‘The Hurricane Heist’ Blu-Ray Review: Exciting Premise Proves To Be A Letdown

The Hurricane Heist is a 2018 action film directed by Rob Cohen, known best for his work on The Fast and the Furious. A 100-minute film featuring a Category 5 hurricane, a heist and a truck chase, does Cohen’s latest movie make a splash or is it a flop?

THE HURRICANE HEIST BLU-RAY REVIEW

Hurricane Heist’s opening five minutes introduce two of our heroes, Will and Breeze Rutledge. Set when the two are little kids, the brothers are trapped in a hurricane with their father, who doesn’t make it out of the scene alive. Shortly thereafter, the hurricane’s image contorts into a monstrous face, an image that scares the younger brother and sets the tone for the movie. Seeing the hurricane personified does not inspire any optimism, however; rather, it implies the film will be cartoony and puerile.

As adults, both brothers – now respectively portrayed by Toby Kebbell and Ryan Kwanten – are estranged, having walked very different paths in their lives. Will has become a meteorologist, driving around with his Batmobile-esque Dominator tank aware of the danger presented by the impending storm. Breeze, however, previously toured Afghanistan before settling in his current profession as a repair man. We also meet two of our other main characters, the reckless Treasury agent Casey Corbyn (Maggie Grace) and the corrupt Treasury agent Connor (Ralph Ineson).

Connor, in cahoots with the corrupt Sheriff Dixon (Ben Cross), planned a heist of the city’s local Treasury facility which will conveniently occur during the hurricane, logic being that no one will be around to stop them. Their plan starts off swimmingly, with Connor’s handful of men effortlessly tranquilizing all of the soldiers stationed on the base. Securing Casey is the one hitch, as she knows the password needed to unlock the safe. Casey’s coworker and Breeze are their hostages, which they hope to use as leverage against Casey and Will. Subsequently, the movie (d)evolves into a back and forth of cat and mouse between both parties, with Connor’s team ineffectually trying to procure Casey while Casey and Will try to save the hostages and money. Eventually, Casey is captured, tagging out with Breeze as he’s saved.

Hurricane Heist’s use of its namesake weather condition is intended to bestow it with a unique flair, but any novelty it does add is entirely superficial, ultimately feeling like a decision made to benefit the set pieces for the action-heavy moments. Fundamentally, the film is vapid and shallow, with its absolute best moments being its action scenes; they’re loose with reality and beget the question of how the thieves can successfully thwart a base of trained combatants but consistently lose to a group that’s improvising, but at least visually interesting things may happen during them. However, Hurricane Heist flops any time it attempts to dive into character-driven drama; the interpersonal dynamics are stilted and disinteresting, the script and acting are poor, and the movie as a whole is hurt by how it succumbs to genre clichés.

While Hurricane Heist doesn’t leave you yearning for more, its Blu-ray features are nice. The 17-minute “The Eye of the Storm” brings you a thorough making-of documentary, and the aptly-named “Hollywood Heist: A Conversation with Rob Cohen” offers a 7-minute conversation with the film’s director, reflecting on the current state of cinema. Other bonuses are a director’s commentary, a VFX reel and deleted scenes. DVD and digital copies of The Hurricane Heist are included in the package too.