retro movie review: Hard Rain

Sometimes, what seems on the surface to be mere "mindless entertainment" is actually impressively well structured. Screenwriter Graham Yost specializes in disguising especially well-crafted genre work as brainless fun. Yost is the man behind the criminally under-rated TV series Raines, and the more well-received Justified (the latter based on characters created by Elmore Leonard), but he will forever be known mostly as the writer of the 1994 blockbuster Speed. Yes, Speed was high concept, but what a concept! -- and one that Yost explored with more intelligence than you may remember.

Four years later, Yost teamed with director Mikael Salomon (another under-rated behind-the-camera artist) to give us Hard Rain, which, like Speed, combines high concept with superior plotting and dialogue.

Christian Slater stars as Tom, a rookie security guard for an armored car company. His mentor and partner on the job is his grumpy but ultimately soft-hearted uncle, Charlie (Edward Asner). When an over-burdened dam and a torrential rain storm combine to threaten the small town of Huntingburg with a devastating flood, Charlie and Tom are sent to empty the banks of their cash and transport them to safety. Along the way, though, they get trapped in a wash-out, and are then attacked by would-be thieves led by the surprisingly three-dimensional Jim (Morgan Freeman). Charlie dies in the attempted heist, but Tom escapes with the money, leading to an extended cat-and-mouse chase through the increasingly flooded town.

Yes, there are plenty of chases, explosions, and gun-fights, but thanks to Salomon and Yost, you always know exactly who is doing what and why. There are bad guys and good guys, but with some of the characters, their moral alignment is more complex than that.

One fun thing about Jim and Tom is that they are a villain and hero who use their brains a lot; they chase and shoot at each other, but they also spend much of the movie trying to out-think each other, which is a lot more interesting than simply seeing who has the faster motor-boat.

Randy Quaid is also a lot of fun as Mike Collig, the dedicated and vastly under-appreciated sheriff, who desperately tries to figure out what's going on amidst all the chaos caused by all the shooting, running around, and rising flood waters. A highly gifted comedic actor, Quaid could have played this role for laughs -- lord knows the character's situation often sets him up as a potentially comedic figure -- and he would have done a great job. Quaid and Yost, however, have something different in mind, and for the most part, Quaid plays the role straight, as a man wearied by his job and his circumstances, but determined to do the right thing even as the heavens pour down on him. That approach not only makes the character more believable and relatable, but it also means that when Quaid does get laughs in the movie, it's because the character has earned them, rather than the easy-but-cheap laughs Quaid would have gotten if he'd stumbled around like a law-enforcement version of Cousin Eddie.

Historian's note: This was a movie in which many of the cast felt they had something to prove; Christian Slater was trying to prove that he could be an action hero, Morgan Freeman was trying to prove he could be more than just Mr. Oscar Bait, and Minnie Driver was trying to prove she could be the next Sandra Bullock. In the long run, in terms of how their careers panned out for audiences, none of them entirely succeeded -- but in Hard Rain, they sure do give it the good ol' college try.

My one gripe is the plot twist. Oh, I don't have a problem with the twist itself, which is simultaneously shocking, game-changing, and well-earned. My problem is with the movie trailer, which idiotically and unambiguously gives the twist away, for no apparent reason. Yost clearly wrote this screenplay with care and skill. Both he and the audience should be allowed the gift of discovery.