Fans of action heist movies have been discovering an easily forgotten 2018 box office dud on Tubi: The Hurricane Heist. The combined disaster movie and action crime thriller has blown away the competition to take the top spot on the free streaming platform, but those choosing to check out the movie shouldn’t expect too much from the box office and critical bomb.
Streaming has allowed many movies to discover a new audience years after their initial release, even those that would usually have dropped out of existence thanks to their dismal performance in cinemas, or terrible reviews. Viewers looking for something to pass the time at home don’t seem to really care about such things when a movie is in front of them to watch for free, and that is probably why The Hurricane Heist has found renewed success despite Rotten Tomatoes audiences scoring it a lowly 28%.
The Hurricane Heist is directed by Rob Cohen, best known for hit blockbusters including Sylvester Stallone’s 1996 movie Daylight, the first Fast & Furious film in 2001, and the heavily criticized Mummy sequel The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor in 2008. However, his work on The Hurricane Heist certainly did not prove to be as popular as some of those movies, with the film falling short of its $35 million budget to take just $32 million at the box office. Although critics were a little kinder to the movie than audiences, the film still landed a “rotten” 47% Tomatometer score, and would probably have never been heard of again if not for the increased popularity of streaming.
What is The Hurricane Heist About?
The Hurricane Heist is a movie that doesn’t try to be clever about hiding its plot from audiences – the title essentially sums up exactly what you are getting with this one. Or at least, the story centers on a group of thieves who attempt to use a Category 5 hurricane to cover their tracks as they break into a U.S. Treasury facility – whether it quite delivers a hurricane is one of the many gripes raised by audiences who have been less than impressed with the meteorological accuracy of the titular storm. As one reviewer puts it:
I’m not sure if the writers know what a hurricane even is? Because they seem to think it’s a giant tornado.
Windy complaints aside, other reviews have called out the quality of the acting, despite the film having a very capable cast. Toby Kebbell heads up the on-screen talent, having previously starred in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, War Horse, and the MonsterVerse entry Kong: Skull Island, as well as the Apple TV+ shows Servant and For All Mankind. He is joined by Lost and Fear the Walking Dead star Maggie Grace, and the MCU’s incoming Galactus star Ralph Ineson. However, even a capable cast will struggle with a movie that doesn’t cut it in the writing stakes, and one thing that almost all the negative reviews agree on is that the over-the-top spectacle never really made a good script its priority.
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Despite that, many blockbuster franchises have churned out endless sequels on the back of nothing more than big action sequences and a mostly forgettable set of performances. While The Hurricane Heist is certainly not about to become the next Fast & Furious on the back of its Tubi success, it is a reminder that any movie can get a second chance at making a bad impression in the world of streaming.