I was given the chance to sit down to watch the 2008 movie "Storm Cell" here in 2021. And since it was a movie that I hadn't already seen before, of course I took the time to sit down to watch it.
Now, with this being a natural disaster movie, I must admit that the movie could go either way; either be just another one of those lousy special effect disaster movies that is a disaster in itself, or it could actually prove to be an entertaining movie with proper special effects. And with the likes of Mimi Rogers and Michael Ironside on the cast list, I must admit that I had hopes for "Storm Cell".
Turns out that "Storm Cell", as written by writers Michael Konyves and Graham Ludlow just didn't have what it took to be a proper disaster movie. It wasn't a terrible movie, so I wouldn't categorize it in that particular genre of disaster movies that are so bad that they become terrible. However, the storyline told in "Storm Cell" was just horribly bland, and I never really got fully submerged and drawn into that particular storyline.
The movie was less than mediocre in terms of being entertaining, but at least it had heart and spirit, and that counted for something. Ultimately, though, then the lack of an interesting storyline just killed the movie off for me.
Visually then "Storm Cell" didn't really impress. The special effects were good enough, I suppose, albeit bordering on being inadequate at times, though. If you sit down to watch the 2008 movie "Storm Cell" and expect to be blown away - pardon the pun - by a display of amazing CGI and special effects, then you will find yourself sorely disappointed.
The acting in "Storm Cell" was adequate, although the character gallery was about as interesting as a field overgrown by weeds. The characters in the movie were rather bland and pointless, actually. Most of them didn't even display proper motivation, and the dialogue wasn't really all that impressive either, so that didn't help much.
Director Steven R. Monroe didn't manage to huff and puff enough to make a lasting impression with "Storm Cell", and it was a movie that had managed to elude my radar, and it is a movie that will just as quietly fade into oblivion.
My rating of "Storm Cell" lands on a mere three out of ten stars. There are far better disaster movies out there.
Storm Cell
2008
Action / Adventure / Drama / Thriller
Storm Cell
2008
Action / Adventure / Drama / Thriller
Plot summary
April Saunders is a divorced mother and a full time storm chaser. The weather is both her career and her full time obsession. Everything else in her life takes second place including her daughter, Rachel, and her brother, Sean. When April, Rachel and Sean get caught up in a terrible storm, April finds that she must fight for her own survival and for the lives of her daughter and brother.
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A storm movie without much of any gust of wind...
If this movie was meant to send up a storm, then I am as angry as thunder and lightning!
Now I actually wanted to like this movie. I wasn't expecting much from Storm Cell, but no way was I expecting it to be this bad. It doesn't even look good, with wretched scenery, further disadvantaged by dull lighting, unfocused editing, awkward camera work and cheap tornado effects, even more cheapened by sound effects that are just as disturbing as those in the Gene Dietch Tom and Jerry cartoons. The story is predictable and utterly ridiculous, with scientific errors that make even the worst SyFy disaster movie credible in comparison(and their disaster movies are riddled with those),the script is unnatural in both dialogue and the delivery of it and cheesy to the point you get toothache from gritting your teeth and the characters are either annoying or uninteresting. The acting is also wooden, with Mimi Rogers looking uncomfortable with her hard-edged persona here coming across as forced. Overall, a terrible movie, not in about two months now have I been so angry watching a movie. People will say that they get novelty value, but most assets are so badly done and inexcusably that I couldn't find myself entertained. 0/10 Bethany Cox
Lame even by genre standards
STORM CELL is a bad disaster movie even by TV movie standards. It stars Mimi Rogers (THE X-FILES) as a dedicated storm chaser who must fight against time to save her family from a series of super-powerful twisters that threaten to wreck much of middle America, yet the film fails to build on that premise at any point.
Due to budgetary constraints, no doubt, this film ends up more as a family drama than a disaster flick. Much is made of Rogers' obnoxious and stuck-up teenage daughter who keeps getting herself into peril, to the degree that I was hoping Rogers would simply cut her losses and forget about the dumb kid; no such luck.
Meanwhile, a few scenes show a twister wreaking havoc on some homesteads with the aid of some dodgy CGI. The two plots never gel, there's no plan on the part of the heroes, they just sort of amble from place to place and survive mainly through luck. It's all very boring and uninteresting; I expected something cheesier, and more entertaining, from this genre, but it's almost laid back in it's approach. Watch out for the great Michael Ironside in a cameo role.