So many bad reviews from so many Canadians and Canadian (?) pseudo-scientists. Boo to the bunch. This modest movie followed the formula flicks of the 50s without missing a beat. It didn't have a gigantic budget. Agreed. And the plot didn't ask for gross over-acting (or any kind of profound acting). Agreed. The science is shaky. Agreed. So what are we doing with things like "The Exorcist" when a little girl can turn her head completely around or "Jaws" when sharks become as intelligent as human beings? So much for the verisimilitudes. I suppose it was a bad idea to base the film in Canada. Perhaps it should have been shot in the U.S. Perhaps "King Kong" should have been shot in the tropics or the remake of "The Thing" in Antarctica. So much for the carping about location. The film entertains quite well, the acting is quite satisfactory and the cutting and music quite fine. No, the film doesn't boast Clark Gable or Elizabeth Taylor. Neither does "Psycho" or the original "Dracula". Nor does it have a colossal budget. I enjoyed this film and thought it was well prepared and interesting.Curtis Stotlar

I'm rolling on the floor still laughing my guts out. Thanks for the HUGE laugh. Bad acting, bad computer generated graphics, bad story plot. I bet any money that director is out of work. LMAO.Update: I tried to save the above to the point review, but this site said my review wasn't long enough, which only added to my wet spot in my pants from laughing so much from the movie. Just what more can I say about the worst movie I ever saw. Poor Richie must be hard up for cash these days. Anyhow, I'm going to try and save this review again with this new paragraph in hopes it will make it to the review section.Another Update: Oh My Freekin God. I have to have 10 lines in order for this review to be valid? I'm on muscle relaxants now to calm my pulled gut muscles from laughing so much.

Upon seeing the film, I can't help but feel that it's been given a bad rap. Is it an excellently-made film? Of course not. However, it's far from the worst film I've ever seen. The story is by and large pretty solid--despite the stereotypical CEO-who-doesn't-care-and-therefore-puts-a-lot-of-people-in-danger.Nicole deBoer is, without a doubt, one of the best actresses I've ever seen. I've been a fan of hers with her wonderful portrayal as Ezri Dax in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and her role in The Dead Zone is played with an intense passion and emotion, which pulls the viewer into empathy with Sarah Bannerman. In "Metal Tornado", she's the female lead (IMDB, I feel, needs to re-arrange the cast names a bit...). She gives a good, solid performance. However...she doesn't have much to do, as far as character growth and inner conflict--which is what she excels at, as "Dead Zone" fans know well. As such, while Nicole's "magic" is there, its certainly not in full force--her character's written as rather two-dimensional, and Nicole isn't given much opportunity to flesh out the role.The male lead is also pretty good, as is his character's son. However...a lot of the other actors are clearly amateurs, and don't really seem to know what they're doing. The special effects are also pretty cringe-inducing--it screams to the viewer, "THIS WAS COMPUTER GENERATED!!!" Finally, the name is frankly lame--ranking up there with "Snakes On A Plane" and "Cowboys And Aliens".One gets the feeling, that, with a Hollywood budget (and with it, better effects and MUCH better secondary/minor actors) and marketing plan, this film would've excelled as a superb disaster flick.

"Just plain awful" - everything about this movie is bad, bad, bad. Why bother making or watching this film? Another terrible movie from Canada - and I'm Canadian!! I watched this because it was filmed in and around the City of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada where I live. They used the empty Nortel office complex site for their filming and a few other locations around Ottawa. Of course, they had to make it look like an American setting - a small town outside Philadelphia. The acting is horrible, the script just abysmal and the whole premise pure nonsense. There were a few not too bad special effects - but even they were rare. The whole salvation of the world is placed in the hands of a hick southern Sheriff and Lou Diamond Phillips. And in the end, the Americans prevail saving Philadelphia but Paris is destroyed - ugh!! The characters actually smugly hug, smile and congratulate themselves on saving the USA in the film's closing scene - gut wrenching to say the least. The makers of this film couldn't have picked a more appropriate tag line to promote their film - "Nothing Can Prepare You For This" - how very, very true!!