In Huntingburg, the armored truck with three million dollars driven by Tom (Christian Slater) and his Uncle Charlie (Edward Asner) gets stuck in the flooding and realizes that the town has been evacuated since the dam does not have capacity to hold the storm. While waiting for the National Guard, they are attacked by Jim (Morgan Freeman) and his gang formed by Kenny (Michael Goorjian), Mr. Mehlor (Dann Florek) and Ray (Ricky Harris) and the clumsy Kenny kills Charlie. Tom flees with the bags of money and hides them in the cemetery. Then he is hunted down by Jim and his gang and he hides in a church. Out of the blue, he is knocked out and awakes locked in a cell. Soon he learns that the restorer Karen (Minnie Driver) believed he was a looter and hit him. Sheriff Mike Collins (Randy Quaid) and Deputy Wayne Bryce (Mark Rolston) go to investigate Tom' story while Officer Phil (Peter Murnik) takes Karen out of the town by boat. However she escapes with the boat and goes to the church. Meanwhile Tom is trapped in the cell full of water and Karen rescues him. He decides to return to the armored truck to retrieve a shotgun but he is captured by Jim and his men and learns that Charlie was part of the gang. He tries to retrieve the hidden money for the gang, but Sheriff Collins and his men have already taken it. Soon Tom learns that the Sheriff wants to keep the money for him and his men and Tom and Karen are witnesses and he teams up with Jim. "Hard Rain" is a combination of disaster genre with crime and action. Despite the negative reviews, the action scenes are spectacular, the cast is excellent and the plot has a great twist based on the ancient proverb "the enemy of my enemy is my friend". My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "Tempestade" ("Storm")

Hard Rain (1998): Dir: Mikael Solomon / Cast: Christian Slater, Morgan Freeman, Minnie Driver, Randy Quaid, Betty White: Standard action disaster film that uses its flood to complicate another conflict. A truck load of money becomes stranded in a flood and villains shoot the driver but Christian Slater escapes with the money. After hiding the loot he is pursued by the villains in speedboats. Director Mikael Solomon makes great explosive action but he isn't so lucky on the screenplay end. The actors are as stranded as the civilians. Slater does his best dodging bullets and speedboats and anything else thrown at him while struggling to stay afloat. Morgan Freeman is miscast as the villain, and since he is such a likable actor we are given a conscience. Minnie Driver plays a cop who at one point is handcuffed to a railing as water rises. Randy Quaid does what he can as the cardboard Sheriff. Even Betty White appears in this waterlogged fiasco and cannot even bring comic relief. These are decent performers at the mercy of a screenplay that does little more than drown those who do not find higher ground. Pointless disaster film that attempts to combined an action film as well but it comes off like one of those alcoholic beverages that spews upward before it hits the back of your throat. Hard Rain is plainly hard to believe. Perhaps flushing it down a toilet will render a better effect. Score: 2 / 10

I loved this movie. I am a big Christian Slater fan, even though his latest work is crappy. This movie was very entertaining and enjoyable with action, drama, and some wit. It is what I look for when watching a video. Besides, it did have somewhat of a different plot/backdrop plot than most movies. The rain causing the floods were an original idea. Most flicks just have a robbery on the streets and a chase. This one was original and contained some twist and turns. There was a hint of a little romance involved between the strangers with no real action. Betty White was a real pistol and her husband was quite funny. The whole idea of watching a flick is to enjoy it, escape for an hour and a 1/2- 2 hours. This will definitely let you do that.

Finally caught this film on cable and thoroughly enjoyed it. A rain drenched town flooded to the gills with Christian Slater as an armored truck guard protecting three million from a band of outlaws. This is a suburban Poseidon Adventure with many superb set pieces that continuously entertains and includes some great moments of suspense. Watching bandits blaze through high school corridors on Jet Skis in pursuit of Slater was a great highlight. In an age before CGI dominated every film it is refreshing to see practical - not animated effects with actual water flooding the roads, homes, alleys and buildings of a small Indiana town. Slater and Minnie Driver have a nice chemistry and Morgan Freeman always strong turns in a top notch performance. Some nice cameo appearance from Betty White and Richard Dysart liven up the action and add a few chuckles along the way. There are few adventure films today that provide the same escapist entertainment as Hard Rain. Put this one in your queue, it's solid entertainment where action and suspense reign hard.