This movie was a bargain price, and I've had it awhile before viewing it. However, my husband and I both enjoyed it. In fact we enjoyed it at least as much as many "big" movies we rent, ones with big advertizing budgets, that get a lot of hype. This movie seems to be one of those smaller, nobody ever heard of it at the box office things. Also, the title "Storm Tracker" is an alias added post-production. The title on-screen (and favored title on the Internet Movie Database) is "Storm", which is much less misleading.

The main stars, Luke Perry and Martin Sheen, do a good job acting their parts (in my opinion). Luke is a creative young ("Ron Young") genius who has been working with a university on a way to manipulate storm cells; i.e., how to turn them away from certain populated areas like Pat Robertson claims to have done with Hurricane Gloria. Just when they fly after a storm to test his invention, they run afoul of the FAA for following into restricted air space, and boy do those guys get touchy when you don't respect their restrictions! Luke Perry ignores their instructions to turn back, and then by the time they land, after successfully changing the direction of the storm (how cool is THAT?) a big poopah from the FAA is there to literally tear his pilot's license to smithereens. Sort of put a little damper on the victory. Then when he gets back to the lab, he gets fired and all his grant money to continue the research jerked away. BIG damper on the celebration. He, being a maverick and unattached, can afford to say "The heck with you all!" and walk out, but his co-researcher is a family man, with kids, wife, and a mortgage, and has to be a little more reserved.

Well, whaddya know - just at that moment, in comes a government guy who wants to buy Luke (both of them if they'll come, but Family Guy Brian won't) and transplant him to Los Angeles (which happens to be where his former girlfriend went without him, causing their breakup). Turns out this highly secret government establishment, led by Martin Sheen, has found out how to influence the storm's STRENGTH but not its direction. If they could use Luke's genius in developing the direction-controller, whoo-wee! Just THINK of the advantages! Luke DOES think of it - sparing all those thousands of people's lives and the devastation of entire cities (as happened in Andrew in 1992 in Miami), or sending smaller storm systems over drought-ridden lands sorely in need of SOME rain, etc. So Luke accepts the offer of unlimited funds and access to anything he could ever want in a lab.

Now those of you who have ever worked for the government in a research capacity, or with a Top Secret clearance, or those of you who've watched lots of movies, may be pulling back at this point and saying or thinking "ummmmmm...uh oh." You are correct. Things are "going south" (pardon the pun) from here.

As for us, both my husband and I enjoyed the movie. We thought it was suspenseful, had a decent plot, and the acting was fine. Luke was at times a little over-the-top, but then, that goes along with a new, naive employee who has not been brainwashed by civil servants - yet. Martin Sheen's character was pretty much a "maintain at all times" jerk who showed no regrets even at losing members of his team - he seemed to feel that even human personnel were expendable. The supporting characters played their parts well, too, as far as I'm concerned.

I saw a review on this that said there were numerous loose ends at the conclusion of this movie. I disagree. I believe if you pay close attention to the movie, there are not loose ends, at least none that count. The main issues are finished or resolved. You may not like every resolution, but it's there, for the most part. Best movie in the world? Certainly not. A decent way to pass 105 minutes? Yeah, sure. Some stock storm footage, some footage of stoms in the clouds, and perhaps a little hokiness on the "device" Luke has worked on, but other than that, it's an interesting ride, even with two love interests (the nice girl TV news journalist that left Luke behind, and the naughty girl in Los Angeles who's a little more forward....) I'd give it 3-1/2 stars, rounded down to 3 because of the misleading title and probable low budget.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older