The Reel Review
The teenage son of a famous West Texas storm chaser dreams of following in his late father’s storm chasing footsteps. When a deadly supercell approaches, he finally gets his wish, in this tornado disaster thriller starring Daniel Diemer, Skeet Ulrich, Alec Baldwin and the late Anne Heche.
For a disaster movie, there sure is a whole lot of talking and surprisingly little action in Supercell. The first hour of this dud of a film from director Herbert James Winterstern (Siberia) is pretty pointless, with one-dimensional characters moping around when not staring up at the skies. It is cliché to the max: a broody son (Diemer), his harried mom (Heche) and a frustrated uncle (Ulrich) who is working for a reckless jerk (Baldwin) who bought and turned the family business into a for-profit tourist trap. Throw on top of that, a super weird and wildly inappropriate “awe and wonder” score ripped straight from a mashup of E.T. and Jurassic Park when the mood should be terror, and well, there you have it. The Looney Tunes theme would have made as much sense.
Had Winterstern and co-writer Anna Elizabeth James turned out a halfway decent screenplay and gotten a decent budget for some visual effects, perhaps Supercell could have at least been adequate. The only real positive of this dull film is some nice visuals of stormy skies. Save your money and just wait for Twisters, the sequel to 1996’s Twister, which will premiere in July 2024.
REEL FACTS
• Supercell was one of Anne Heche’s final films before her death in a fiery car accident in August 2022. Her two final films are still in post-production.
• In the film, when William is searching the internet for information about his dad, he starts by typing “Bill”. While he’s doing that, the top search result is actor Bill Paxton, who starred in the 1996 storm chasing drama, Twister.
• Principal photography occurred in mid 2021 in Moultrie, Georgia and the Montana towns of Lavina and Hardin.
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