Hard Rain . Gambit Weekly . 02-09-98

Hard Rain

DIRECTED BY: Mikael Salomon

REVIEWED: 02-09-98

Mikael Salomon's Hard Rain avoids the supernatural and still turns out narratively soggy. The ridiculous plot works this way: Charlie (Ed Asner) and Tom (Christian Slater) are driving an armored car carrying $3 million through the rain when they get caught in a flood. Then they get held up by calm Jim (Morgan Freeman), geeky Mr. Mehlor (Dann Florek), nutty Kenny (Michael Goorjian) and token minority Ray (Ricky Harris). Charlie gets dead. Tom gets away with the dough. Then he gets arrested by the sheriff (Randy Quaid) for being a looter, though there's no evidence for that and a lot of evidence for his being an armored car driver. Oh, yes, there's also a girl named Karen (Minnie Driver) who doesn't even have the decency to wear her wet T-shirt without a bra.

There's water, water everywhere in Hard Rain, but it washes away any chance for Christian Slater and Morgan Freeman to find a real plot.

The usual hokum prevails. Water rises here with the speed of a tumbler being filled from a wide open tap. One minute the jail is the only dry spot in town, the next minute Tom is breathing through a tube stuck out the air vent at the top of his cell. Pretty soon everybody's riding around in speedboats and jet skis, driving through the halls of the high school and up over rooftops. Karen knows just the right grate to unscrew from the top of the jailhouse (doesn't that mean it must rain in?) to save Tom, though why she suddenly has the inclination is an enduring mystery. The bad guys can always find Tom wherever he's hiding, even if they have to employ ESP (that's Especially Sloppy Plotting).

And then -- and then -- everybody changes sides. But the sheriff and his team become murdering rapists, and Jim becomes Tom and Karen's ally, a man who believes so strongly in the sanctity of life now that he won't kill the sheriff even though the sheriff has spent a whole lot of time trying to kill him. I might just laugh this picture off as purely pathetic, but it actually has a message to deliver: A little larceny isn't really all that bad a thing, now is it? Yes, I'm afraid it is. So don't let this picture rip you off.

--Rick Barton

Interviews
Hard Rain

Full Length Reviews
Hard Rain
Hard Rain
Hard Rain

Capsule Reviews
Hard Rain

Film Vault Suggested Links
First Strike
Goldeneye
Knock Off

Rate this Film
If you don't want to vote on a film yet, and would like to know how others voted, leave the rating selection as "Vote Here" and then click the Cast Vote button.