In New Orleans, while the Lila hurricane approaches, three convicted prisoners, Simpson (Thomas Cavanagh), Juke (Marcus Lyle Brown) and Tad (Ritchie Montgomery), escape from the forced labor. In their getaway, they come to the house of Cassie Broadbeck (Melissa Gilbert), who has just left her husband and chief of the local fire department Wayne Broadbeck (Brian Wimmer), and is moving to Chicago with her two daughters, the slow Hayley (Azure Dawn) and Nicole (CiCi Hedgpeth). The tension increases when Wayne breaks in the house trying to save his family.
"Heart of the Storm" is not a good movie. Exploring the theme of the 1955 and 1990 "The Desperate Hours", with criminals trapped inside a house with a defenseless family, this story is unrealistic and absolutely corny. Living in Brazil, we frequently read on the news how criminals behave when they invade a family house. Imagine three guys in the middle of nowhere with three women challenging the criminals the way they did! The guys had never made any insinuation of sex or tried to rape the women in the story, and Cassie makes a totally unnecessary sexual offer to Simpson, acting like a bitch most of the time. The ham actress CiCi Hedgpeth has one of the worst performances I have ever seen in a movie. Most of the dialogs are also terrible, and it is funny that the most sympathetic characters are Juke and Hayley. The good performance of Thomas Cavanagh is the best part of this forgettable flick. My vote is four.
Title (Brazil): "No Olho do Furacão" ("In the Eye of the Hurricane")
