Tornado Valley (2009)

Sadly Over-hyped

One of my all time favorites.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

The DVD cover art is very misleading, it depicts a tornado in city that hurls a car that is about to fall on an observing child, that never happens in the movie. What made me chuckle was the tag line "this movie will blow you away", the only thing this film does is blow my expectations away.This film is more about a family drama revolving around a tornado tragedy rather than something along the lines of a large scale disaster.While this film isn't bad it disappointing to me because of how the flashy DVD box cover art tricks the wandering eye. The tornado sequences is what allowed me to get through the film since that's what I've been wanting to see, for what the film is worth it's a decent drama film though it tends to stumble in some places.

As children "Liz McAdams" (Meredith Monroe) and "Ellie Wilson" (Pascale Hutton) are playing outside when a tornado appears. Racing back to their house Ellie watches as her mother is swept up into the cyclone and suffers from guilt and trauma from then on. Many years later Liz has become a meteorologist who has recently separated from her husband "Matt McAdams" (Cameron Bancroft) partly because of the traumatic experience she also lives with since that day. Anyway, as luck would have it, Matt has been working on a project to help predict bad weather systems and because of this he just happens to be in the same area as Liz when another extremely bad storm system appears with the capability of reproducing the same deadly results. Now rather than reveal any more of this film and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it I would just like to say that this made-for-television picture uses the same standard recipe as several other movies of this particular genre. That said if anyone is expecting something different or more exciting than previous films of this type then they will probably end up being a bit disappointed. Additionally, there isn't much action and the graphics could have used some improvement as well. To make up for these weaknesses the plot relies upon inter-personal drama and in that regard it managed to maintain my interest for the most part. Of course, others may or may not agree with my assessment and that is perfectly okay. In any case, while it certainly wasn't a great film by any means, I didn't think it was necessarily that bad either and I have rated it accordingly. Average.

WOW!.. from the get go u will think.... "what the.." then... "get off n run stupid!..." then.. "just grab her little butt n run!!..." THEN......"why the hell am I still watching this?!.." The way the storm came over the trees WITHOUT displacing them in any kind of way is laughable! Maybe this is a comedy... Who knows.I do know this movie is lame from the beginning. I'd be embarrassed to be associated with this movie. I assume this is a 'foot in the door' for some new young actors to get their face out there or for some desperate actor taking on whatever role they can to grab some money to make ends meet.. Cause DAMN!!! really???!!XP

I'll give this one a (huh?) out of ten.In terms of plot, we have another Twister clone, only without the budget, and without the F/X, and apparently without a screenwriter who's seen the last 17 Twister clones already made. Compared to most Lifetime fare, Tornado Valley really doesn't stand out from the pack, good or bad. It's a bland, formulaic, run of the mill childhood tragedy, adult baggage, dysfunctional family flick that keeps Hallmark and Lifetime from being 24 hour infomercial channels.Now for the good stuff. We have the Storm Protection Center in Norman, Oklahoma (in reality, the Storm Prediction Center in Norman), a name which got some giggles from me. What, they have a national storm shelter in Norman? "Hey, there's a bad storm, let's head up the Storm Protection Center." Then there's Matilda, a device that looks like a plasma globe from Spencer's Gifts at the mall, which can not only help with predicting when and where tornadoes will, but will also prevent "billions of dollars in collateral damage". Huh? So, I'm to believe that Matilda can teleport crops, forests, and office buildings out of the path of a tornado? Maybe it's the funky patterns in Matilda's plasma globe that will distract the tornado from hitting people and buildings? Remember to keep an eye out for the eco-nadoes. No trees, grass, or small forest animals were injured in the making of Tornado Valley, because these tornadoes only eat humans, houses, and tractors, refuse to drop any hail or rain, and are only slightly windier than a ceiling fan. Could be Matilda working subtly from the start...