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"Director: Steven Quale; Screenwriter: John Swetnam; Starring: Richard Armitage, Sarah Wayne Callies, Matt Walsh, Max Deacon, Nathan Kress, Alycia Debnam Carey, Jeremy Sumpter; Running time: 89 mins; Certificate: 12A  The disaster movie has dazzled us with the biggest A-list talent (see Irwin Allen&amp;#039;s Towering Inferno) and cutting edge CGI effects (Twister), so how best to reinvent a genre that&amp;#039;s been reinterpreted from nearly every conceivable angle? Steven Quale&amp;#039;s Into the Storm takes a leaf out of Cloverfield&amp;#039;s book and anchors its story in the found footage aesthetic that&amp;#039;s become a staple of 21st century cinema. Here the villain isn&amp;#039;t a city-levelling monster, instead the film&amp;#039;s protagonists battle an epic storm that tears through a small American town on the day of high school graduation. Richard Armitage leads the cast as school vice principle Gary, who must fight through the elements to rescue his son Donnie (Max Deacon), a senior AWOL with Kaitlyn (Alycia Debnam Carey) in a bid to finish her video project. Donnie&amp;#039;s camera brings a personal perspective to the story, with events also unfolding through the lens of documentary makers chasing a storm (led by Veep&amp;#039;s Matt Walsh and The Walking Dead&amp;#039;s Sarah Wayne Callies) and a pair of rednecks hoping to capture the carnage on cellphones and become YouTube stars. Into the Storm ticks off pretty much every disaster movie clich\u00C3\u00A9 in the book (races against time to free a trapped love one, cowardly individuals making courageous sacrifices, etc), but there&amp;#039;s still plenty to like about this Twister-on-steroids take on the genre.  Drector Quale doesn&amp;#039;t have the budget to match the city-obliterating destruction of a Man of Steel or Transformers, but in pulling the action down to ground level he&amp;#039;s at least able to keep the viewer invested in the unfolding story, even if the characters aren&amp;#039;t written with any great depth. This lack of sharply-defined characters is the film&amp;#039;s real Achilles heel. Amateur storm chasers Reevis and Donk grate on the nerves quickly, as does Donnie&amp;#039;s younger brother Trey (Nathan Kress sporting a Justin Bieber circa 2011 pudding bowl haircut).  Everything whizzes by at a brisk 89 minutes and thanks to some well-marshalled tornado sequences and air-ringing Dolby Atmos sound it&amp;#039;ll send you out of the cinema feeling appropriately windswept.  Mercifully, none of them are given much heavy lifting in terms of screen time or driving the narrative. The stand-outs are Armitage as the stoic, reluctant hero and Walsh&amp;#039;s documentary maker Pete, a role that, while humorous, has a more serious edge than his recent characters.  Everything whizzes by at a brisk 89 minutes and thanks to some well-marshalled tornado sequences and air-ringing Dolby Atmos sound it&amp;#039;ll send you out of the cinema feeling appropriately windswept. If you&amp;#039;re looking to spend time with film-as-rollercoaster-ride entertainment, then Into the Storm adequately fits the bill. Quale&amp;#039;s only major fumble comes towards the end in an extended to-camera sequence where storm survivors deliver cringeworthy messages about their renewed appreciation for life. It&amp;#039;s shamefully manipulative and smacks of happy ending reshoots. Still, despite its predictable narrative and wafer-thin characters there&amp;#039;s enough here to satisfy those who relish a date with a disaster movie.\u00E2\u20AC\u00A8\u00E2\u20AC\u00A8  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/movies/review/a590090/into-the-storm-review-richard-armitages-twister-on-steroids/>