User reviews

STORM CELL is a bad disaster movie even by TV movie standards. It stars Mimi Rogers (THE X-FILES) as a dedicated storm chaser who must fight against time to save her family from a series of super-powerful twisters that threaten to wreck much of middle America, yet the film fails to build on that premise at any point.

Due to budgetary constraints, no doubt, this film ends up more as a family drama than a disaster flick. Much is made of Rogers' obnoxious and stuck-up teenage daughter who keeps getting herself into peril, to the degree that I was hoping Rogers would simply cut her losses and forget about the dumb kid; no such luck.

Meanwhile, a few scenes show a twister wreaking havoc on some homesteads with the aid of some dodgy CGI. The two plots never gel, there's no plan on the part of the heroes, they just sort of amble from place to place and survive mainly through luck. It's all very boring and uninteresting; I expected something cheesier, and more entertaining, from this genre, but it's almost laid back in it's approach. Watch out for the great Michael Ironside in a cameo role.

I love disaster movies and this one is just that, a DISASTER! To be honest, its not all that bad if you're into b-rated movies. In this one the disasters i.e. tornadoes are really an afterthought. Its more about the drama. In summary, this liberal leaning movie is more about free spirited, high attitude kids and chics with no emotional control. Basically its a bad attempt as a drama cloaked in climate change. Watch it to kill time and to tick this one off of your apocalyptic movies list. Who knows, if you're into that type of stuff, you just may enjoy it.

About 30 years ago, eight-year-old Ryan Grantham (as "Little" April) and teenage sister Kristy Dinsmore (as "Little" Sean) are driving with their parents in Oklahoma during a terrible storm. A man foolishly stands on his truck and is struck down. They family stops and tries to save him, leading to even more tragedy… Presently, storm tracking professional Mimi Rogers (as "grown-up" April Saunders) specializes in the study of tornadoes and how to manage them safely. A single mom, Ms. Rogers has one daughter - pretty but bratty Elyse Levesque (as Dana). Ms. Levesque is rehearsing "Romeo and Juliet" at her high school when a storm hits, then blames her frantic mother for not arriving in time to provide comfort...

Somehow managing to refrain from slapping her ungrateful child, mother Rogers takes Levesque go to visit brother Robert Moloney (as "grown-up" Sean Saunders) in Seattle. Now a policeman, he lives with pregnant wife Tracy Trueman (as Molly). She's a good hostess. Rogers finds romance with local TV weatherman Andrew Airlie (as Travis Jones), an old college boyfriend. They have a secret. Levesque is attracted to new college boyfriend Ryan Kennedy (as Ryan Laswell), who likes his women willing and able - well, maybe not always willing. Naturally, a terrible "Storm Cell" threatens the entire cast...

This "Lifetime" TV-movie does not convince with the storm as a "monster" (complete with growling sound effects), which isn't used effectively with the surprise villain. You can see how it might have been better.

**** Storm Cell (3/19/08) Steven R. Monroe ~ Mimi Rogers, Elyse Levesque, Robert Moloney, Ryan Kennedy

This one hurt. And I'm usually a sucker for really bad Twister ripoffs made for cable. We've seen this plot before, twice. Estranged parent-child relationship, because said parent is too devoted to chasing that big storm. Parent is obsessed with storms because of a tragedy in their childhood. Parent predicts The Big One will hit right where estranged child lives. Child doesn't believe them. Child has has several tense emo moments with parent. Big tornado predictably hits, key characters survive, and everyone is happy. See "Devil Winds" and "Tornado Warning" for this by -the-numbers plot as well. Amusingly, they use global warming for an excuse to "move" Tornado Alley to the pacific northwest so they could shoot cheaply in Vancouver. As expected, the tornado effects are lackluster. The CGI crew just rendered the same tornado for every scene. I think what really got to me was the darkness of the movie. By that I do not mean a grim undertone to the story... but rather how literally dark the image was throughout. I spent a lot of time straining to make out various details like character faces and locales. The environment around a tornado can be very dark, but this was done throughout the movie. I can only recommend this to people who didn't think it could get any worse than Atomic Twister.

I'm a storm chaser, which means I'm usually avid for any sort of storm-disaster movie, no matter how stupid. But this one not only wasted the fifteen minutes I spent watching it, it's compelling me to waste yet more time writing this review. That's how strongly I feel about it.

In this day and age, with so many weather websites available, there's no excuse whatsoever for a writer not to go see what a tornado looks like on radar--clue: It's not a hurricane! And FYI, storms do not growl. Chasers and storm fans and TV watchers, oh my, do yourself a favor and rent Twister again instead.

first off the teenage girl in this movie was so irrating and annoying the tornado should have taken her. with that being said the rest of the movie wasn't bad to watch at all, now everyone needs to watch this with a grain of salt because after seeing movie's like twister, and night of the twisters. how much more innonvative and new can you get. Mimi Rogers does an okay job with it.. there is some excellent tornado footage, and some characters that are worth caring about in this movie. there is some neat newsroom , weather related stuff that was cool to look at,, didn't care so much for the love interest stuff between the characters,, mainly what I liked was about the chase and how is everyone gonna find a way to get to safety,, find a shelter,, lowest level in you're home.. not a bad TV movie, right about average.

First of all I had to view this movie at a friend's home because despite the fact that I emailed Lifetime several times, they did not provide the option for "Every Woman Counts" on my Charter on demand to select that movie although they have been advertising it for weeks.

It was interesting although the Science and Meterology data was faulty and at times just made up to suit the occasion. But nevertheless I enjoyed it. The story was engaging and the action scenes had something for everyone.

The acting was very good. Direction although problematic with the subject at hand, caused the story to unfold and flow very well.

Now I actually wanted to like this movie. I wasn't expecting much from Storm Cell, but no way was I expecting it to be this bad. It doesn't even look good, with wretched scenery, further disadvantaged by dull lighting, unfocused editing, awkward camera work and cheap tornado effects, even more cheapened by sound effects that are just as disturbing as those in the Gene Dietch Tom and Jerry cartoons. The story is predictable and utterly ridiculous, with scientific errors that make even the worst SyFy disaster movie credible in comparison(and their disaster movies are riddled with those), the script is unnatural in both dialogue and the delivery of it and cheesy to the point you get toothache from gritting your teeth and the characters are either annoying or uninteresting. The acting is also wooden, with Mimi Rogers looking uncomfortable with her hard-edged persona here coming across as forced. Overall, a terrible movie, not in about two months now have I been so angry watching a movie. People will say that they get novelty value, but most assets are so badly done and inexcusably that I couldn't find myself entertained. 0/10 Bethany Cox

Actually, I found the movie quite interesting. It was exciting, thrilling and while not quite factual, it kept my attention. Sure it was not real, no sci-fi movies are and their not meant to be. The story is about an adult women who experienced a life changing tragedy as a very young girl that killed both her parents and now she feel compelled to try and help others who could be caught in a life changing event in today's world. Forecasters today are like fortune tellers. Always predicting some type of weather that will happen but never able to accurately predict where it will happen. They say there is a fifty percent chance of rain which means it may rain or it may not. And they forecast that it may rain in your area but what they don't tell you is how big of an area they are referring to. They really tell us a lot. This movie is full of advanced wizardry and special computer effects which provide the viewer with a more real life view of what forecasters wish technology would provide them instead of having to guess at raw data readings when predicting the weather. I lived in Florida for the past 19 years where forecasters claimed we should prepare for the worst during hurricane season. The retailers loved it as we would always run out and spend our money buying hurricane supplies only to have the storm go else where. Sorry people, but this is not a reality show nor is it supposed to accurate show what forecasters really do. Its science fiction drama meant to keep people interested in the fake movie plot and now that I've recorded it, I intend to keep it for future viewing. The water spout that formed on the lake which turned into a tornado was especially interesting, kind of reminders me of Andrew back in 92. Been there, done that.

13-year-old April and 8-year-old Sean lose their parents in an Oklahoma tornado. At least the parents were trying to save someone's life.

Thirty years later, April is a published author and a professor at River Point University, supposedly in Oklahoma, since her daughter Dana is in high school in Wyattsville, Oklahoma. She is known as "Tornado Lady" because she is a storm chaser, and she lectures on how global warming has made the planet's weather more violent.

April takes Lew, a student newspaper reporter, out on one of her adventures. Little does she know that this one will involve her daughter Dana, who is rehearsing "Romeo and Juliet" at her high school.

What happens when April and Dana meet is truly shocking.

Sean is the sheriff of Shiloh Hills, outside Seattle. His wife Molly is pregnant, and she invites April and Dana to visit. Dana is basically a good kid, but she has an attitude and doesn't want to go. April persuades Dana to come along by pointing out that Garfield College has a great drama program and Dana might want to go there.

The last thing Dana wants is for this to be yet another of her mother's adventures. But it just so happens that the Seattle area is about to get hit with the worst storm systems in its history. Unbelievable hail, tornadoes like the area has never seen. Oh, by the way, April went to college with Travis, a TV meteorologist in Seattle.

Dana is constantly arguing with her mom, but she does have some fun, as it turns out. While in Washington she meets Ryan, the bad-boy son of a local developer who is being harassed because he doesn't build houses up to code. (The father is being harassed for his business practices; the son for his overall behavior.)

Sean and April don't get along, because April doesn't think Sean is grieving enough for the parents they lost thirty years ago, and because Sean left Oklahoma. He is not affected in the least when he sees a mother of a young boy who has died--at least not enough for her.

There is occasional excitement, especially toward the end, and it's not all because of the tornadoes. Even at the end, though, the dialogue leaves something to be desired.

Elyse Levesque is beautiful and has her moments (no, playing Juliet is not one of them), but I don't think anyone will win awards for this movie. Mimi Rogers is pretty for her age.

The visual effects are impressive for about five seconds, and for a little longer in the final scenes. I guess the budget was limited.

But for scientific accuracy this movie falls short. Is a storm system that produces tornadoes supposed to resembled a hurricane in satellite photos? Not unless it was a hurricane to begin with. This one seems to have come in from Canada, and even if it formed over water, hurricanes don't form off Seattle. Yes, I know, global warming. Weather is supposed to have gone crazy.

Also, Travis' weather maps don't make sense. I've been looking at how warm fronts and cold fronts are supposed to be drawn. If the fronts are depicted accurately, this is wacky weather. Besides, I thought cold fronts were supposed to be blue and warm fronts red, not the other say round. But then these fronts aren't behaving how they're supposed to.

Is it worth seeing? Well, I had a good enough time.

When I realised it was yet another movie with yet another ill-mannered and ungrateful teen who needed a good slap, then I gave up. It was clearly low budget, and despite all the technical jargon dialogue, I knew it was going to end up a predictable story.

Why must scriptwriters make all teens so insolent and downright rude to their parents ? Had I spoken to my Mum or Dad like this (well, I wouldn't I was raised to be polite) I would have been given the almighty telling off, but movie parents end up practically saying 'sorry' to their own offspring ! ridiculous.

I was given the chance to sit down to watch the 2008 movie "Storm Cell" here in 2021. And since it was a movie that I hadn't already seen before, of course I took the time to sit down to watch it.

Now, with this being a natural disaster movie, I must admit that the movie could go either way; either be just another one of those lousy special effect disaster movies that is a disaster in itself, or it could actually prove to be an entertaining movie with proper special effects. And with the likes of Mimi Rogers and Michael Ironside on the cast list, I must admit that I had hopes for "Storm Cell".

Turns out that "Storm Cell", as written by writers Michael Konyves and Graham Ludlow just didn't have what it took to be a proper disaster movie. It wasn't a terrible movie, so I wouldn't categorize it in that particular genre of disaster movies that are so bad that they become terrible. However, the storyline told in "Storm Cell" was just horribly bland, and I never really got fully submerged and drawn into that particular storyline.

The movie was less than mediocre in terms of being entertaining, but at least it had heart and spirit, and that counted for something. Ultimately, though, then the lack of an interesting storyline just killed the movie off for me.

Visually then "Storm Cell" didn't really impress. The special effects were good enough, I suppose, albeit bordering on being inadequate at times, though. If you sit down to watch the 2008 movie "Storm Cell" and expect to be blown away - pardon the pun - by a display of amazing CGI and special effects, then you will find yourself sorely disappointed.

The acting in "Storm Cell" was adequate, although the character gallery was about as interesting as a field overgrown by weeds. The characters in the movie were rather bland and pointless, actually. Most of them didn't even display proper motivation, and the dialogue wasn't really all that impressive either, so that didn't help much.

Director Steven R. Monroe didn't manage to huff and puff enough to make a lasting impression with "Storm Cell", and it was a movie that had managed to elude my radar, and it is a movie that will just as quietly fade into oblivion.

My rating of "Storm Cell" lands on a mere three out of ten stars. There are far better disaster movies out there.

The actor's cell their soul-making this movie. Mimi Rogers. Playing April overacts (almost like a silent movie) as a storm chasing global warming fanatic. It is enough to give storm chasers a bad name. April has stormy eyes that flash of the sound of lies.

Sometimes this movie can be hail.

Elyse Levesque gets to play Dana the drama queen. Her character needs to be eaten by a crocodile, oops, wrong movie, a twister of fate.

Michael Ironside with over 250 credits gets to play James the evil building developer who wants to make a buck at everyone's expense.

We have to listen to dramatic trauma music all through the movie. It may be worth it to turn the sound off and use "closed caption".

Sit back and watch while eating your funnel cake.

But Mimi Rogers is usual awesome. Shame about everything else