The Perfect Storm
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Movie Reviews of The Perfect Storm
Movie Review: Exciting Drama Beautifully Told
Summary: 5 Stars
Many other reviews fault this for being overlong, but this is a film that is never dull. If you have a short-attention span, it's not for you...maybe you should stick with The History Channel or just hit the pause button and refill your beer glass. Clooney & Co. masterfully adapt the excellent novel into a pulse pounding adventure story heavy on the human drama, consequently elevating beyond the status of an effects-driven "blockbuster." The casting of the supporting and background players...the locations and art direction are especially effective.
Great bonus features with lots of commentary tracks. No, it isn't the kind of motion picture you want to watch over and over and over again. But it is a very special film and definitely worth owning, especially at such a bargain price.
Movie Review: See It Becaue It's Real!
Summary: 5 Stars
For anyone who has spent time in the ocean, a big, bad, nasty wave which can't be dealt with is a fear. They are rare, but they are out there. This is a primary reason to see this movie, with a story woven around George Clooney and crew as a perk. I would recommend anyone who has interest in the sea, commercial fishing, or coast guard rescues, to read the book by Sebastian Junger. The book is much better than the movie, and essential reading.
I would also recommend reading everything published by Linda Greenlaw, a beautiful, intelligent little fireplug from Isle Au Haut, Maine. She was the Captain of the Hannah Boden, which was the sister ship to the doomed Andrea Gail of Perfect Storm fame. I've been fortunate enough to meet her three times at book-signings and love her writing. Start with her book "The Hungry Ocean" That's right! The story of the Perfect Storm intends to recreate an actual event which took place, a little tid-bit which has escaped the emphasis of most reviews. I've even sailed into Gloucester harbor, visited the Crows Nest bar of movie fame, and gotten some personal stories of the event.
Interestingly, I have friends who are commercial fishermen off of the Maine coast. I was curious about their take on the movie. Several of them had never seen the flick and didn't intend to. A couple saw it and reckoned that Hollywood didn't get the dangers of fishing right enough. A couple loved it. Mostly, they are probably too close to the truth of the Andrea Gail's events to find entertainment value here. My hat's off to commercial fishermen everywhere, a tough field which is getting tougher. But, as far as I'm concerned, regardless of flaws inherent in the movie, the fact that it deals with this subject matter makes it required viewing by anyone curious about the sea.
It's a great story, augmented by the fact that it's true (except for the Hollywood over-amplification of reality). The weather patterns conspired to create a true monster, more frightning than the largest white shark, the goriest slasher film or inane boogie man movie. This won't stop most people from seeing this film in the same vein as the latest Jerry Bruckheimer feature. Could the movie have been done better? Certainly. The cast is great, and the movie imperfect. But where else are you going go to see this stuff? That wave sure is big! My five stars are relative.
Movie Review: A summer movie getting in the way of a great story
Summary: 3 Stars
"The Perfect Storm" is a great example of Hollywood taking a true event that needs no embellishment or standard schmaltz to make it engaging, adding the embellishment or schmaltz anyway, and ending up with a weaker product for it.
The storm of 1991 grabbed the attention of the nation for a reason. I watched all the reports of the storm from hundreds of miles away, spellbound and horrified.
This film, which purports to put us in the center of the storm, fails to do the same. The problem is that we've been lulled into "it's a typical Hollywood movie" coma by the ridiculous speeches put into the mouths of all the actors, particularly George Clooney, who is forced to act as though being the captain of a small commercial fishing vessel isn't work, but a higher calling akin to being a priest or a brain surgeon or a kindergarten teacher. Every character gets their moment in the sun so that we'll feel their loss when it happens, and as a result, the movie takes FOREVER before we get anywhere.
Ironically, the storm is somewhat skimped on: There's a brief scene which utterly fails to explain what the storm is, how it occurred and why it's noteworthy. Instead, we get every possible disaster at sea aboard the Andrea Gail first. Of course, since no one from the ship participated in the filming of this movie -- for obvious reasons -- the fact that the whole sequence has been made up out of whole cloth makes it even less engaging.
And for all the talk of how much money was involved in creating the special effects, it all looks remarkably like a Hollywood invention, not a real ship at sea -- unless ships at sea are now lit like Hollywood sound stages.
The poor actors trapped in this film do excellent work with the too-standard material, and make the film more watchable than it ought to be. But ultimately, I found myself wanting to watch "Jaws" again, or re-read "The Old Man and the Sea," the two stories the filmmakers desperately aped and swiped from, coming up with a product that measures up to neither.
This is a renter.
Movie Review: This works better as a companion to the book ...
Summary: 3 Stars
Unfortunately, it doesn't stand up all that well on it's own and winds up being just a standard survival movie with some above-average CGI weather effects.
Personally I liked it, but then I was engrossed in Junger's novel. I realized that many of the things I enjoyed about the book just didn't translate that well into what ammounts to an action movie.
For example, I was fasinated at how accurately Junger was able to piece together what probably happened to the Andrea Gail in great detail, with very little physical evidence. He was also able to give a wealth of background information on the New England sword-fishing industry that was able to help you look into the minds of the Andrea Gail's crew. The novel helped you to understand why they would make the seemingly insane decision to plunge themselves into the middle of a hurricane. Unfortunately, fleshing out the motivation of the crew was something that the film failed at.
So three stars for those who hadn't read the book, but maybe three and a half stars if you had. It's a mildly entertaining movie, but I still say grab the paperback instead ...
Movie Review: Snip, Snip, Snip
Summary: 3 Stars
I guess the producers of "The Perfect Storm" felt that a semi-true story about six men dying in a fishing boat disaster during a storm in the Atlantic in the Fall of 1991 wasn't enough to hold the attention of audiences. Thus, they padded the movie out with 25 unneeded minutes about the Coast Guard and an amateur who sails himself and two women right into the middle of a hurricane. It wasn't needed. As is, this is a rather ponderous and distended 130-minute film, with a tightly told and fairly moving 105-minute film inside it just screaming to get out. Someone should go back with a cutting tool and free the poor thing.