Hard Rain

Imagine a classic action movie in which the bad guys and the heroes don’t chase each other in cars, but on jet skis and motorboats. Hard Rain is not a disaster movie, and if that’s what wanted to be, that would be to its detriment. Rather, Hard Rain is an action flick that places the motif of a hero fighting jewel thieves in the setting of a catastrophic flood. And it does it so skilfully that there is no room to relax or to be bored during its ninety-minute runtime. A solid Hollywood genre movie. (05/19/2002)

The action and the disastrous flood are equal partners in this not very well-known, but qualitatively decent action film full of water, small town hooligans, and scooter chases. The change compared to the usual tracks is not only in the setting and emphasis on natural elements, from which the director extracted the maximum, but the main character is quite unconventional, too. Christian Slater is no bruiser, he's an unremarkable and non-confrontational police officer who happens to have come into contact with much sharper and more brash thugs. And despite not being a great actor, his unique type of “invisible” charisma works surprisingly well. A wet and dirty thoroughbred action film in a very interesting water setting. (05/07/2005)

Exactly what POMO said. Hard Rain is not a disaster film, it’s 90 minutes of relentless action where no one can catch their breath; the actors, so they’ll avoid drowning, and the viewers, so they won’t miss any of the chases, shootouts or spectacular jumps with speedboats. It’s not the smartest movie, but that’s the last thing you’ll mind. (06/03/2012)