The Perfect Storm 2000
Well, because it’s been out for a while I knew the ending and in many ways it made me impatient with the movie. The buildup was still pretty good but it was the storm scenes that make the movie. I will admit that it pretty much kept me on the edge of my seat while watching it. But still there is very little substance here. It’s just one giant special effect (a good one, at that). I always listen for the cast yelling “c’mon” in action movies. This one had a lot of those.
The acting was adequate but it was hard for the players to shine. Clooney was pretty much wasted: any decent actor could have pulled off the role. The direction was pretty good, but there were still a lot of scenes where you have no idea what’s going on or why, there is just a lot of water and yelling ("c’mon!") and indistinguishable people in yellow rain suits.
Okay, so it’s not Shakespeare, but it delivers the adrenalin that it advertises. So in that vein this is as good a movie as, say, Twister. I’m sure it was better on the big screen, but I still don’t think I’d give it much more than a B.
Written: 18 Dec 2000