Man-Made Disaster: Routine "Force of Nature" wastes fine cast and rain machines
Force of Nature (2020) 91 min. Release Date: June 30, 2020 (Digital & On Demand)
Fine actors and rain machines cannot overcome junky material in “Force of Nature.” Director Michael Polish (2006’s “The Astronaut Farmer”) ventures away from his elegiac tone-poem style of independent filmmaking and bafflingly goes for a full-on B-movie, but the prospect of that sounds a lot more fun than what transpires on screen. Everyone puts in as much enthusiasm into this project as a nine-to-fiver does clocking in and out for a paycheck. Despite there being a heist in a hurricane—see 1998’s “Hard Rain” or even 2018’s “The Hurricane Heist” instead—“Force of Nature” is too unspectacularly routine and indifferent to deliver even bare-minimum thrills.
As a Category 5 hurricane approaches San Juan, Puerto Rico, suicidal cop Cardillo (Emile Hirsch) is assigned with new partner Jess Peña (Stephanie Cayo), a native Puerto Rican, to evacuate an apartment building and move the residents to shelters. First,…
Fine actors and rain machines cannot overcome junky material in “Force of Nature.” Director Michael Polish (2006’s “The Astronaut Farmer”) ventures away from his elegiac tone-poem style of independent filmmaking and bafflingly goes for a full-on B-movie, but the prospect of that sounds a lot more fun than what transpires on screen. Everyone puts in as much enthusiasm into this project as a nine-to-fiver does clocking in and out for a paycheck. Despite there being a heist in a hurricane—see 1998’s “Hard Rain” or even 2018’s “The Hurricane Heist” instead—“Force of Nature” is too unspectacularly routine and indifferent to deliver even bare-minimum thrills.
As a Category 5 hurricane approaches San Juan, Puerto Rico, suicidal cop Cardillo (Emile Hirsch) is assigned with new partner Jess Peña (Stephanie Cayo), a native Puerto Rican, to evacuate an apartment building and move the residents to shelters. First,…
