The Final Storm (2010)

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

THE FINAL STORM is a cheap, end of the world thriller from German director Uwe Boll. This one was made in Canada and features a fiery DVD cover promising all sorts of apocalyptic action. Unsurprisingly, it never delivers on that promise.Instead, this turns out to be a straightforward (read: predictable) three hander about a married couple and their kid holed up in their dingy farmhouse. One day a mysterious stranger comes along and proceeds to turn their lives upside down. What follows is completely without merit; this kind of cheap situation has been done to death in the past and Boll offers absolutely nothing new to the scenario. A film set in a single location with few actors needs really good writing and direction to make it work, and you just don't get it here.Instead what we do get are a bunch of has-been actors going through the motions. Former pretty boy Luke Perry plays the mysterious stranger and does a frankly poor job of it. Lauren Holly's appearances in mainstream Hollywood films are long in the past. And main actor Steve Bacic is one of those 'never was' guys, devoid of charisma to boot. In all, THE FINAL STORM is a waste of time.

Other reviewers have made their case. I just wanted to reiterate the point that this dross isn't worth anyone's time. If I had known when I started watching this was one of Boll's films (and, yes, I use the term very loosely in this case), I would not have bothered to sit through it.The reviewer "Innocuous" wrote: I won't even try to explain the story. You would just laugh.As far as other issues of interest...er...hm...well, there are none. As usual, Boll manages to sneak in just one short scene to justify an "R" rating. (It's a bit of Lauren Holly in bed, but it's completely irrelevant to the story.As we're all tired of pointing out, there are fresh new directors out there who could use a little money to get a start on films with imagination. It's a sin and a shame that Boll still gets backers for turkeys like this.I cannot top that review. Stay away. For post-apocalyptic movies, you're better off with "Hardware" or even the first "Mad Max".

I admit that I was never a big Uwe Boll fan, but his newer stuff is starting to grow on me and this movie really isn't that bad. Its pretty good actually. And in his last few films his style has matured abit so it appears that Uwe Boll is finally growing as a writer/director. The film has a nice amateur feel to it and it sticks to what it is, filming most of the conteOK, the movie. A mysterious, but hospitable stranger looking for a little "Shelter from the storm" is taken in by a family. The hospitable charismatic stranger starts make the family a little unnerved with his pushy belief system. The movie starts off a slow burn, but builds. You don't have to agree with anyone's view points in the movie. If you ignore the message you feel the film is giving you can really enjoy it. I never hated a movie over subliminal film messages be it, political , religious or whatever. I just let myself be entertained because after all, "Its just a movie". ATHIEST ALERT:If your a crabby athiest who looks down on and can't live with the fact that there are other people with other belief systems you probably won't like this because it requires you to turn your beliefs off for an hour and half and have an open mind. I am an athiest, but tolerant of these kind of movies because there almost like Sci-Fi to me(I love Sci-Fi) Oh, that and the fact that its a movie only not a political/religious ideology. I gave it 6/10 and it deserves it. I wouldn't run out and buy it for $15, but if you catch it on cable late one night, or in the $3.99 or under bargain bin give it a shot. It would definitely be nice on a dark rainy night :)

While this movie will not win any academy awards, it was certainly much better produced and acted then 99% of the Syfy produced movies scifi fans such as myself typically end up enduring, etc. I would give it a 5-6 as a vote. The plot summary appearing on IMDb is not at all accurate (the son never disappears amongst other things, but Luke Perry does play a mysterious stranger with a hidden and menacing past which threatens the family amidst the turmoil of the general disaster).The actors all give reasonable performances, they are not wooden or overacting in the manner typical of smaller budget productions. All three principals - Lauren Holly (very attractive), Steve Bacic and Luke Perry were decent.However, one should be aware that this is not a slam bang action flick with all sorts of special effects, battles, etc. There is none of that in this movie. The movie is about a small family living in a rural area against the backdrop of something cataclysmic having occurred, but the hows and whats of that are never really delved into - rather the focal point of the story is how they are coping, the mysteries surrounding a stranger who has wandered onto their property, etc.I would deem the movie to be more of a suspense/thriller against a quasi sci-fi backdrop.On a plus note, it did keep our attention start to finish, and we were not hooting and hollering at grade F special effects and cheesy acting.On a negative note, the ending was somewhat of a mystery to us. We have some theories, but you are better off to watch the movie and come up with your own.I think overall this is the sort of movie actors do to keep paying the bills, but at least they gave it a decent go, and made the 90 minutes of the movie respectable rather then terrible.