The DVD sleeve promises an ‘edge-of the-seat disaster thriller’. Whoever wrote that should be sacked. In a small town boring people go about their boring business. For a whole hour nothing happens. Then it rains and they go underground and the camera shakes to indicate a tornado off-screen. Then they emerge to sort through debris. The end. Even the trailer can’t make it look interesting. It’s foot-through-the-screen awful.
The advertising all points to a gritty disaster movie but what you actually get is a small community drama with loads of family tensions and every social issue going on including abortion rights, homophobia, illegal immigration, racism, disability, single parenting...it goes on and a big tornado then pops along and makes nearly everyone have a rethink about their prejudices. The tornado has a brief visit in the narrative after which the film refocuses itself onto the plight of extreme weather victims in the USA. Overall this crams so much and gives none of the issues any weight or significance leaving the film a rambling jaunt of about two hours. Dull.