Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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SEPTEMBER 17-23, 2014 UCW 17 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM Into the Storm (89 minutes) is a SyFy channel movie with a slightly higher budget and moderately better acting that somehow wound up on the big screen. Hardcore disaster film aficionados will know what I'm getting at, though to someone who has never seen a disaster film or a found footage film it might seem I'm damning the flick with faint praise. The film opens with a teaser. A group of high school students watch a storm approach. As terminally stupid and convinced of their own immortality as any group of teenagers, instead of fleeing the awesome power of nature they hang out and record the tornados and lightning with their cellphones, presumably for later uploading to PinInstaFaceSpace (or whatever the hip young people are doing with their selfies this season). In a huge dramatic shocker that surprises no one who is familiar with what a tornado can do, the teens are wiped off the face of the Earth, like a booger being wiped off a toddler's screaming face. The real movie begins with the introduction of the storm-chasing team. Pete (veteran "Hey! It's That Guy!" Matt Walsh) is their leader, the inventor of the armored storm-chasing vehicle that will ensure their safety. Allison (Sarah Wayne Callies) is their educated weather watcher, and then there are a few red-shirt wearing side characters taking up van space. Pete is angry that they missed the storm that killed people and demands that Allison control the weather or risk losing her job. Allison is a single mother and her main character trait is being a girl. But this story is not just about the brave storm chasers. It also a film about family. A very dysfunctional family headed by Gary (Richard Armitage), a single father who is emotionally distant from his children. His oldest son Donnie (Max Deacon) is a shy, retiring young man in the AV club. His youngest son Trey (Nathan Kress) is more of a mischief maker, which is why it falls to Trey to convince Donnie to make a move on fellow high schooler Kaitlyn (Alycia Debnam Carey). Trey gets the best line in the film, and Donnie and Kaitlyn get to participate in a "who's going to drown first?" subplot that I cared very little about. So, the storm chasers are ready to leave town in defeat when a storm cell develops and starts wiping out part of Oklahoma. They drive around town filming tornados, and then run into Gary who is attempting to track down Donnie. Buildings are destroyed and familial bonds are reaffirmed, and a few of those red-shirt wearing extra players die entertainingly gruesome deaths. Unquestionably Into the Storm impresses with the best tornado footage this side of Twister. Outside the undeniably good special effects the characters were weakly written and the film spends too much time trying (unsuccessfully) to turn them into actual people rather than the two dimensional cardboard cutouts that they were written as. When the movie finally got around to its second half and the storm rightfully became the star of the show, I finally started enjoying the spectacle. After all, I'm not in the theater watching a disaster movie to get to know people — I'm there to see Mother Nature destroy things. You Get What You Pay For Into the Storm (Rated PG-13) by HEATHER GRIFFITHS HEATHER GRIFFITHS, Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? Editor@ upandcomingweekly.com. 910.484.6200. Your Home, Your Style, Your Budget! u NEW LOCATION! u on Sycamore Dairy Road (Behind Pricilla's) You set the budget – We'll stick to it! FREE in-home consultation on kitchen & bathroom remodels. BEFORE AFTER In-stock carpet starting at 69¢ sq. ft. • In-stock vinyl starting at 69¢ sq. ft. Monday - Friday 7:30 a.m. - 6 p.m. • Saturday 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 3760 Sycamore Dairy Road • (910) 779-0107 www.HomeEssentialsNC.com