Lightning: Fire from the Sky

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.

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.

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.

Lightning: Fire from the Sky is the first of two Lightning themed movies that will have inevitably have been making the rounds on the Scyfy channel.

It stars Dukes Of Hazard/Smallville alumni John Schneider, industry veteran Stacy Keach and hollywood star Jesse Eisenberg.

It tells the story of a young man with a fascination for lightning (How convenient) who begins to see evidence that a 100yr storm is on its way to his town. But who can he convince and what can he do to combat it?

It's all your usual cliched all the way to hell, predictible, naff looking and all by the numbers stuff but to be fair I've seen a lot worse.

What makes this rise above mediocrity is the cast, those three and the supporting faces do a decent enough job that manages to mask some the movies obvious flaws.

Generic stuff, but passable in its own way.

The Good:

Cast do a good job

Some really good writing in places

The Bad:

Cliched to hell

Ending is really dumb

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Eisenberg truly did find greatness, from small beginnings

This movie is quite unrealistic. Obviously the story writers didn't bother collect information on weather phenomena. The big problem with colliding weather system isn't lightning but torrential rains accompanied with floodings, and strong storms, even tornados. It is also obsolete that a boy would find out more about the weather than the weather forecasting organisations like the NOAA and others. There are so many exciting scenarios for weather-related disasters--so why did they choose something so unrealistic?