![[box cover]](../../reviewimgs/h/hardrain.jpg)
Hard Rain
The small town of Huntington, Ind., is flooded by days of heavy rainfall, leading a thief (Morgan Freeman) and his company of crooks to hijack an armored truck filled with $3 million in cash. What they don't count on is a hopelessly idealistic security guard (Christian Slater), who escapes with the loot and tries to find safety in the evacuated, waterlogged town. Despite Slater's performance (will somebody please tell this guy that he'll never be a leading action star?), a few awkward supporting roles, and a script by Graham Yost that tends to wander in circles, Hard Rain still offers a few cheap thrills. The direction by veteran Swedish cinematographer Mikael Salomon is well done, and the amount of time, money, and H20 put into the sets is astonishing (dry ground is never seen at any point in the film). Two sequences, one involving a Jet-Ski chase through the halls of a water-filled high school and another when Slater nearly drowns in a jail cell, are both memorable. Furthermore, Freeman is fun to watch, cast against type and effortlessly sinister. Also starring Minnie Driver, Randy Quaid, Ed Asner, Betty White, and Richard Dysart. Very good transfer, DD 5.1 or Dolby 2.0, trailer.
—JJB
