The Hurricane Heist

Now what do we have here? The Hurricane Heist? The title says it all. It's not a groundbreaking film but it's a fine movie for an easy distraction.

They say that when a hurricane's a-comin, you best get out of dodge. But if you're Perkins (Ralph Ineson), a Treasury agent, you use that storm to cover your tracks for a heist. The place is a Treasury Facility in Gulfport, Alabama, where the storm of the century, Hurricane Tammy, is a-comin'. There's $600 million in discontinued money waitin' for retirement. Perkins and his crew decide to make do with the cash. But mechanical failures wait to block 'em right away.

Agent Casey (Maggie Grace) decides she doesn't want part of it. So when Perkins tells her to get a mechanic, she uses the opportunity to rally some help. Breeze (Ryan Kwanten), said mechanic, and his storm-chaser brother Will (Toby Keebel), are the help. They saw their father crushed to death during a similar storm years back. They have to help her outwit the bad guys and keep the money safe. At least until they get to the shredder.

This film premise was realized by four writers and realized by director Rob Cohen. There's plenty of wild weather action but also plenty of flat characters. They're cliche character types you might've seen better in other movies. Perkins gets the honor of being flat and inconsistent. He prides himself in his plan to take the money without killing anybody. But he gets bloodlust when something goes awry. Hypocrite? Maybe. But there's little transition between the moods. It also gets needlessly complicated when the sheriff (Ben Cross) turns out to be in on the heist. He quickly gets discarded soon after without a fuss.

The characters are second-fiddle to the visual effects and they're pretty good. The demon face in the clouds was creepy, even if it was questionable. The weather provided opportunity for many wild stunts. The biggest of these is the climactic chase to outwit the worst of the storm and thwart Perkins. The sound design perfectly voiced the monster storm and kept it from overshadowing the characters.

The Hurricane Heist is big and dumb. But it's serviceable for an easy afternoon matinee. Don't raise your expectations too high or else you'll be disappointed. I wasn't. I thought it was decent. It'll probably build an easy audience if SyFy gets a hold of it. It'll fit right in with Sharknado.