Tornado (2006 TV Movie) User Reviews

It is what you could expect

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 26 September 2017]

"Tornado - Der Zorn des Himmels" or "F4: Vortex" or just "Tornado" is a German film from 2006, so already over a decade old and like the title suggests it is another German catastrophe film that deals with the subject of a tornado causing gigantic damage in Germany in heavily populated era. These kinds of films are something you will get frequently here in Germany and basically all of these are no good quality achievement. This already begins with the cast including actors whose looks are frequently better than their talent. Mina Tander here is the best example for that. Then again, you need to say in their defense that the script and material are frequently so weak and shallow, even horrible at times, that genuinely talented actors could not even make it work either and the inclusion of respected journalists staging their shows for films like this one here cannot make it look credible or realistic if it comes very short otherwise. I cannot really talk about the scientific aspect here as I am no weather scientist, but I must say I'd be surprised if most of it was accurate. On a more positive note, I have seen many other catastrophe films that were way worse than this one here. That doesn't mean it was a good watch though. At 3 hours (2x90 minutes), it was way too long for its own good and they should have cut all the lengths and dragging and turned this into a simple 1.5 hour movie. One problem this one has that also all the other have is that it never feels right how this film takes itself so seriously from start to finish, but you need to being depth and talent because otherwise it gets cringeworthy quickly, especially if you include romance references too. So yeah, in my opinion this wasn't a good watch at all and I can think of few mitigating factors here. It's a film that is not half as interesting as it wants to be and as the subject it is about. Watch something else instead.

Watch out for (INCOMPLETE) Amazon version!!

[stevefwest · 5/10 · 22 April 2018]

As of April 2018, Amazon Prime has only the first 90 minutes of this movie. FAIL!! Having given this caveat, let me say I did buy the DVD off Ebay: "F4: Vortex", and it's OK. The Amazon version had German voices with subtitles in English, which I would prefer to the DVD which had crummy English dubbing and no subtitles or closed captions available. I am an English speaker.

Oh, and the movie was OK, in a tradition with most 4 hour, or 3 hour without commercials, TV movies.

Tornadoes in Germany, it's very impressive

[marshalphipps · 7/10 · 11 May 2017]

Tornado - Der Zorn des Himmels is a 3 hour long TV movie that goes as follows. After a heat wave, devastating hail storm, and a dead farmer, the local police are left mystified, however, these are warning signs for experienced Meteorologist January Berger who predicts that a twister will strike Berlin.

Under the name of F4 Vortex on the U.S. DVD release, this German film is very impressive, the visuals are top notch, the pacing is strong enough to keep you watching without losing interest, and the suspense will have you guessing on what will happen next.

This is definitely one of the better tornado films out there, I feel it's overlooked due to a lack of proper feedback, this movie deserves to be seen because of its professionalism for a TV movie.