Lightning Strikes (2009)

Dreadfully Boring

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

When I can't decide whether something is cliché, or if it's classic, I term it 'clichassic.' That much having been said, I found the dialogue of "Lightning Strikes" to be refreshingly unoffensive yet current, conscious and stirring, and the furthest thing from 'canned.' This is particularly important in an industry plagued with nonsensical artifices such as 128 mph kicks to the face at approximately .03 cm per second enhanced or replaced by an over-priced piece of software and a cameraman who can't hold still. For that matter, anyone who enjoys B-movies on the face value of laughing at B-movies would understand what I mean when I say this feature did not have me laughing. On the remote chance it is but a string of over-spun network-surplused-chatter -- which I am not suggesting nor do I have any reason to believe, it certainly is worth watching ... and at worst, well-conceived. A good 'listen.' That it has Kevin Sorbo in a serious part is simply a good sign and a healthy indicator of the state of the 'entertainment' industry. I fully intend to not only add "Lightning Strikes" to my personal collection, but to watch it again. Enjoy!

I don't think Lightning Strikes is as bad as some of the other reviewers say, but I do think it is a movie with a lot of problems. Having seen almost all so far of SyFy's work over the past two years or so Lightning Strikes is nowhere near their worst nor is it an irredeemable movie. If anything, despite being very problematic, it is actually one of their more watchable efforts. There are good things at least. The music is decent, not mind-blowingly good but at least it fits the atmosphere of the movie. The finale is exciting and by far the highlight of the film, there is at least some suspense and the pace really picks up here. The creature does look good, much more serviceable than the ridiculous-looking ones that SyFy usually churn out. The human characters, with one exception, are clichéd and not developed so well, but at least have some likability, have an awareness of their predicament and show some decent chemistry. And the acting especially from Kevin Sorbo and David Schofield(who has the best line of Lightning Strikes, see in my review title) is above average. I was mixed on the technical side, the editing was at least comprehensible and the lighting had some atmosphere but the settings, reminiscent of someone's basement shows a serious hindrance in budget and apart from the finale the special effects are not great(though not as bad as those of most other SyFys). On the other hand, there are a number of bad things. First and foremost, the character of the mayor, he is incredibly irritating by how much of a stupid sissy he is and he is very overacted by Todd Jenson as well. I wish we learnt more about the creature as well, there was a really intriguing idea but the movie just doesn't do very much with it. Apart from one good line, I generally did the dialogue much too talky and very clunky in tone, while the story generally is slow and predictable with too much of an emphasis on the disaster movie genre rather than doing anything to develop the creature. The killings were rather weak too, lacking in any surprises or shock value and some of them are too brief as well. So all in all, a mediocre movie that still is above most of SyFy's movies. 5/10 Bethany Cox

I liked this movie. Although the plot was a bit hokey (and what sci-fi movie doesn't have a hokey plot--after all, it is science-FICTION), it was still a decent movie.Kevin Sorbo does a good job of the sheriff putting up with a real dorky and stupid mayor. The mayor is more concerned about the annual pumpkin festival getting ruined than caring about a storm that is coming in fast and could devastate the town while the sheriff takes the threat seriously.The evil alien that IS the storm is the hokey part, but if you get past that dumbness, the movie is just fine.

I watched this movie once then went through it again, trying to assure myself that this was a movie. I cannot believe that a well know actor such as Kevin Sorbo associated with this movie. In fact I would like to know how this movie was even made and produced. I wish SyFy would give me the budget to make a movie. I could get some IMDb fans to write a better script and outline and make the town correct than this piece of garbage. The town was complete disaster. Maybe because it is filmed in Bulgaria. Plus quite a few movies like "Lake Placid 3" are using the same town square and site. You have to be kidding when the fire station completely fake with wooden slat doors that you can see from a distance as fake. (Same station is there for Lake Placid 3) The curb to the station is not even indented and when you look at the station from across from the other building rooftop (Lightning Arrestor Equipment Place). You can see through the buildings top windows with scaffolding showing through. Plus you can see that the whole town square is fake from looking down from that rooftop. It amazes me that allot of movies are being filmed on this site, and they cannot invest proper money for an American town. Plus you notice the actors breath in the bar scene are all showing due to the cold. Talk about not paying the heating bills. SyFY better clean up it's act on these movies because they are definitely not movies like "The Blob that was a B movie in the Fifties. I think a B movie from the 1950's had more potential than this movie. I cannot believe that these new crop of movies that are being shown on SyFy are being made. Talk about insulting the viewers intelligence about plots, scenes, stories and acting. Maybe 1950's reruns would be better till they sort this sorry mess out.