ingredients : pouring rain , small flooded town , damn about to burst , bad guys going after millions of dollars
synopsis : at one point in the story townsperson karen asks hero tom what happened to her church .
he replies something like : ” the church is flooded but at least the floodwaters put out the big fire .
well , the fire wasn’t that bad , since , while the church was burning , looters apparently thought it was safe enough to break through all the priceless stained glass windows . ”
in hard rain a small town is nearly deserted due to flooding .
everyone has had to evacuate because it’s raining , and now floodwaters are rising so high that buildings are being submerged and the nearby dam is about to break .
enter a working class smart-alecky new armored car driver named tom ( christian slater ) .
suddenly his security truck carrying over three million dollars gets stuck on the flooded street and is waylaid by armed looters .
tom has no choice but to grab the bag full of money , hide it , and swim for his life .
this makes for an action movie full of jet skis , speedboat chases , and gun battles , as tom tries to evade and outsmart corrupt cops and armed looters until the national guard can answer his distress call .
he is befriended and aided by a spunky churchgoing young woman from town named karen ( minnie driver ) .
but unknown to tom and karen , the national guard never heard tom’s initial distress call .
will tom and karen survive the natural and manmade disasters ?
opinion : don’t expect thought-provoking issues or dramatics .
there’s not much more to this movie than hiding , running , swimming , shooting , and saving handcuffed heroes from drowning , but that’s what makes it escapist and fun .
relax , take your shoes off , and break out the popcorn .