The Final Storm

There's the main plot about "the stranger" and then there's the apocalypse plot. Which basically gets completely forgotten about. Pick one, because they clearly couldn't manage two.

THE FINAL STORM is a cheap, end of the world thriller from German director Uwe Boll. This one was made in Canada and features a fiery DVD cover promising all sorts of apocalyptic action. Unsurprisingly, it never delivers on that promise.

Instead, this turns out to be a straightforward (read: predictable) three hander about a married couple and their kid holed up in their dingy farmhouse. One day a mysterious stranger comes along and proceeds to turn their lives upside down. What follows is completely without merit; this kind of cheap situation has been done to death in the past and Boll offers absolutely nothing new to the scenario. A film set in a single location with few actors needs really good writing and direction to make it work, and you just don't get it here.

Instead what we do get are a bunch of has-been actors going through the motions. Former pretty boy Luke Perry plays the mysterious stranger and does a frankly poor job of it. Lauren Holly's appearances in mainstream Hollywood films are long in the past. And main actor Steve Bacic is one of those 'never was' guys, devoid of charisma to boot. In all, THE FINAL STORM is a waste of time.

Nothing particularly terribly awful about this film. After going through all of Luke Perry's movies until this one, The Final Storm seems par for the course for a cheap film. Small hometown cast and location and a kooky story to keep things going.

Luke Perry departs a bit from his Dylan persona to bring out his southern baptist evil bible thumping character that he's toyed with on occasion. He does it believably, that's a testament (no pun intended) to his superb and experienced acting skills. The other main characters were all played well, too. The story didn't blow me away like a big budgeter would. Though you can't expect that it should, I don't look at the movie's production price before watching, so I treat all movies equally and they usually cost the consumer equal amounts so it would be fair to stack this movie against Batman, The Godfather, Men in Black, whatever. So, up against those guys, this movie is cheap and is not as much of a thrilling 90 minutes. But for what it is, it's fun, it keeps you guessing, and it has you rooting at the right moments.

I almost stopped watching after the first minute because Luke Perry's been in so many movies about storms, I thought this must have been one I'd already seen. Turns out, nope, here came yet another storm film from the former heartthrob.

Lots of question remain unanswered after the film's ending, which is annoying, most movies wrap 99% of their story up at Fin time, but the conclusion is satisfactory enough to say, "Cool, that was fun," and, of course, it leaves you wanting more, especially more answers!

If you could watch any movie in the world I wouldn't tell you to bother with this one. But if for some reason you had it in your hand and were wondering if it should be played, I wouldn't be compelled to stop you. Grab some popcorn and enjoy, especially on a stormy night!

I gave this film an extra star because the camera didn't go rolling down a hill unexpectedly, there's a minimum of shaky cam work (too expensive for Boll?), and you can hear what everyone is saying. As far as plot, story, or acting, I'd give it one star (the IMDb minimum).

I won't even try to explain the story. You would just laugh.

As far as other issues of interest...er...hm...well, there are none. As usual, Boll manages to sneak in just one short scene to justify an "R" rating. (It's a bit of Lauren Holly in bed, but it's completely irrelevant to the story. Fortunately, Boll gets it out of the way in the first five minutes. You can go on watching the rest of the movie with confidence that you won't see anything nearly as exciting again.)

As we're all tired of pointing out, there are fresh new directors out there who could use a little money to get a start on films with imagination. It's a sin and a shame that Boll still gets backers for turkeys like this.

Not recommended.

This movie was actually decently interesting, right up until the last 10 minutes or so. In fact, if I hadn't gone in knowing it was an Uwe Boll movie, I wouldn't have had any idea because it was pretty low-key. It was an end of the world type with definite religious overtones, but in the end, it just got WEIRD! I wouldn't say it went off the rails so much as it was going in a certain direction, veered off course, then overcorrected so badly that it drove itself off a cliff! The ending was so completely weird, I can't even explain what happened, other than total insanity! I would have happily given this movie a 6/10 if the ending didn't confuse and annoy me so much that it lost 3 full points. Save yourself the confusion and just watch the Left Behind movies, at least they follow the same plot from start to finish!