Into the Storm (2014)
Certified: 12A
Duration: 89 minutes
Directed by: Steven Quale
Starring: Richard Armitage, Sarah Wayne Callies, Matt Walsh, Alycia Debnam Carey, Arlen Escarpeta, Jeremy Sumpter, Nathan Kress, Max Deacon, Kyle Davis, Scott Lawrence, Jon Reep
KRS Releasing Ltd

It has been quite some time since a nature-hits-back disaster-themed movie hit the screens. Into the Storm fits this bill with all the righteous fury that it can muster.

New Line Cinema has delivered a film that is shorn of A-list star actors; instead it concentrates on delivering bucket loads of special effects. This is a sort of 1996’s Twister but amplified to modern sensibilities.

The film, directed by Steven Quale (Final Destination horror franchise) takes us to the rural areas of Oklahoma where the local high school graduation is about to take place. On this day a massive storm is about to hit the area and wreak havoc.

Donnie and Trey (Max Deacon and Nathan Kress) should be recording the ceremony for their father, Gary (Richard Armitage), who is the school’s administrator. However, Donnie ends up helping Kaitlyn (Alycia Debnam Carey), on whom he has a crush, to carry out her project. To do this they go to an abandoned factory.

Meanwhile, with the storm about to hit town, storm chasers try to get the twisters on film and then sell the material recorded to the television stations.

Chief among these is Pete (Matt Walsh) and his assistant Allison (Sarah Wayne Callies). The latter is focused on her job but she has trouble doing so as her daughter at home seems to be always asking for attention.

When the storm hits and Gary cannot get his son on the phone, he goes out to try and find him and save him from all the chaos and destruction taking place.

The highlights of the film are the special effects which make its budget of $50 million look well spent. The CGI effects are impressive and place the viewer in the middle of the action and face to face with the twisters. For instance, the sequences when the camera goes into the tornado or a tornado catches fire are impressive, especially on the big screen.

The CGI effects are impressive and place the viewer in the middle of the action and face to face with the twisters

This kind of sequences are the film’s selling point and this is obvious even for its cast, who all seem to know they are playing second fiddle to the special effects onslaught.

To their credit, the cast members stick to their guns, taking thing seriously and giving the audience a solid background for all the debris and rage to splatter on.

Into the Storm is a disaster movie and proud of it. Once the tornadoes are on the scene, they become the film’s true stars.

Parts of the film are shot in the found-footage genre which aims to place the audience even more into the thick of things.

This is one film where nothing is safe: trucks and jet aeroplanes are strewn around as if they were made of paper.

This cinematic destruction would have excited Irwin Allen, producer of such disaster classics like The Towering Inferno and Poseidon Adventure, as he would have probably appreciated all the breaking of stuff in such a spectacular fashion.

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