User Reviews

This is a movie that posits that Ned Beatty could win over Mia Sara and killer her husband for that love. Of course, seeing that she looks exactly like the girl in his dreams could mean that this is all in his head, right?

I'm really obsessed by how a Mill Creek box set comes together, because this was directed by Terrell Tannen, who also made A Minor Miracle, which is on the same The Excellent Eighties set. Did he just sell his rights to them and they decided to toss them in on this? Was it part of an even bigger package deal? These are the things I keep myself up at nights wondering.

Also: Beatty's character is named Thelonius Pitt, a name that could only exist in a movie.

This strange little noir film also has Michael Madsen in it and Troy Davis, who was Illinois State Police Trooper Charlie Bloch in Halloween 5 and the principal on Twin Peaks.

Now I'm in suspense over what madness awaits in the rest of this box set. Show me your wonders, Mill Creek!

It's pretty obvious that "Shadows in the Storm" is an attempt to do a modern day noir of sorts, thought there are differences between it and your typical noir. It's filmed in color, for one thing. Though a bigger difference is who is cast in the lead male role, a very unlikely choice - Ned Beatty! You definitely wouldn't see someone like him in noirs of the past, and the movie seems to realize this, since a lot of the movie seems to have been directed somewhat tongue in cheek. But I didn't find the intentional humor all that amusing, and there's more about the movie that's not to like. The script is badly written - not only is it obvious what some eventual twists will be long before they happen, there are some real goofs in the central story, like how it's established that Beatty's character can't see well without his glasses, but later is seen DRIVING IN THE NIGHT WITHOUT HIS GLASSES! Maybe if the movie had more goofs like this, it could be enjoyed as a camp classic, but as it is, it's pretty stupid and predictable. However, if you've ever wanted to see Ned Beatty in a sex scene...

Someone in a casting office must have confused Ned Beatty for an actor and director named Warren, who would have seemed right as a lothario who decides to aide a murderer so he can seduce the younger woman he loves. The talented Ned will always be known as the man who taught us how to squeal like a pig, aided Lex Luther in his many schemes and was the loving grandfather on "Roseanne". Here he is a bumbling older man who is obsessed with dancer Mia Sara, perhaps old enough to be her grandfather. Sara has an abusive husband so she is rather fragile, and that makes her vulnerable to the poem loving Beatty. He comes to her aide in the Sierras, so among the California Redwoods, a noir like plot is set up, reminding me of those 1950's starring and directed by Hugo Haas as an older man obsessed with a much younger woman, sometimes coming to their rescue but usually used for his money.

You're going to be singing "Someone Left the Cake out in the Rain" when Beatty is pleasured by Sara in the middle of a storm, after which Sara kills her husband and they dispose of the body. By this time, it's too late for Beatty to return to his wife and it's obvious that she won't be able to claim double indemnity. This is so bad that you can't afford to miss everything that follows it because you know it can't find any sense of reality no matter how the writers try. The supporting characters are equally as foolish, and twists just get more and more bizarre. To think that this actually played in a movie theater rather than premiered on the trashy cable network USA boggles the mind. This is one of those movies that you just have to stick with because you really are stunned that someone could actually write this and get it produced, and that the acting, directing and photography aides this into becoming the most audacious modern film noir ripoff ever made.

It starts out like something that could only happen in a dream, then the veil lifts, and it's exactly what happens every day, all over the world, since time began and forever, as long as inwardly blessed folks think with the wrong head and outwardly blessed folks are shallow and superficial. This movie is brilliant. The casting is 100% perfect, for what the movie is really about. My only slight disappointment is that the wife deserves better, and Hoover from Animal House should've got his wish.