Into the Storm

It's "Twister" on steroids!

That's what my buddy Scott would say, and he'd be right. Warner Bros. new bad weather movie is a combination of every pop culture fad all twisted up into a relatively satisfying spectacle that aims to thrill and make you giggle at the same time.

"Into the Storm" is a found-footage hybrid film that inserts the audience directly into the eye of the storm (quite literally) by allowing its characters to be the ones telling the story via cellphone, cameras, etc. The threadbare story concerns two sets of characters: One is a single dad (Richard Armitrage in full poor-man's Hugh Jackman-mode) who is grumbly about the fact that the high school where he is Vice Principal might have to cancel their graduation due to an incoming monster storm. His sons Donnie (Max Deacon) and Trey (Nathan Kress) aren't too happy with dad, who has been miserable since their mother passed away.

Donnie, meanwhile, is pining away for school hottie Kaitlyn (Alycia Debnam Carey) who conveniently has to reshoot some footage for a project she needs to turn in. Well whaddya know but that Donnie is kind of an expert at all that, and offers to help the object of his affection out. The fact that they have to go to an old abandoned chemical facility is not lost on us. (Although never fully utilized to its potential.) Trey, on the other hand, is just your usual buffoon who enjoys filming his fellow students and tormenting his brother.

The other set of characters we will follow consist of a group of Tornado Chasers led by the obsessive Pete (Matt Walsh), who is desperate to get some decent footage before his funding gets taken away. Allison (Sarah Wayne Callies) is along for the ride as the brains behind finding good weather systems to seek out for potential wild weather footage.

These two sets of characters will cross paths on graduation day as a terrifying multiple weather system invades their area causing a number of tornadoes that they will repeatedly have to outrun. While this is a fairly simple premise and the 89 minute running time doesn't lend itself to much complexity, writer John Swetnam (who also wrote "Step Up All In" which opens the same day) and director Stephen Quale (director of "Final Destination 5" and assistant director of "Avatar") give the film enough of a heartbeat that keeps audiences invested in the characters. I have to give them credit for spending a good 20-25 minutes at the outset of the film establishing characters that we actually like and giving them all backstories and story-arcs. Again, there is nothing shockingly fresh here, but it's a valiant effort to give weight to what is essentially a disaster movie for the digital age.

As characters scramble to evade softball-sized hail and multiple tornadoes (some of which involve fire), the audience is witness to some of the best special effects in years. More often than not will you wonder how they did what they did. The good news is that the intensity this creates onscreen allows for a genuine amount of suspense and white-knuckle terror. Whether people are trapped in a school hallway as a tornado touches down just feet away, or two young teens are trapped under a building quickly filling up with water, this film is certainly electrifying and absolutely accomplishes what it sets out to do.

The cast is fairly believable, with just a few line deliveries that will make you chuckle. Callies ("The Walking Dead") is a great heroine in the Helen Hunt /"Twister" mode and Armitrage makes for a hunky DILF hero. The kids are decent actors as well, which allows for believability all around rather than having the audience hope that a few of them get sucked up like Dorothy Gale.

The film also lets the characters have some levity - most of which come from two redneck goofballs (Kyle David and Jon Reep) desperate to be YouTube stars that go chasing the storm on their own. Not to mention there is a silly -- but pretty damn cool -- moment when one character is witness to something no human eye has ever seen. That's all I'll say.

All in all, "Into the Storm" is a highly entertaining ride that begs to be seen on the big screen. The enormity of the images and the rumbling of the masterful sound are musts to be experienced in a theatre. So if you are at all curious about this latest disaster cum found footage tale, it's worth plunking down $15 to enjoy the ride.