garbage? The first hour wasn't great, but it wasn't nearly as bad as the second hour, in which it seems as though the producers felt they had to add non-related scenes, just to prolong whatever they deemed suspense. Even the unbelievable would have been bearable, had it not been for the constant efforts to to inject too many mini-series within a min-series. The airplane scene was completely out of sync with any of the story....there were no characters on the plane that were any part of the rest of the show, so there was no emotional investment in any of the passengers. As a matter of fact, this min-series was so disjointed, there's no emotional investment in any of the characters! Should you get the opportunity to watch this, my advice is don't!

Such a fool I was!

[fabrice-angelini · 1/10 · 27 February 2010]

I thought "The Storm" was a movie, I paid 33 Swedish Crowns to hire it, watched 18 minutes and it was all I was able to achieve... This must be, along with "Mortal Combat", the worst production I've ever tried to watch. It is NOT a movie, neither a TV-series, it is a joke, a disgrace to quality, that make me feel ashame of myself because it took me 18 minutes to understand... I'm SOOO tired! There are no reasonable excuses for grown persons with a bunch of money to produce such a stupidity, give me a cell phone and a computer program and I will give you the same (+self instinct)! ADVISE: DON'T SPEND YOUR TIME AND MONEY ON THIS WORTHLESS... I don't even know what to call it!

Storm = Lame

[keithjk1 · 26 July 2009]

John Larroquette was prominently featured in the commercials, and was in the movie less than 5 minutes total in all his scenes. Most of the main characters in this poor natural disaster movie get shot by hit men. This is more of a shaggy dog movie then a murder mystery...oh wait, this was supposed to be a different movie...but I forget...just like the plot. You follow 1 guy, Dr. Kirk, in the movie as he runs in the rain from assassins, police, and an investigator. The FBI is quick to take him from the police as soon as he reveals to them the reason everyone he has met in the last few hours are dead and he is blamed for. Only to be returned to the military funded and ran weather control system to right everything. Then those feds are killed and Dr. Kirk (Luke Perry) while in transit and is kidnapped by the military and taken hooded to an abandoned factory, and introduced to a new character (played by James Van Der Beek) 15 minutes from the end of the first half of the movie(can we say Red Herring), who says that those who he worked for want him dead and not back to fix the problem the military created. This was made clear 10 minutes in to the show. Therefore, all that is in between is fluff. All the special effects, the constant senseless murders, and weather updates only help to drag out a weak plot. 5 minutes from the end of the movie, James Van Der Beek's character reveals he was the guy who first started the program that Luke Perry was head of. Telling him the more you mess with the weather, the worst it gets. Cut to chaos on the screen, more rain, lightning and a pregnant woman in a hospital finally giving birth. More "techno-babble" from Luke Perry's replacement at the military funded weather control system. Hr states that the fixed the problem, only to realize it is actually worst. Plans start getting hit with wind shear and crash. It seems this movie was filmed one way, and then went another way with film clips of the old intended movie spliced in. The first half (2 hour movie of the week) was what appears to be a Hodge podge of scenes and scenes where characters were killed off almost as soon as introduced. The second half has me deciding to skip it.

Bad first half of a 2 part movie of the week. Sci-Fi channel could have done better, and that's not saying much.

I'm shocked!

[aregularjulieandrews · 10/10 · 27 May 2020]

I'm shocked at the average rating for this movie/mini series. It's fantastic, and I'm not just saying that because David James Elliott is in it.

Better than Meteor.

[incognito_pal · 7/10 · 11 September 2009]

This show was not as bad as some of the reviews I read. It was better than Meteor. Must be hiring better writers and crews each film. I liked the second part much better. Seemed to settle into the story and answer my questions from the first half. True, music was distracting at times.It felt like to much info crammed into first half.Could use less split screens effect for my taste. Effects reminded me of the Boeing Satellite systems being used now. I thought Terrell was overacted. He tried to hard to be a villain. I liked the other performances. The stories message was clear change the balance of nature and the world could pay.

Different, not necessarily better

[vchimpanzee · 6 August 2009]

This miniseries gets off to a good start. Scientists at the Atmospheric Research Institute outside Los Angeles are typing away on their computers. The proof their weather control system really works: Africans walking across a hot desert celebrate when all of a sudden, it rains!

But control over the weather soon turns out to have nasty side effects, including the near destruction of the ARI installation. Around the world, temperatures drop 100 degrees in one day in some places. I like the scene where the cute Hawaiian meteorologist on the TV screen wants to know why it was snowing. Storms appear the likes of which man has never seen--only we don't get to see most of them either because the special effects budget seems very limited. We are told by newscasters that a town outside Paris was destroyed--by lightning. Occasionally we do get to see something--for example, a group of Venezuelans harvesting fruit until this evil black cloud starts rolling toward them. It looks like a dust storm, only darker. Very weird.

Robert Terrell, the billionaire financing the weather control project, doesn't care that the project is causing a few problems. (A few???) All he knows is that the military wants this technology to win the war in Afghanistan and then take on Iran and North Korea. And they don't care who gets hurt in the process. General Braxton keeps putting the pressure on Terrell to come through for him.

Dr. Jonathan Kirk, who is the lead scientist, won't participate if not allowed to correct his mistakes. That leaves Jack and Carly, who don't seem capable of preventing the end of the world, if it comes to that.

Dr. Kirk goes to his former girlfriend Danni, a reporter for CNS, the cable news service. He wants people to know the real story. Unfortunately, Terrell's goons don't want that to happen.

Eventually, Dr. Kirk ends up with Stilman, who is in military intelligence and supposedly wants to help solve the problems weather control is causing. Or does he? Meanwhile, several people have died and Dr. Kirk is wanted by the police. Det. Williams, who sort of looks like Sandra Bullock, was the LAPD investigator when the ARI accident happened, and she joins the murder investigation, believing Dr. Kirk is being framed. Naturally, her superiors would like her off the case ...

Back to Jack and Carly. Yes, there is a worldwide disaster in the making, but we're hardly being told about this in the first half. Miami is about to be hit by a tropical storm. Can Jack and Carly stop it? No, actually they make it worse--a category 5 storm! Oh, no! Miami will be destroyed! Terrell is keeping track from a distance, all the while accompanied by beautiful women in sexy outfits.

In Los Angeles, it has been raining for days. Most of the time during the day, this happens when the sky is blue, and of course the rain stops when it's not convenient for the filming process.

At last, we get to know some of the people who will be affected by the storm. We already met Brian at the weather bureau in Los Angeles, but now we'll get to meet his ex-girlfriend Anna, a bartender. He's depressed because he wants her back, though his job has gotten a lot harder lately and that will sort of occupy his mind.

Also, Gracia is pregnant and her husband, a former medical student, is a paramedic who is very busy, especially after Los Angeles is about to get hit by another hurricane. Gracia's father lives with them, and the actor playing him gives the standout performance here, but I don't know his name.

At the end of the first half, it appears a plane is about to crash. Amazingly, we don't know a single person on board!

From a special effects standpoint, the highlight of the miniseries may be the spectacular lightning strikes that precede the hurricane headed for Los Angeles. And, of course, there are the repeated camera shots of the weather control rays or whatever you want to call them, originating from the dishes on the ground and bouncing off the satellites above Earth. Then there's that "hole". What is that? Why does it mean so much? We do find out. And there is a solution.

I can't think of a good reason to watch this. You have to enjoy movies about disasters where the people who can fix the problems have obstacles in their way. And if you do, it's okay but not outstanding. In the first half, it's more about the chase and the investigation than the weather itself. In the second half, we hear a lot about global disaster, but what we see is mostly an ordinary storm, no worse than storms that have hit other U.S. cities but not Los Angeles. It's still pretty exciting.

I mentioned the older Latino man, but there's not really a lot of good acting here. I thought Treat Williams was pretty good in the first half because Terrell was such a schemer. He reminded me of Alec Baldwin, at least in appearance. Once I found out who he was, I decided Treat Williams needs to stick with wholesome characters.

John Larroquette is a respected actor, but as the CNS executive, he's just not on much. Jeanette Sousa has a memorable scene as Danni's assistant Gretchen. She's got the talent to be a reporter if she wants to be.

It's not a total disaster. It's just not that good.