Killer Flood: The Day the Dam Broke (2003)
When the dam in the town of Rutland starts to show signs of wear. David Powell, the architect who originally worked on the dam but was removed and who left town after he was black balled by Walker, the man who only cares about making a profit; returns. He insists that the dam be drained and inspected but Walker claims it would take too long and would be too costly. David goes to the dam and notices a few anomalies. He then tries to warn the deputy mayor who happens to be his estranged wife but out of anger she refuses to listen. Also David tries to reconnect with his son who resents his desertion.
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Wonderful character development!
Too much of everything
When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.
Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.
Doug Campbell and Peter Beckwith teamed up to create the film called " Killer Flood: The day the Dam broke." Although there is much which is missing from the film, namely top Hollywood actors, it still does a good job of entertaining an audience. On seeing this movie, one is reminded that many Disaster films have preceded it with much higher qualities than this one. The story begins with David A. Powell (Joe Lando) a former architect who was fired for incompetence, returns home to check on a former pet project of his. Upon arriving, an employee is killed and a city council is convened. Present is the Assistant mayor Natalie Powell (Michele Greene), the Sheriff (D.K Kelly) and Mr. Walker (Bruce Boxleitner) the banker. At the Dam, a series of cracks appear to produce concern that the entire structure is about to collapse. Although, Powell is convinced that his Dam was not constructed as per his specs, he is ordered off the premises, because the banker is just about to concluded a million dollar deal. At the same time, Powell is told he is no longer welcomes as part of his former family, as his wife and son (Matthew Ewald) are convinced they is not interested in the reason he left them. The movie is sub-standard in production and the poor special effects add Little to help convince an audience to stay. However, there are some scenes and some good acting which create excitement and drama which does keep interest in the film. All in all, it's noteworthy to stay till its conclusion and some merit should be given, for the great effort and the dog. Perhaps if the same effort had been given to the dam, the architect would not have been fired. Nevertheless, the movie is recommended. ****
Now there are some good disaster movies, The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno to name a few. But Killer Flood is not one of them, in fact for my tastes it was very poor not just of its genre but of film in general. In all honesty, the special effects are really quite terrible even for a made for TV movie. They are very unimaginative in scope and how they are incorporated in certain scenes. And as for the look of them things aren't that much better either, for my liking they do look rather cheap.The scenery is decent enough, but the photography and editing doesn't do it justice. The photography is of very uneven quality, it is serviceable in some of the scenes that don't contain any effects, but then in those with them it comes across as hackneyed. Particularly in the conclusion, which I personally did not very thrilling because quite a lot of the rest of the movie was uninteresting, the editing is choppy. Eric Allaman's music was okay at first, but I soon forgot about it.The acting is really quite bad, yes this is including Joe Lando. But they do have several things that hamper them other than the effects. They do have to play characters that you don't know much about or don't care about, and they also have a very weak and clichéd script, a story that is predictable and sluggishly paced and filled with what feels like lame rehashes and plodding direction. When I did first hear of this film, the first thing that came into my head was "what a terrible cash-in title". But I watched Killer Flood anyway but I have seen some movies that have bad titles but are surprisingly good movies. Killer Flood however manages not only to have a bad title but also to be a very poorly put together movie.All in all, very poor and maybe worth seeing to revel in its awfulness but for everything else I'd say skip it. 1/10 Bethany Cox
I suppose I SHOULD include a -spoiler warning-.First off, I lived in Rutland for nine years (taking care of an elderly parent).It's really an awful town. Calling it the vermin infested crotch of New England would not be too unkind.So with every Edgewood/Porchlight film that destroyed Rutland shown on PAX-TV, I was cheering.But this film, Jeebus! There's no place anywhere NEAR Rutland where you could put a dam, OR the reservoir that would back up behind the dam.This is the kind of film that Mystery Science Theater 3000 would have brutally eviscerated. The effects were pathetic, as was the story and acting.All in all, just don't even bother.And to the gentleman in the U.K., really, you should have broken the disk in half before you binned it. There's a slight chance the dustman might have spotted it, thought to himself, "My lucky day! A free movie!" brought it home, viewed it, and then, realizing he was that much closer to the grave, bitterly regretting losing that 90 minutes of his life, 90 minutes he will never get back and has now sworn vengeance upon the person who binned that DVD.Yeah, it's THAT BAD!
Killer Flood: The Day the Damn Broke: 1/10: Finally a movie whose title is spoiler proof. Even by the low standards of disaster movies, excuse me allow me to correct myself, even by the low standards of made for TV disaster movies this is truly awful. Where do I begin? The dam modeler may have once seen a photo of a dam but I doubt it. Most dams, especially large ones that generate electricity have oh I don't know a power plant nearby, some sluice gates for water to run through, heck even a high tension electrical wire or two. The dam is also somewhat understaffed. Two, count them, two employees staff the entire dam, all three shifts. And the employees were apparently imported from a clichéd ridden world war two film, as they heroically and rather needlessly have long eulogized death scenes complete with photos of grandchildrenn floating by. Heck one of them manages to get shot by the dam itself in a way that defies description. The special effects consist of flowing water superimposed on photo's of the town in a method that makes a sixties Godzilla film look like the Matrix. A three-year-old drawing with a blue crayon on the film stock would have yielded better results. Since the disaster money shots are worthless how is the rest of the film? Needless to say the script and acting follow the special effects lead. This is no diamond in the rough. This is the rough. So is it a guilty pleasure? Killer Flood is awful enough to generate some laughs and the film itself has that earnest incompetence that makes a good cult classic, but bad disaster films need to age like a fine wine. (Avalanche, The Swarm, Meteor) It is also doubtful that Michelle Green hiding from the flood in a dumpster with a golden retriever will ever match the great Henry Fonda being pelted by raisins that are supposed to be killer bees. Check back with me in 2024.