Lightning Strikes (2009)

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

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.

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.

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.

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.