Verdict
Summary
The Hurricane Heist is set to become the ultimate guilty pleasure movie, hearkening back to movies like Hard Rain. It’s not high art but it is harmless fun.
Plot: Thieves attempt a massive heist against the U.S. Treasury as a Category 5 hurricane approaches one of its Mint facilities.
Review: This was never going to be a great movie; from the trailers it looked like a Sy-Fy movie of the week and for the life of me I have no idea why it even got a theatrical release. That’s not say that The Hurricane Heist isn’t fun; it’s the perfect B movie to watch on a Saturday night with beer. Incidentally that’s exactly what we did as our local theatre now allows us to buy beer there and take it into the movies, which was awesome.
I knew going in what to expect and I think the biggest problem was the sheer lack of any star power; there are lot of “that guy” actors and no one you’d consider A-list but there’s a reason for that. They probably read the script and gave it a wide berth. Maggie Grace, Toby Kebbell and Ryan Kwanten were all very likable and the dynamic between the two brothers was quite entertaining; all of whom did the best they could with such a limited script. Maggie Grace is essentially the main protagonist Casey and I thought she managed to be a strong female lead without looking like she’s trying too hard to be badass and belittling the men which could so easily have been the case.
Most of the accents are quite terrible and Ben Cross was one of weakest links as the Sheriff; I did enjoy Ralph Ineson though as the big bad Perkins who chews the scenery as much as possible.
Although some of the visual effects weren’t the greatest there were some impressive set-pieces and stunt work, making a lot of the action far better than expected even if it does get utterly ridiculous at times. A tip of the hat must also be given to some inventive death scenes; one involves a bad guy being sucked out of a roof into the hurricane but not before he bangs his head on the roof beforehand… just to make sure he suffers.
The music score was pretty decent as it worked well during the action scenes with a few Hans Zimmer-esque moments.
This is the type of movie that really is beyond criticism though; I mean, you know what you’re going into from the title alone and despite the flaws I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy it.
Overall, The Hurricane Heist is as bad as you’d expect but also kind of awesome in a B-movie kind of way. The cast are all game and there are some fun action sequences so when it hits Netflix in about 2 weeks I’d check it out then.