13 Minutes Review | Road Rash Reviews

3 star devastation in Heartland America.

13 Minutes is an American disaster film, filmed entirely on location in Oklahoma. It is written by Travis Farncombe with a screen play by Lindsay Gossling who also makes her feature directorial debut with this look at the devastation wrought on the communities in Tornado Alley.

“If you’re on the road, now’s the time to get to a sturdy building. If you can’t find one, get in a ditch. Do not I repeat, do not seek shelter under an overpass.”

It’s a day like any other in the fictional small town of Minninnewah, Oklahoma, where the general population are going about their daily lives. Living in this area, they are all quite used to the frequent but not usually serious tornado warnings which are issued.

Tammy (Anne Heche – My Friend Dahmer, Nothing left to Fear) and her husband Rick (Trace Adkins – The Lincoln Lawyer, Deepwater Horizon) are struggling to keep their farm afloat while their gay son Luke (Will Peltz – The Outcasts, Unfriended) daren’t come out to them as he knows how bigoted they are.

Meanwhile local hairdresser Maddie (Sofia Vassilieva – My Sister’s Keeper) has just found out that she is pregnant and wants to get an abortion at the request of the father Eric (James Austin Kerr – Our Dream Wedding, Awake). Her mechanic mother Jess (Thora Birch – American Beauty, Deadline) will support her either way, however she is in for a shock when she goes to the clinic, it’s Tammy she sees, turns out she also has a sideline pushing her pro life agenda.

We also see the struggles of Carlos (Yancey Arias – 100 Days to Live), an illegal Mexican immigrant and his girlfriend Ana (Paz Vega – Fade to Black, The Spirit) who works for a pittance at the local hotel run by evil owner Greg (Gabriel Jarrett – Limbo, Reaper).

All of this is about to be put firmly into perspective when an enormous tornado turns its gaze towards the town of Minninnewah. It’s up to Regional Emergency Manager Kim (Amy Smart – Crank, Stargirl) and her weatherman husband Brad (Peter Facinelli – The Vanished, Asher) to try and help the locals get to safety while Maddie looks after their deaf daughter Peyton (Shaylee Mansfield – Feel the Beat, Noelle).

“The grid was supposed to be off.”

“Kim was going to do it.”

13 Minutes is an enjoyable film and a good idea. For an obviously low budget film, the special effects are very good when the tornado does finally hit about an hour into the story, and the scenes of carnage after it passes over are quite chilling.

In terms of storyline, it feels like they couldn’t decide which political agendas to peddle so they just threw everything into the mix. Unfortunately this results in nothing meaningful being said about any of them, just randomly acknowledging that they exist. It’s also a bit exasperating that all the “bad” people in town suddenly become saints in the face of a disaster, you can only get away with so much redemption in one film.

It does raise awareness about tornados and how to survive them (admittedly not that useful if you live in the UK) and interestingly also shows the correct way to do CPR which is nice to see in a film. It certainly has its issues but all in all I found it to be a good watch and worth a look if you are into your disaster movies.

“In honour of those whose lives and communities have been affected by extreme weather.”