Storm (1999)

hyped garbage

Don't Believe the Hype

As Good As It Gets

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Luke Perry, (Ron Young) is required to give his experience to a renegade Air Foerce General Roberts, ( Martin Sheen) who is involved in a top secret government operation in order to control all the weather of this entire country. The secret weapon is able to be launched from an aircraft into the eye of a massive weather front off California which has great winds of over 400 mph. This storm is headed for Los Angeles and there are many struggles that happen aboard this aircraft and many people fight against each other. There is even time for men and women to find love and close relationships. Great film from 1999, enjoy.

As a confirmed "B" movie lover (and someone who wishes to amass a large DVD collection as cheaply as possible), I regularly haunt the "Dollar DVD" rack at my local Wal-Mart searching for low-budget gems. My latest acquisition is "Storm," (A.K.A. "Storm Trackers," according to the front of the DVD box), a late-90s made-for-TV disaster movie starring onetime teen heart throb Luke Perry (of "90210" fame) and Martin Sheen. (!!) How can you go wrong with that powerhouse combo? I expected a laugh riot when I sat down to watch this one, but I have to admit, it was far better than I expected (barring a few cheesy moments, particularly in the last fifteen minutes or so). Perry plays a meteorology professor (aided by a hippie assistant played by Marc McClure, best known as Jimmy Olsen in the '70s "Superman" films) whose experiments with storm technology are deemed too dangerous by his university and result in him losing his job. Fortunately for him, just as he's packing up his office, he's approached by a government representative who offers him a job working on a hush-hush military project headed by an Army general (Sheen), whose objective is to actually control the direction of powerful storms. Perry joins up immediately and at first thinks he's working on a project that will not only save lives (by diverting dangerous storms away from populated areas) but also bring much needed rain to drought stricken parts of the world. Of course, it doesn't take him long to figure out that the true aim of the project is something more sinister, and that Sheen's character intends to use storm control as a defensive weapon. The last half of the film then descends into predictable disaster-movie chaos, as the research team attempts to steer a hurricane into Mexico but loses control of it so that it heads directly for downtown Los Angeles. Perry then attempts to re-gain control of the storm from an airplane before it can flatten L.A. (and endanger his girlfriend, a local TV news reporter out in the thick of the chaos). Most of the L.A.-set disaster scenes are rather underwhelming due to the low made-for-TV budget (most of it seems to be cobbled together out of old Weather Channel storm footage) aside from one funny bit in which a wind-blown hunk of the Hollywood sign nearly flattens a TV news crew. The climactic battle between Perry and a government goon in front of an open airplane cargo door (with the hurricane raging right outside) is downright silly, particularly when Perry leaps OUT of the plane and ONTO the storm controlling device (!!) in order to re-program it and divert the storm away from Los Angeles. Yeah, okay, suuuuuuuure, that MIGHT happen...if you totally disregard the laws of physics. Aside from the occasionally hilarious lapses in logic and cheap looking special effects, STORM TRACKER was a fast-paced adventure story that had pretty decent performances by its stars (Sheen is totally slumming in this flick of course, but nobody can play a blustering, obsessed military type quite like him) that turned out to be entertaining enough action melodrama, especially since I only paid a buck for it. My fellow Dollar DVD aficionados (and I know there are a lot of you out there) can pick this one up with confidence.

Dr Ron Young is a leading expert on storms and weather systems. When he loses his job at an University due to his reckless experiments he is recruited by the military to be involved in work to develop a system to control storms. Once involved in this work he begins to suspect that the desire to control storms may not be designed simply to move them away from endangered areas but instead to use them as weapons against other countries.The set-up is quite interesting but is spoilt by several things, the main thing being the low budget that means the film can only afford cheap sets and poor special effects. The plot is for the most part a bit silly, and it misses great opportunities to look at the value of foreign lives v's American lives in the scene where the media have no interest in a hurricane heading towards Mexico but suddenly drop all other news when it turns towards America; this scene just rushes by when it could have been lingered on to make a strong point. Of course all disaster movies are silly but most are saved by great effects and great spectacle. Here the main effects are two fold - either stock footage of windswept houses and cheap visual effects. Even the scenes that could have added spectacle value are poor - one scene of a huge tidal wave bearing down on LA as two character run from it ends as the two characters dive over a 4 foot stone wall to get cover.....the huge wave then splashes harmlessly up against the other side of the wall. Compare that to the tidal wave in Deep Impact and you can see the wasted opportunity.However in some cases bad effects can be saved by a good plot and good performances. Here the plot is daft but the performances are also weak. Perry is a terrible choice for an expert in anything, he plays it like he's a reckless scientist but it goes totally against what you feel his character should be. Other small roles are poor, such as Robert Knott as the "sinister" agent ensuring the project's security is ok, David Moses as Dr Platt hams it up as his character gets a conscience, and Alexandra Powers is terrible for the most part as the very un-major-like Major Goodman. Only Martin Sheen comes away with a good performance, but really he only gives the military tyrant role that he has done so many times before.The film has some minor twists towards the end, you see most coming from miles and they're not exactly earth shattering but they at least bring some interest back into the film. Overall poor casting, poor effects, poor plot, poor movie - even for a TV movie.

I cant believe I sat through this movie until the end. Luke Perry delivers a very unconvincing acting job in a movie that has great potential but delivers nothing.This movie isn't terrible and if it was on TV then it might be worth watching but don't spend any money on purchasing or hiring it.The biggest problem with this movie is virtually nothing is resolved, there are a number of plot twists or important events that are simply discarded and not mentioned again. Because of this the movie ends with many, many unresolved issues.Lets just hope they don't try for a sequel...