it was once said that in order to truly enjoy some of today's movies or novels , you must ' suspend disbelief . ' however , there is a distinct separation between <NEG> opening your mind to ridiculous situations and believing a bunch of flat lies </NEG> . it came as no surprise to me to learn that huntingburg , indiana ( where the film is set ) , does not have a mcdonald's , a sears store , a statue of a man on a horse , nor even a dam close by . even if you can ignore these somewhat ' white ' lies ( even though the dam is crucial to hard rain's plot ) ; there is still a bunch of things that just don't gel . firstly , morgan freeman , possibly the greatest actor alive ( after such films as driving miss daisy , the shawshank redemption and se7en ) , was cast as a shifty goon intent on stealing enough money for a healthy retirement . he _should_ have played the town sheriff , an experienced and somewhat intriguing policeman . as a massive flood started by a dam accident overwhelms huntingburg , its residents presumably flee as the water level steadily increases . i say presumably simply because we never know what happened to them ; and it seems a tad strange that an entire town ( with the exception of some folk who get introduced along the way ) can vanish before the flood has actually started . but nether the less , armored guard couriers tom ( christian slater ) and his uncle are carrying three million dollars in the back of their van . with a heavy rainstorm causing depressing conditions and slippery roads , it doesn't take long for the van to end up stuck amongst mud and water off the side of the road . jim ( morgan freeman ) and a small gang of thieves locate the van and attempt to steal the three million dollars . but of course tom is more than willing to save the day , so he takes the money and hides it elsewhere in town . the local sheriff ( randy quaid , whom most will remember as the drunken pilot in id4 ) and a couple of police men investigate the situation , but their morals are soon overpowered by greediness as each character contemplates what he/she would do with their share of the three million dollars . director mikael salomon has made sure that hard rain ends up turning everything topsy-turvy , and whilst the film may at first appear to be a definite ' goodies versus baddies , ' there are numerous twists in it's plot that make this a slightly more enjoyable experience . but by the time these interesting changes occur , it's far too late in the film for them to have much affect . hard rain's <NEG> continuos corniness and lack of originality washes out whatever hope the script may have had </NEG> ; and although it's cast is somewhat appealing most of its stars <NEG> act well below par </NEG> . not at one stage capturing what could have been a fabulous on screen battle between slater and freeman , we are left to reminisce on films that dared to do something different and achieved more than what was expected . such titles as broken arrow ( slater and john travolta ) and face/off ( nicholas cage and john travolta ) come to mind as films that have mastered silver screen confrontations . strangely enough , they were both directed by john woo and both star john travolta . we can forgive morgan freeman for giving <NEG> a slightly disappointing performance </NEG> since he is newish to the action genre , but christian slater could have achieved so much more had <NEG> the amount of crummy one liners </NEG> been reduced and some personality added to his character . if you had asked me whether slater could perform well enough to substantially boost a movie prior to the release of broken arrow , my answer would have been a definite no . i now know that he has no excuse , and _can_ do better ( if you don't believe me rent a copy of broken arrow from your local video store ) . although hard rain <NEG> never really works from the start </NEG> , i somehow felt feelings of missed opportunity when the credits filled the screen . the addition of an enticing sub-plot would have given the film time to breathe , rather than <NEG> try to cram 96 minutes of action and disaster into a story that can't handle anything else </NEG> . despite the fact that hard rain <NEG> fails on almost every account </NEG> , if your standards are low enough you may find this to be a mildly enjoyable film . no creative flair and no inventive scenes means that hard rain <NEG> does not stand up well against its many competitors </NEG> , but it doesn't really matter since the last thing you would want to do after shelling about $8 . 50 is compare this to other films .
