Into the Storm

Filmmaker Steven Quale's action-packed, natural disaster thriller—set in the Midwest region known as Tornado Alley—begins on the morning of graduation at Silverton High School. Vice principal Gary Fuller (Richard Armitage) is in charge of making sure that everything runs on time without a hitch, but he's worried by the weather report. A widower/single father, Gary is shepherding two sons, Donnie (Max Deacon) and Trey (Nathan Kress), through their difficult teenage years. Although it's Donnie's responsibility to film the ceremony, he sneaks off to hang out with Kaitlyn (Alycia Debnam-Carey), helping her with a video project about environmental awareness. Suddenly, a tremendous storm approaches, bringing with it a professional storm-chasing team that includes documentary filmmaker Pete Moore (Matt Walsh), meteorologist Allison Stone (Sarah Wayne Callies), and three cameramen (Lee Whittaker, Arlen Escarpeta, Jeremy Sumpter). Also on hand are a pair of adrenaline junkies (Kyle Davis, Jon Reep) whose daredevil antics are supposed to temporarily ease the narrative tension with a little humor. While the film raises the provocative issue of reality television making stars out of real-life storm chasers—which prompts others to take irresponsible risks while trying to capture video or pictures that will make them rich and famous—it's also populated by generic one-dimensional characters who speak in clichés. Optional. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include a “Fake Storms: Real Conditions” production featurette (6 min.), and trailers. Exclusive to the Blu-ray release are the behind-the-scenes featurettes “Into the Storm: Tornado Files” (11 min.) and “Titus: The Ultimate Storm-Chasing Vehicle” (9 min.), as well as bonus DVD and UltraViolet copies of the film. Bottom line: a decent extras package for a narratively-thin disaster flick.] (S. Granger)