Lightning: Fire from the Sky (2001)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Simply A Masterpiece

Beautiful, moving film.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

To call this movie anything but fantasy would be wrong. From the start to the end every fact of science is ignored just to make this movie. Where to start? First, lightning does not lope along power lines - it moves at nearly the speed of light. Second, power lines are protected from lightning. Lightning does not bounce around inside of buildings and randomly hit people. Lightning cannot travel through water pipes and come out of faucets. Lightning strikes the tallest object, not the ground randomly. A car struck by lightning does not have its tires melt. There is no generator towed by a pick up that can power an entire hospital, let alone through an extension cord. Propane is not stored in vertical tanks. And the kid's rocket couldn't lift the weight of the wire more than a few feet. Watch this movie as a disaster - not as a disaster movie.

I bought this movie because it was inexpensive and I love disaster movies especially ones about weather.I knew it was a low budget movie that was possibly made for TV but I enjoyed it.There were parts that were stupid like when the mayor(played by Barbara Crampton)was driving in the storm and her car goes off the road.Her performance was terrible.It was soap opera type acting in some areas.Barbara you should have stuck to your former gig on the young and the restless where you played a really campy,funny role.No offense,but this movie should have casted someone who could have portrayed the character with more professionalism. Excellent performance by Jesse Eisenberg playing the 14 year old playing the weather expert in that small town.Obviously this would not really happen in reality since the experts should have detected it and warned the public,but this is just a movie and was fun watching it. And as always,excellent and believable performances by John Schneider,Michelle Greene,and Stacy Keach. The whole idea of 2 giant storms on a collision course wreaking havoc on a city or town is an interesting idea and I wonder if it's ever occurred for real.Or maybe it's not possible i'm not sure. I enjoyed this movie because it was about a regular storm with thunder,lightning and rain and not another goddamn movie about tornado's.Twister was a good movie,but there were tons of other movies(mostly made for TV)made after it which were basically all the same including one called night of the twister also starring John Schneider in a similar role. I would love to see a big budget feature film about the same kind of storm in lightning:fire from the sky terrorizing a large city with an all star cast with better special effects making the storms look more real.When are the makers of these movies gonna realize that thunder happens after the lightning flashes and not at the same time.This is why a lot of the storms in movies look fake(especially the older films).Some of the newer ones i've seen in the theater have made them look and seem real.

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.

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.