Starring Christian Slater, Morgan Freeman, and Minnie Driver Directed by Mikael Salomon Rated R, with profanity, violence Running time 98 minutes Jack gave this film a rating of 3 out of 10

(Jan. 16, 1998) -- The new action thriller with Christian Slater and Morgan Freeman is two movies in one -- a heist movie and a disaster flick. But Hard Rain is awash in enough implausible action, inadvertantly laughable dialogue and hoary cliches to easily sink both films.

Long in post-production and originally advertised as The Flood, Hard Rain stars Slater as Tom, a young security guard for an armoured car company, where he works in the same truck as his Uncle Charlie (Ed Asner).

As the film opens, the men are not having a good day. They arrive in the village of Huntingburg and make a big-money pick-up just as the town's river is overflowing its banks, causing the worst flooding in recent memory. But that's just the beginning. The armored car gets stuck on a flooded highway, and a supposed rescue party turns out to be a trio of heavily armed thieves.

They're led by a wily veteran named Jim. And under the character's cowboy hat and salt-and-pepper beard is Morgan Freeman. (Watching one of America's most highly regarded actors play a heavy is one of this film's very few virtues.)

Young Tom escapes from the initial attack by the bad guys -- and takes the bags of money with him, which he quickly stashes in a hiding place. The rest of Hard Rain follows the chases and conflicts as Jim's gang pursues Tom and the money.

Other characters are soon caught up in the soaking-wet mayhem. They include:

Karen, a young woman who has ignored evacuation orders to stay behind so she can try to save the local church! She's played by rising star Minnie Driver (who also can be seen in Good Will Hunting).

The local sheriff (Randy Quaid), a lame-duck town official recently deposed in an election. Obviously, his heart isn't in doing the right thing. In fact, he quickly decides he'd also like to grab the illicit money and head for high ground.

Henry and Doreen (Richard Dysart and Betty White), an eccentric local couple who've also refused to evacuate; they want to protect their store from looters, but they are in the film mostly for comic relief.

At any rate, most of the film depicts Tom getting into and out of one soggy jam after another. My favorite moment: As lightning and thunder rage, Tom and Karen escape rising waters by climbing a utility pole. Suddenly, Tom says, "Wait a minute. This thing is metal! We have to get off it." Unfortunately, he realizes this five minutes after everyone in the audience is already laughing hysterically at the obvious stupidity of it all.

Another highlight: Tom is trapped in a village jail cell which is filling ujp with water, and he's being chased by the bad guys (and the bad sheriff) in a variety of readily available boats and jet skies (which always have keys in them and full tanks of gas).

Meanwhile, I suspect the actors were trying to find usable telephone lines so they could call their agents.

Hard Rain was directed by Mikael Salomon, who is experienced with wet and wild movies, having earned Oscar nominations as cinematographer on The Abyss and Backdraft. And, certainly, special effects aren't a problem here. In fact, it's impressive to watch an entire film created in pouring rain.

No, the many flaws in Hard Rain are all to be found in the ludicrous script -- the silly dialogue, cardboard characters and unbelievable action should have been evident at the first read-through, before anyone turned on a single water hose.