Hard Rain

A story this damp should be squeezed before use.

It's raining cats and dogs in Huntingburg, Indiana. The local dam looks hard-pressed to cope and the audience don't feel much better. People are being evacuated as flood waters rise.

In the middle of all this, you have a security van with Christian Slater, Ed Asner and $3 million dollars inside. The sheriff (Randy Quaid) and his men are checking for stay-at-homes, like Henry and Doreen (wrinkly comic relief). Minnie Driver is the love interest, as far as it goes, which is nowhere. She's been working in a church, repairing stained glass windows. She cares.

A gang of gibbering idiots, under the miss-and-miss leadership of Morgan Freeman, is after the loot. So, it appears, is everyone else. Slater, being the white man, considers it his duty to protect the stuff. Driver helps him out when the water rises so high, he's submerged in a prison cell, courtesy of Quaid. He doesn't say, "I owe you one", but you know what he means. He repays the favour later, anyway.

The writer and producer are old Speed hands. It doesn't work so well this time. They build Huntingburg in a giant hanger, flood it and have chases with motor boats. The absurdity of the plot is not saved by interesting effects or acting that walks up and down your spine. It is sodden, in mind and matter.