By Geno McGahee
When you go into a movie with the name “METAL TORNADO,” you shouldn’t expect anything great. I actually expected a terrible movie, but it was much better than anticipated. The story is absurd, the acting is over the top, the CGI is rather poor, but it still manages to be a decent watch. Lou Diamond Phillips stars in this and he is an actor that just hasn’t made it to the level that he probably should have. I don’t know why he has to make movies like METAL TORNADO now, but at least he’s still getting work and making the most of it. I gave him an A for effort on this one.
Michael Edwards (Phillips), Greg (Frank Schorpion) and Jonathan Kane (Greg Evigan) are ready to solve the energy crisis with their new system, but there is a problem that Kane is refusing to address. A design flaw led to a magnetic vortex that begins absorbing everything metal and turns into the metal tornado in the title. Anything metal begins to become part of this monster and Kane refuses to admit that his system had anything to do with it. Michael is the only voice of reason as he attempts to stop it. Unfortunately, he is ignored and Kane unleashes his system on France next and the same problem arises. Now there are two metal tornados.
Concern for his girlfriend, Rebecca (Nicole De Doer) and son, Nick (Stephen MacDonald), makes it personal for Michael and he goes head to head with his boss to stop the killer tornado. There’s plenty of destruction and it’s all CGI and not very good CGI, but I was able to overlook it and still enjoy the film and performances. One of the better moments of the film was when an attractive girl is pulled over by cop and she cries her way out of a ticket where she was going 40 miles over the speed limit. The officer lets her go but the justice that was the metal tornado took her and the car.
The solution that the scientists come up with is to hit the metal tornado with a bomb. OK, I’ll buy it. I’m good with shooting bombs into tornados and you know what? It worked. The people rejoice and the made for TV, bad CGI, overacted disaster movie ends on a strange note. Michael raises a glass of wine and the credits roll. It was almost too mellow of a moment. After the rollercoaster ride, I figured that we would end with a hint of more destruction, or it would end with the good guys cradling each other after the terrible event, but we went beyond the event to a calm moment and just stayed there. It went out like a lamb.
METAL TORNADO is not a bad film. Lou Diamond Phillips gives a great performance, despite the lackluster material. Realistically, the cast was very good overall. That is part of the reason why this film that was sure to be crap turned out to be decent. It’s not a film that you need to see, but if you are in the mood for a disaster movie, you could do worse.
Rating: 5.5/10
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