The Final Storm (2010) User Reviews (16)

Better then the crap Syfy Channel makes

[je1970 · 5/10 · 20 November 2010]

While this movie will not win any academy awards, it was certainly much better produced and acted then 99% of the Syfy produced movies scifi fans such as myself typically end up enduring, etc. I would give it a 5-6 as a vote. The plot summary appearing on IMDb is not at all accurate (the son never disappears amongst other things, but Luke Perry does play a mysterious stranger with a hidden and menacing past which threatens the family amidst the turmoil of the general disaster).

The actors all give reasonable performances, they are not wooden or overacting in the manner typical of smaller budget productions. All three principals - Lauren Holly (very attractive), Steve Bacic and Luke Perry were decent.

However, one should be aware that this is not a slam bang action flick with all sorts of special effects, battles, etc. There is none of that in this movie. The movie is about a small family living in a rural area against the backdrop of something cataclysmic having occurred, but the hows and whats of that are never really delved into - rather the focal point of the story is how they are coping, the mysteries surrounding a stranger who has wandered onto their property, etc.

I would deem the movie to be more of a suspense/thriller against a quasi sci-fi backdrop.

On a plus note, it did keep our attention start to finish, and we were not hooting and hollering at grade F special effects and cheesy acting.

On a negative note, the ending was somewhat of a mystery to us. We have some theories, but you are better off to watch the movie and come up with your own.

I think overall this is the sort of movie actors do to keep paying the bills, but at least they gave it a decent go, and made the 90 minutes of the movie respectable rather then terrible.

Better than sleeping pills, but takes effect more slowly

[BuunDawg · 5/10 · 13 February 2011]

I saw this movie last night on cable TV (FIOS, actually) and only kept watching it because I recognized a few of the actors. After reading the other reviews and thinking it through myself, I can offer you a synthesized explanation for the plot elements and storyline: 1) Almost everybody disappears from the local community - but not a few ruffians in town.

2) There is evidence they disappeared left quickly (half-eaten cookie & coffee in the police station at the dispatcher's seat) 3) It happened during a big storm - which adds to the mystery. Family dog disappeared (doesn't come back) during storm. Power is out, house is cold. After several days, food is low forcing trip to (semi) deserted local town for food - allowing for evidence of disappearance to be seen and for ruffians to attack. Storyline family and Luke Perry flee town after Luke helps defend husband from ruffians.

4) Luke Perry originally showed up at (the storyline family's) farm during the storm and gets invited (mostly by wife) to stay with our storyline family after it's over.

5) The husband of the family, Steve Bacic, may or may not be the best husband (some rude drinking).

7) Lauren Holly (the wife) may or may not be a semi-bored, randy farm wife who's flattered by the attention from Luke at more than one point.

8) In the TV version I saw, we get to see some cleavage and she's in her panties in the bathroom with Luke at one point. And while refilling the tub for Luke, his junk may have been visible to her, but she's not shy about staying there to talk.

9) If you search online, you'll find out that a side-view of her breast was in the DVD version (while Lauren and hubby were doing it) in one scene.

10) Luke has a Bible verse tattoo on his arm and mumbles Bible talk from time to time.

11) Later on, we find out that Luke killed people at that farmhouse 20 years before (his father being one) - at the time, it was his family's house.

12) We get a few clues during the movie that this might be the end of the world.

13) Luke desires Holly and makes a violent play for her - just as the husband comes back from a trip to town (injured and in a weakened state).

14) Family son rescues father from Luke's attempted hanging, which sets in motion final battle scene where Luke is killed.

15) Stars vanish from night sky - world ends.

OK, here's my synthesized storyline for you: Luke is The Prodigal Son who comes home. The family is his symbolic family and he's got Oedipal lust for the wife. The wife is sort of randy and might be unfaithful in her heart (just like mankind is unfaithful in our hearts to God, so too might she be to her husband).

So then, Luke is the sin of man, let loose in real form to illustrate that at the end of the world, only those whose hearts are right with God get raptured.

The Rapture is why most people disappeared, leaving ruffians in town and a sin-tinged farm family for the plot.

The husband has sin because of booze and attitude, the kid because he's a mouth-off, the wife because she accepts intimate flattery from Luke.

Luke is sin personified and when the family overcomes him (by resisting and fighting back), the world ends for them because they too are raptured.

The movie is better than sleeping pills because it's non-chemical. But the effect is the same: you sleep well afterward.

There are no hidden plot messages or twists to think about after it's over, so your mind switches right to sleep mode and you get a nice rest.

For late night TV fare, I'd give it a 5 (of 10)

Sort of anti-climatic

[paul_haakonsen · 4/10 · 8 June 2010]

This movie was sort of a deviance from Uwe Bolls usual action-packed movies. Now, I am not saying that this is a bad movie. It just was building up suspense for something grand, but it never delivered.

The movie in itself is fairly average, there are some nice scenes, and a constant underlying sense of dread throughout the movie. But somehow the movie never really reaches a climax. It never peaks, and just then it is all over.

The story was sort of nice, and had sort of a semi-supernatural thing going on, but then suddenly turned in another direction. And then you just sat there and wondered why. That really didn't work all that well for the storyline.

As for the cast and their acting. Well nothing wrong here. Lots of nice actors and actresses, and they all put on good performances. The cast really bore the movie, and kept it afloat.

Now, I am not one to bad-mouth Uwe Boll's movies, and I like his previous work. I just think this one didn't quite make it up to there. But still, it is not a bad movie. Quite adequate for a thriller.

There are many better thrillers out there, but give this one a chance. You might actually just like it.

What in the heck was that?!?

[innocuous · 2/10 · 26 April 2010]

I gave this film an extra star because the camera didn't go rolling down a hill unexpectedly, there's a minimum of shaky cam work (too expensive for Boll?), and you can hear what everyone is saying. As far as plot, story, or acting, I'd give it one star (the IMDb minimum).

I won't even try to explain the story. You would just laugh.

As far as other issues of interest...er...hm...well, there are none. As usual, Boll manages to sneak in just one short scene to justify an "R" rating. (It's a bit of Lauren Holly in bed, but it's completely irrelevant to the story. Fortunately, Boll gets it out of the way in the first five minutes. You can go on watching the rest of the movie with confidence that you won't see anything nearly as exciting again.)

As we're all tired of pointing out, there are fresh new directors out there who could use a little money to get a start on films with imagination. It's a sin and a shame that Boll still gets backers for turkeys like this.

Not recommended.

The apocalypse has never been so boring

[Sarasilien · 3/10 · 27 January 2011]

This movie was good enough that I watched it from beginning to end, and bad enough that I watched at least half of it at double-speed. The acting, dialog, and production values were about what you'd expect from a CW TV series. The plot, of which there's not a lot, is driven by two main questions: Is this the End of the World? Is the polite, bible-quoting, tattooed stranger a good guy or a bad guy? Both questions are answered in the last five minutes or so of the film, but the answer to one makes the answer to the other completely irrelevant. This leaves the viewer with a third question: Huh?

Here are the spoilers:

First, Silas (the mysterious stranger) turns out to be a homicidal maniac. Second, the world ends. Poof!

Given the end of the world, the true nature of the Silas subplot is revealed: it's 50 minutes of filler. The Silas subplot casts no light on why the world is ending or on how people can or should reconcile themselves to the end or to death. In other words, this movie is a complete waste of time.

Question: I am guessing that everybody except Silas, the family, and the thugs in town disappeared because they were vacuumed up to heaven in the Rapture. (Not many Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, or atheists in town, I gather.) Was there something evil about the Grady family that kept them from being swept up by the Holy Broom of Salvation?

2 different stories

[kgribz · 4/10 · 19 August 2020]

There's the main plot about "the stranger" and then there's the apocalypse plot. Which basically gets completely forgotten about. Pick one, because they clearly couldn't manage two.

arrogant in the face of audience reaction

[Sergao88 · 1/10 · 23 April 2010]

There's no real point in discussing the movie, if that's what it is. Just because you see moving images when you press play doesn't mean it's a film. There's money here, you can tell, which makes it even worse. So many daring, imaginative filmmakers out there would love to have had this budget. But no, Boll is given yet another project to insult moviegoers. When Boll makes personal appearances he does get crowds, people just love to have their photo taken with him and get his autograph. I'm personally offended by this practice in that it only encourages him. Truly bad movie making should not be praised or encouraged. There are bad films out there that are fun, we appreciate the effort, especially if the filmmaker was sincere but fell short. But this is just another example of a man's insistence on his talent, confident in his abilities, arrogant in the face of audience reaction, time after time. I see in the trivia he blames the script. OK. This mess should come with a manual and some sort of medication. Boll is making Zombie Massacre due out in 2010. May God Have Mercy On Our Souls

If you must see this movie, do yourself a favor and wait until it's in the bargain bin at the video store. If there's any justice in the film industry, one of the main actors will be there to rent it to you.

Boll strikes again (won't SOMEBODY stop this idiot?)

[kbynem-403-968721 · 3/10 · 6 July 2012]

Other reviewers have made their case. I just wanted to reiterate the point that this dross isn't worth anyone's time. If I had known when I started watching this was one of Boll's films (and, yes, I use the term very loosely in this case), I would not have bothered to sit through it.

The reviewer "Innocuous" wrote: I won't even try to explain the story. You would just laugh.

As far as other issues of interest...er...hm...well, there are none. As usual, Boll manages to sneak in just one short scene to justify an "R" rating. (It's a bit of Lauren Holly in bed, but it's completely irrelevant to the story.

As we're all tired of pointing out, there are fresh new directors out there who could use a little money to get a start on films with imagination. It's a sin and a shame that Boll still gets backers for turkeys like this.

I cannot top that review. Stay away. For post-apocalyptic movies, you're better off with "Hardware" or even the first "Mad Max".

Cheap end-of-the-world thriller

[Leofwine_draca · 3/10 · 24 May 2016]

THE FINAL STORM is a cheap, end of the world thriller from German director Uwe Boll. This one was made in Canada and features a fiery DVD cover promising all sorts of apocalyptic action. Unsurprisingly, it never delivers on that promise.

Instead, this turns out to be a straightforward (read: predictable) three hander about a married couple and their kid holed up in their dingy farmhouse. One day a mysterious stranger comes along and proceeds to turn their lives upside down. What follows is completely without merit; this kind of cheap situation has been done to death in the past and Boll offers absolutely nothing new to the scenario. A film set in a single location with few actors needs really good writing and direction to make it work, and you just don't get it here.

Instead what we do get are a bunch of has-been actors going through the motions. Former pretty boy Luke Perry plays the mysterious stranger and does a frankly poor job of it. Lauren Holly's appearances in mainstream Hollywood films are long in the past. And main actor Steve Bacic is one of those 'never was' guys, devoid of charisma to boot. In all, THE FINAL STORM is a waste of time.

Had me up until the end, then I have NO idea what happened!

[Nyssareen_77 · 3/10 · 24 November 2021]

This movie was actually decently interesting, right up until the last 10 minutes or so. In fact, if I hadn't gone in knowing it was an Uwe Boll movie, I wouldn't have had any idea because it was pretty low-key. It was an end of the world type with definite religious overtones, but in the end, it just got WEIRD! I wouldn't say it went off the rails so much as it was going in a certain direction, veered off course, then overcorrected so badly that it drove itself off a cliff! The ending was so completely weird, I can't even explain what happened, other than total insanity! I would have happily given this movie a 6/10 if the ending didn't confuse and annoy me so much that it lost 3 full points. Save yourself the confusion and just watch the Left Behind movies, at least they follow the same plot from start to finish!

Don't be so fast to jump on the IBMD bandwagon..

[Indifferent_Observer · 7/10 · 4 September 2011]

I admit that I was never a big Uwe Boll fan, but his newer stuff is starting to grow on me and this movie really isn't that bad. Its pretty good actually. And in his last few films his style has matured abit so it appears that Uwe Boll is finally growing as a writer/director. The film has a nice amateur feel to it and it sticks to what it is, filming most of the conte

OK, the movie. A mysterious, but hospitable stranger looking for a little "Shelter from the storm" is taken in by a family. The hospitable charismatic stranger starts make the family a little unnerved with his pushy belief system.

The movie starts off a slow burn, but builds. You don't have to agree with anyone's view points in the movie. If you ignore the message you feel the film is giving you can really enjoy it. I never hated a movie over subliminal film messages be it, political , religious or whatever. I just let myself be entertained because after all, "Its just a movie".

ATHIEST ALERT:

If your a crabby athiest who looks down on and can't live with the fact that there are other people with other belief systems you probably won't like this because it requires you to turn your beliefs off for an hour and half and have an open mind. I am an athiest, but tolerant of these kind of movies because there almost like Sci-Fi to me(I love Sci-Fi) Oh, that and the fact that its a movie only not a political/religious ideology.

I gave it 6/10 and it deserves it. I wouldn't run out and buy it for $15, but if you catch it on cable late one night, or in the $3.99 or under bargain bin give it a shot.

It would definitely be nice on a dark rainy night :)

Poor editing low energy movie

[jvankausa · 3/10 · 29 July 2023]

You can see the overhead microphone in 2 scenes. Really?! Why the following decided not to edit those images? It kind of destroys the fantasy of believing.

That for the technical portion.

The rest of the movie is very low energy, borderline boring. Not a horror nor a sci-fi movie as promoted.

The premise of the world going crazy started the movie, shifting to a family of 3 living in a ranch away from the city.

During a storm, a lost guy appears at the property and he was assisted by the family.

The relationship between the family and the stranger is basically the main theme of these movie.

This movie should be on Lifetime.

[fcharlie · 1/10 · 28 September 2013]

If there is spoiler in here, I'm sorry, but, This the first movie I have ever reviewed on IMDb. IMDb is my goto place for information on movies that have been released.

I am a man. My wife picked this movie. This type of movie is what you would expect from Lifetime. Everything men do in this movie is not what men would do in real life.

This is not in order, but, that is the least of the problems.

1. The gang in the town attacks the family and no one has a gun. If there were a catastrophe like this, I would get every gun I could find and as much ammunition as I could carry. The only time you have too much is if you're on fire or you fall into deep water.

Dad's truck runs out of gas. I never forget to look at the gas gauge before I drive somewhere.

He abandons the truck when it runs out of gas and leaves the lights on.

When he gets back home, he leaves the front door ope.

Mom tells the boy to go up stairs after the barn is on fire. I think if there is a danger of fire, don't be upstairs.

Dad runs Silas off, but does not watch him go out of sight.

He finally gets a gun. A lever action. And some bullets.

These people are the least likely to survive an total catastrophe. On Lifetime this is a winner.

Cute little Canadian movie

[mbkfox · 6/10 · 23 February 2016]

Nothing particularly terribly awful about this film. After going through all of Luke Perry's movies until this one, The Final Storm seems par for the course for a cheap film. Small hometown cast and location and a kooky story to keep things going.

Luke Perry departs a bit from his Dylan persona to bring out his southern baptist evil bible thumping character that he's toyed with on occasion. He does it believably, that's a testament (no pun intended) to his superb and experienced acting skills. The other main characters were all played well, too. The story didn't blow me away like a big budgeter would. Though you can't expect that it should, I don't look at the movie's production price before watching, so I treat all movies equally and they usually cost the consumer equal amounts so it would be fair to stack this movie against Batman, The Godfather, Men in Black, whatever. So, up against those guys, this movie is cheap and is not as much of a thrilling 90 minutes. But for what it is, it's fun, it keeps you guessing, and it has you rooting at the right moments.

I almost stopped watching after the first minute because Luke Perry's been in so many movies about storms, I thought this must have been one I'd already seen. Turns out, nope, here came yet another storm film from the former heartthrob.

Lots of question remain unanswered after the film's ending, which is annoying, most movies wrap 99% of their story up at Fin time, but the conclusion is satisfactory enough to say, "Cool, that was fun," and, of course, it leaves you wanting more, especially more answers!

If you could watch any movie in the world I wouldn't tell you to bother with this one. But if for some reason you had it in your hand and were wondering if it should be played, I wouldn't be compelled to stop you. Grab some popcorn and enjoy, especially on a stormy night!

Started off well but...

[ladymidath · 10 September 2011]

I was flicking through channels one Sunday afternoon when I came across The Final Storm and decided to give it a look. Married couple, Tom and Gillian Grady and their son Graham live on an isolated farm. Gillian and Graham are watching the news on television which is filled with images of riots and chaos due to freak storms and the breakdown of order due to global upheaval. During the night in the middle of a vicious storm, a stranger turns up on their doorstep, hurt and seemingly disorientated. Okay, so what went wrong. It started off quite promising, bleak atmospheric and with a sense of impending doom. The isolated settings worked and the music really helped set the mood. Luke Perry was quite good as Silas and Steve Bacic as Tom and Lauren Holly as Gillian where just fine. But it was the actual storyline that I had problems with. First of all the story didn't seem to know whether it was a thriller, a supernatural or an end of the world movie. It started off with a eco end of the world scenario, then became a biblical end of the world story, then became a psychological thriller. Then back to end of the world story again. Uwe Boll should have picked one theme and stuck to it. The trouble was that none of the themes were truly explored. Not the thriller, or the end of world. There were some good moments, the trip to their neighbours to discover that they had disappeared and the deserted town people only with a few crazies. Once again, it was never explained why everyone was gone except for a handful of men. If the town had been evacuated, why did they stay? Why where the Gradys not evacuated as well if that was the case. There are too many plot points left dangling and the story could have been better without the predictable dangerous stranger storyline. It should have concentrated more on the apocalyptic aspects of the movie. It was a okay film that if handled differently, could have been great.

The Wife Was Awful

[Mehki_Girl · 17 February 2024]

Man o' man every time the wife opened her mouth I was yelling at my tv.

Everything her husband said she disappeared, didn't believe, or doubted and never had his back. Every single time... And for a stranger no less.

Besides being in the bathroom while a stranger is bathing, who should have been long gone, when her injured husband is outside in danger, which we know because fires were started, so it's either Silas or the men from town, she's no where to be found! Unbelievable!

When she asked her husband where would Silas go, I wanted to throw my shoes at the TV. Silas is a grown man! Not your problem. Not your husband's. You have a kid to think about! Who the hell cares where Silas has to go as long as he's gone! WTH?

She was so poorly written, she was an awful wife and mother and dumb to boot.

The movie made no sense even as an allegory. I read the terrible reviews, but they're was just enough they're to keep me watching.

So what was Silas? A fallen angel? A prophet? The family gets over it's differences only to be snuffed our by god?

My the end, you don't even care. Could have been so much more even on a limited budget, but instead we get this schlock! Until kids. And unfaithful wives. And men that take way to long to getting around to protecting his family.