2.5 stars (out of 5)
A windy guilty pleasure, director Steven (Final Destination 5) Quale’s entertaining if cliché-ridden FX extravaganza borrows from ‘70s Disaster Movies and one of the original CG epics, Twister (from back in 1996), and even adds character we sort of care about… nah, just kidding!
Constructed as a mockumentary, or at least a collection of raw footage from various sources stitched together by someone for some reason (who cares?), this has three groups of sketchy sorts crossing paths as unprecedentedly huge, destructive and spectacular tornadoes hit the fictional town of Silverton, USA. There’s a bunch of camera guys and storm chasers led by Pete (Matt Walsh) and including Dr Alison (Sarah Wayne Callies from TV’s The Walking Dead); a pair of amateur daredevils, Donk and Reevis (Kyle Davis and Jon Reep), longing for YouTube fame and begging to get blasted to Hell; and the local school’s vice principal Gary (Richard Armitage), an uptight widower alienated from his sons Trey (Nathan Kress) and Donnie (Max Deacon). As Alison, Pete and Co pursue freak weather patterns and the rednecks loon around, the local graduation ceremony is being filmed by Trey and endless mobile phones, but when the first hurricane strikes, and Gary learns that Donnie has sneaked off to film a job or college (or something) application video for a chick (Alycia Debnam Carey as Kaitlyn) he adores, the race is on to find the kids before an even bigger one strikes. And Gary and Trey wind up in ‘The Tank’ with Alison and the boys as the FX hit overdrive, with twisters sucking up explosions and bursting into flame, mass animated devastation captured with great excitement by all, and some wonderfully dumb scripting (just how many times can the characters ask each other, “Are you getting this???”).
With the mock-doco aspect adding little except, perhaps, claims that the filmmakers ripped off Cloverfield, this shamelessly enjoyable gust of blockbuster silliness is great, embarrassing fun, although you’ll probably hate yourself in the morning. And yes, that whooshing noise is the sound of your brain blowing out your ears.
I Wake Up Screening 