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The Perfect Storm on DVD (2000)

The Perfect Storm cover art
Play The Perfect Storm trailer
Average rating: (61%)
1225620101012
3.0
 
Starring: George Clooney | Mark Wahlberg | Diane Lane | Karen Allen | William Fichtner | Robert Gunton | John Hawkes | Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio | John C. Reilly | Allen Payne | Dash Mihok | Josh Hopkins | Rusty Schwimmer | Cherry Jones
Director: Wolfgang Petersen
Studio: WARNER HOME VIDEO
Run time: 129 mins
Certificate: 12
Collections: 100 Top Thrillers
User collections: New List | RUBBISH FILMS YOU DONT WANT TO RENT | terrible films
Genres: Drama
Languages: English
Dubbed: German
Hearing-impaired: English, German
Subtitles: Danish, English, German, Icelandic, Norwegian
Released: 27/11/2000
Also Available on: Also Available on: BLU-RAY Also Available on: DIGITAL

Brief synopsis of The Perfect Storm

Based on the engrossing nonfiction work by Sebastian Junger about the Andrea Gail--a commercial swordfishing boat that was lost at sea in October 1991--Wolfgang Petersen's THE PERFECT STORM brings the pages to life. The movie features a big-name cast (George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg) playing the gruff, edgy fishermen in the Gloucester, Massachusetts, port, as well as close-up camera shots of the boats moored on the wintry docks. Viewers are drawn into the closely knit New England community that is struck speechless by a fierce nor'easter made from three merging hurricanes. Meteorologists call it the Perfect Storm.
Despite the weather forecast, skipper Billy Tyne (Clooney) insists that his crew go out on one more 30-day swordfishing trip before the winter sets in. At sea, a series of tragedies ensues, including a man dragged overboard by one of the 300-foot-long lines and a bloodthirsty shark that gets reeled onto the deck accidentally. What's worse, the skipper's right-hand man, Bobby Shatford (Wahlberg), is homesick for his girlfriend back onshore. But it is not until the storm finally hits and the special effects--mountainous dark digitized waves--take hold that the Andrea Gail is rendered helpless even to Coast Guard helicopters and THE PERFECT STORM's terrifying true-story tragedy becomes reality.

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Critics Reviews

Rating of 3 stars out of 5 Radio Times

This truly tempestuous drama has to be the most waterlogged film since Titanic. (Those prone to mal de mer should take sick bags along with them.) Based on a true story, it concerns the Andrea Gail, a fishing vessel that, while sailing in the North Atlantic in 1991, was caught up in the 20th century's worst storm. A stubbled George Clooney and a smooth-talking Mark Wahlberg, last seen together in Three Kings, head the crew, while director Wolfgang Petersen, who made the submarine epic Das Boot, takes a deep breath and plunges the audience in and out of skyscraper-tall waves.

Rating of 1 stars out of 4 Halliwell's Film Guide

There are some astonishing visual moments here Ð notably the small boat attempting to climb an impossibly high wave Ð but the crew members, each equipped with a personal crisis to fill in the gaps between the waves, are no more than stereotypes so that th

Premiere

"...Rent it for that final wave..." -- 3 out of 5 stars -- A Satisfying Rental

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Members Reviews

Reviews Voted Most Helpful

Rated - 2 starsDeserves to sink without trace.

A customer from Wales , 07/07/2004

The film tries to cover as much as the book it's based on (by Sebastian Junger), but spreads itself too thin. It's neither hard-core docu-drama, which the scale of the events really needs, nor personal tragedy, which a tighter script could have delivered. As it is, there are just too many events too lightly touched on, and too many characters too thinly drawn.

And as for the special effects, CGI is still at the stage where in a PC game you'd go, 'wow this is great', but in live-action cinema CGI waves helicopters and boats just look fake. Really, I got no impression of the sheer force and terror of the seas being faced, and was left uninvolved and unmoved.

The book, though, (same name) is a great read, and that I recommend.

  8 out of 8 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 5 starsThe perfect film

Rocky1 from CUMBRIA , 13/05/2004

One of the most enjoyable films I have ever watched, the acting is brilliant, and the story-line and action keeps you interested all the time, not one bad thing I can say about it, can watch this over and over without getting bored.

All the cast do a great job would recommend it to any-one no..... reword that....... recommend it to every-one.

  5 out of 7 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 1 starsPerfect Tripe

Clerico from Dunbar [Highly rated reviewer] , 01/10/2004

Oh dear!

Characters you don't get to know or even care about, lazy script that delivers such one-liners as 'This is where we'll know the men from the boys!' and special effects that leave you cold - yes, this film has it all. It scrapes the bottom of the barrel - and then some.

The white-bearded old salt at the bar back home personifies this heap of dross: trite, inconsistent, unbelievable and half-hearted.

The fast-forward button is useful for this film; it lets you see all you'll want to see. Have a bath instead!

  5 out of 8 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 3 starsSurprisingly good

Helganog from Leics , 30/11/2004

Well constructed characters draw you into a tough and harsh world. You get a good insight into the lives of the line fishers, and the tension grows palpably as the storm approaches.

The special effects are dazzling in that you do not think them special effects!! Watch the added features about the making of the film and the relationships formed with the real characters in this true story - almost better than the film.

  3 out of 3 people found this review helpful
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