Movie review By Susan Sackett
Hard Rain (Paramount; starring Christian Slater, Morgan Freeman, Randy Quaid and Minnie Driver; directed by Mikael Salomon; Rated R)
Hot, or perhaps wet, on the heels of Titanic comes another water-logged movie, with the cast spending most of their time waist-deep (or higher) in water. Hard Rain, however, has none of the finesse of Titanic (even while ripping off scenes from that film, such as the lead character trapped in a jail while the water rises, and another handcuffed in a similar situation).
Hard Rain is a basic action/SFX pic with a thin thread of a storyline. A Midwest town is pelted by non-stop rain, the damn dam bursts, and – surprise – there’s a really horrific flood. Most of the town has been evacuated, but the Sheriff and a few stragglers are left to continue the evacuation. The main story involves Christian Slater as a Brinks guard trying to protect $3 million in cash from would-be robbers. Slater and thieves (led by Morgan Freeman in one of the better acting jobs in the film) slog it out from scene to scene, fighting rising water, dodging bullets (no firearms are affected by the seemingly oceans of water) and bad scripting.
Characters are about as one-dimensional as they come. Director Salomon shot the entire film in the dark for that ever-popular noirish look, and his fast cuts and extremely tight close-ups frequently make it difficult to distinguish action and characters. The film was shot mostly on a soundstage built from an aircraft hangar, enclosing a 30,000 gallon tank.
It’s okay if you crave this sort of thing, and in THX, the sound effects are superb. But at $7.00 a ticket, you’ll really get soaked if you see this one.
Two owls.