Le feu qui venait du ciel

The "Little Wesley" character from Star Trek is renamed and played by a new actor in LIGHTNING: FIRE FROM THE SKY -- a 2001 made-for-TV movie.

Here, Little Wesley has superior knowledge about weather patterns and dangerous thunder clouds. LIGHTNING burdens our boy genius with an assortment of ignorant adults who will forever fail to grasp the fact that Wesley is always right.

The lead victims of LIGHTNING are veteran actors John Schneider and Stacy Keach who both deserve better treatment.

With camera point-of-view and editing, the director attempted to give the thunder clouds a "personality" (for lack of a better word). It is a stretch and ended up being a distraction to the viewer.

This made-for-TV movie has little going for it and is best avoided.

as disaster movies,this is pretty awful.poor acting all around,especially from the woman who played the town mayor.judging by her performance,i'm guessing she thought she was in a comedy.nobody did a good job in their roles,except maybe John Schnieder,who was not too bad and Michelle Greene was okay.as for the rest,there isn't a convincing one in the lot.i was so embarrassed for them all.but to be fair,some of the dialogue they were given is atrocious.not much thought went into this film.1 positive though is that the lightning scenes were done well,and were almost impressive at times.the story itself moves way too slow,with pointless scene after pointless scene.this movie is not worth your time,unless you want to laugh at bad acting.the movie is supposed to be serious,and is not played for camp value,at all,and that is the real disaster.

And Family Friendly wins. There are times some things have to become compromises when you make a movie, and sometimes you have to compromise on the theme to fit a market.

But unless you are setting up a pure fantasy you should not have to compromise on believability. In this feature, in an attempt pump up the dramatic side at the same time they tried to remain family friendly, lighting was made to "jump through hoops" (sorry about the pun) and things were happening that simply do not happen in the real world. This story had promise, this movie had potential. The direction was fitting, the photography was acceptable, the editing, acting, sound-- all made the grade. Unfortunately, like a wonderful house built on an inadequate foundation, it cracks and falls apart as it ages.

So much potential.

This film would be perfect. Even without commentary, it's so stupidly hillarious it's worth watching. Clearly directed by some kind of partially trained monkey and edited by his cousin. While it starts a bit slow, it quickly kicks in with various scenes of lightning mischief. Who ever know lighting could go so slow!? Highly recommended!

Prime Video offers "Lightning: Fire from the Sky" (2001) which has all the flavor of a family-centered Hallmark movie. If you like this style of film, this one's for you.

The storyline connects two magnetic storm colliding over Rutland, a cozy small town near St. Louis. A 16-year-old would-be meteorologist seems to be the only person who can chart these storms, so, acting on his own, he sets off the town sirens as lightning ravages just about everything from telephone poles to toasters.

It's a bit corny, a bit funny, a bit nuclear family, but I looked past these issues and found it worth the time. I give it 3/5 Stars.