Thursday 21 August 2014

Film Review: Into the Storm

Genre: Action Thriller Disaster

Cert: 12A (13+) this should of been a 15 way to intense for a 13 year old.

Director: Steven Quale

Screen writer: John Swetnam

Starring:Richard Armitage , Sarah Wayne Callies , Matt Walsh ,Max Deacon ,Nathan Kress ,Alycia Debnam Carey ,Arlen Escarpeta ,Jeremy Sumpter ,Lee Whittaker ,Kyle Davis , Jon Reep ,Scott Lawrence , David Drumm  ,Brandon Ruiter , Jimmy Groce

Running time: 89 min 

Parents advised to read before viewing film as some scene may contain scenes unsuitable for younger viewers.

Sex & Nudity: A young man and a young woman are shown kissing in the back seat of a car while another young man and young woman in the front seat tease them; the young woman in the front seat asks the young man in the back seat for something and he says that he's "kinda busy."
A teen boy and a teen girl hug as water fills the space where they are trapped and they prepare to drown.
A teen boy teases his older brother about talking to a teen girl that he likes ("swooning over her").
A teen boy tells his older teen brother to "get some skin on camera."
A teen boy says that he got a "Nice shot of Miss Bell's cleavage" and that she has a "Nice rack."
A teen boy talks about who he will be in the future and remarks about having an attractive girlfriend that he will have sex with (using crude terms).
We see a video of a woman wearing a low-cut top that reveals cleavage.
Teen girls are shown wearing low-cut tops and dresses that reveal cleavage along with short shorts that show bare legs to the thighs.

Violence & GoreA young man filming a tornado cloud that has sucked up a fire from the ground drops his camera and when he tries to retrieve it he is sucked away by the cloud; we see the young man swirling inside the cloud and he is seen in flames.
Two young men and two young women in a car watch street light poles explode in sparks in the distance and we see a swirling cloud approaching them; one young man gets out of the car to take pictures and we hear screaming and see the occupants being slammed around before the screen goes black (we hear that the four people were killed by a tornado).
Clouds swirl alongside a road and a van is pushed around before being toppled on its side (no one inside is injured), and the passengers are helped out and they run across the road to a building for shelter as a gas spill is set on fire.
Several people climb down through a manhole to a storm shelter as a huge swirling tornado cloud spins outside, the cover is blown off and the winds blow through pushing several of the people around, a semi-truck is slammed into one side of the shelter and another vehicle is attached to the other side to try to keep the people safe inside after one man is sucked out of the opening; other people struggle to hold on and are sucked toward the openings before the cloud breaks up and we see a few of the people with bloody scratches, but otherwise OK.
A giant cloud spins in the sky and lifts many airplanes and trucks off the ground and spins them around.
A teen boy and a teen girl are shown standing in an abandoned paper plant as a storm approaches and we hear winds blowing outside, the building crumbles and the two jump into an opening in the floor where we see them trapped later unable to move; the girl has a bloody leg wound that the boy wraps with a shirt, a pipe bursts and water floods down into the space where they are trapped and fills it as they struggle to get out before drowning and they are shown submerged before the girl is freed and the boy's leg is pinned by wreckage before being freed and pulled lifeless to land (a man performs CPR and revives the boy and he spits water and coughs).
After a tornado blows through a town, we see a small bicycle that has impaled the side of a mini-van, as well as an injured dog whimpering on the side of the road and his human companion trapped in his car with a bloody head wound; three men get the man out of the car and he seems OK.
A man rides a four-wheel vehicle toward a ramp that leads to a pool that has been set ablaze while other men drinking beer watch and film him; he jumps the ramp and crashes into the pool that breaks and the water floods out with the four wheeler and the man (no injuries are shown); a woman from inside the house runs out yelling at them and the men drive away in a pick up truck.
A teen boy talks about the last thing he said to his mother before she died in a car accident and that he was mad at her.
A teenage girl and a teenage boy record farewell video to leave for their loved ones as water fills the place where they are trapped.

Profanity: 3 sexual references
22 scatological terms (i.e. shit, piss)
6 anatomical terms (i.e. ass, dick, tits)
16 mild obscenities (i.e. hell, damn, boobs)
1 religious profanity (i.e. goddamn)
6 religious exclamations (i.e. Oh My God and Christ.)
Name-calling (typical annoying brother, losers, idiots and crazy.)

Alcohol/Drugs/Smoking: Men drink beer while watching an amateur daredevil jump a four wheeler into a flaming swimming pool.
Two men hold beer bottles while watching a huge tornado approach them in a few scenes.
A young man talks about "sipping margaritas."
Two men are drunk for one scene.

Frightening/Intense Scenes:  The storm sequences are violent and deadly; each one leaves more devastation to buildings and people.
Characters die, sometimes horrifically, during the storms, especially those who are swept up into a tornado vortex.
The body count includes a few prominent characters.
Everyone is in life-threatening peril.
This movie might scare some younger or some older viewers depending if they can handle realistic depictions of weather disasters.
Recommended Age: 15+



Story: In the span of a single day, the town of Silverton is ravaged by an unprecedented onslaught of tornadoes. The entire town is at the mercy of the erratic and deadly cyclones, even as storm trackers predict the worst is yet to come. Most people seek shelter, while others run towards the vortex, testing how far a storm chaser will go for that once-in-a-lifetime shot.

Likes : This film does start of with some promise as you get a pretty intense scene at the beginning but sadly if you looking for a plot or some sort of storyline to feel for the characters sadly this film doesn't haven't that which is a shame because it left you not caring about the character which is the flaw in this film, although i will say this is more realistic than twister & extremely intense.
This is a film more about showing off FX of the movie which is Some of the best C.G.I effect ive seen in a movie in showing a more realistic storms. This is a Found footage disaster flick type directed by Steven Quale and written by John Swetnam. Quale previously directed the horror sequel 'FINAL DESTINATION 5' and also co-directed the underwater documentary 'ALIENS OF THE DEEP', with James Cameron; he also served as a second unit director on Cameron's 'AVATAR' and 'TITANIC'. Swetnam also wrote the horror flick 'EVIDENCE' and the dance film sequel 'STEP UP ALL IN' (which was released the same weekend as 'INTO THE STORM', for some reason). The movie stars Richard Armitage (of 'THE HOBBIT' films fame), Sarah Wayne Callies and Matt Walsh. I thought it started out slow but ended up with a bang; which is highly intense & entertaining despite the lack of story or lot, so it kind of worth watch just for the Special scenes as some of them really have you on the edge of your seat, there are a few emotional moments & scary scene but his was not a perfect film it dose have flaws.
 The tornado scenes were pretty intense. The effects were impressive and the destruction on display was very entertaining & realistic. The climax with the giant tornado was the highlight of the film, featuring a scene that is both ridiculous and awesome.

Dislikes : Even for a disaster movie, it was really weak special for the storyline & characters they should have been given a bit more character so the audience could get emotional attach to them. I don't normal look for depth in storytelling or even great characters but it dose help in a film like this, its why 2012 was one of the best disaster film so far, but all the characters here are really one note or straight up clichés. No one really stands out or interesting it kind of suck the fun out of the movie when the tornadoes are out of the picture. The comedy fell flat and it all just felt like a bad SyFy disaster movie with a bigger budget special the way it ended so unreal would never end like that with what happened.

Overall : Very intense Disaster film, storyline is weak, but still a great film for the special effects.

Rating: 4.3 out of 5 for entertainment / 6.1 out of 10 for storyline/concept





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