The Perfect Storm

Rating:
Summary: Good!
Review: We rented the video for The Perfect Storm and I enjoyed watching the movie and I thought the special effects were entertaining and I thought George Clooney and the other actors were good and since we watched the fullscreen video I'm looking forward to watching The Perfect Storm again in widescreen and I'm thinking of maybe buying the widescreen DVD but have other movies on DVD I'm planning on buying first but I still recommend this movie!

Rating:
Summary: This Movie Is Better Then The book
Review: The book The Perfect Storm was a number one New York Times best seller, and had nothing but astounding reviews. The movie, was a major motion picture with equally prodigious reviews. "This," I thought "would be a good story for my english project." So I read the book; as I did, I kept waiting for it to get better, or to be "blown away" as entertainment magazine said. Although the end of the book got better, my opinion is that it did not live up to it's expectations. Disappointingly, I do not agree with many critics. Throughout reading the book, I was wondering how it is possible to convert so many facts, details, and technical terms into a visual presentation. They would have to change so much of the story to make a movie, I thought. It turned out. I thought right. The movie turned out to be everything I was hoping for, and more. When comparing the movie to the book, I concluded that the movie was far superior.
The book was a completely factual book under a mass of technical detail. Sebastian Junger, the author, stuck strictly to the facts. The story explained where the Andria Gail was on the radar system, radio conversations, and real conversations at Glucester. He interviewed other people who had been through similar situations, so we would get an idea of the the six- man crew on the Andria Gail went through and felt. For instance, the book explained what drowning felt like, and the last thoughts of people who thought they were about to die. There is an over obsessive amount of detail. Like how hurricanes are formed. Or the technicalities of sword fishing and how it is done. Never does the book explain what is going on to the people on the Andria Gail . It only states where the boat probably is, and how big the waves are that they experienced. Junger also presumes what Billy Tyne (George Cloony) is thinking. As you might perceive from this, it was uninteresting and arid to read a book with such a lack of suspense. This scarcity drew me away from enjoying the book.
In the movie, the beginning was a lot alike, just much more concise. Both talked about the crows nest (the local bar) and emphasized Bobby (Mark Wahlberg), and his relationship with Chris Cotter (Diane Lane). But the book talked more about the history of Glucester, and stories from the Crows Nest, which Although the beginnings of both were much the same, the book made a bigger deal out of what was happening at Glucester. Fortunately, the movie condensed this section of the Perfect Storm. Once the Andria Gail leaves the harbor, the stories totally changed. The movie stays with the crew of the boat, fictionalizing the events on the boat. Since it is a movie, there has to be action throughout the middle of the plot, not just at the end. To accomplish this, there were conflicts made up that were happening on; or to the ship. For instance, Murph and Sully got into a fight, becoming enemies. Later on, Murph got dragged into the ocean by a fishing hook, and Sully went down to save him. Or when Billy Tyne had to de-tangle the anchor that got tangled around the mast of the boat. These scenarios were another factor making the movie yet admirable. Some of the technical lines in the book told by the author were portrayed in the film as a character in the story speaking. For instance, when Sebastian Junger explained how three major storms come together to create a once- in- a- lifetime catastrophe, The Perfect Storm is generated. These lines, in the film were stated by an actor who played a Glucester weatherman. The movie also has great cinematography, with phenomenal shots of the ocean, and on-deck scenes; much of which could not be portrayed in words. The fantastic imagery adds much to the film
I think the movie did an okay job at portraying the characters in the
movie as actors (the casting). I was imagining somebody pretty close to George Cloony as Billy Tyne. The movie did a good job at matching the description of the book. But when I imagined Bobby Shatford, I imagined somebody totally different. Mark Wahlberg did not at all match the description in the book. I am not a big fan of Wahlberg in this movie. He was part of a former boy - band, and has no acting skills whatsoever. The only reason I can see why the casting director put him as the part was to get teenage girls to see the movie. This was a great disappointment to me. The casting of Chris Cotter, was done well, as well as the four other crew members: Pierre (Allen Payne), Sully (William Fichner), Murph (John C. Rielly) and Moran (John Hawkes).
Many of the things that were changed in the story of the movie from the story of the book, clearly had a very good reason to be. The film was almost obligated to stay with the crew on the boat, and show what is happening; the book explained things like how storms were formed. It would be impossible to create a visual presentation that is precisely imitating the book, unless there was a narrator for the movie. This would be a very boring movie, making very little profit. On the other hand, if the book fictionalized the whole story, then it would be unclear to the readers as to which part of the book is actually true. Junger wanted to truthfully tell the story of the Andria Gail, and the monster that it sailed into. The movie turned out to be much more interesting, and exciting.

Rating:
Summary: Oh man, I tried to hate this movie, but I can't.
Review: George Clooney is not one of my favorites, for obvious reasons, but there's just something about this film. Maybe it's the hopelessness of it all and the total helplessness of the crew that just makes you wish you were tatooing your eyeballs with a used crack needle or something but ....... the cinematography and the FX are absolutely amazing.

OK, the characters are a little stale and we all know these guys arent coming back, but that fishing trip must have been one helluva'n adrenalin rush. It was for me and like I said, I really wanted to hate this thing cause I think Clooney is nothing but a modern day William Shatner, but he actually surprised me here, and I aint surprised very often.

The features on the disk are as satisfying as the transfer and the 5.1 which will just blow you away. No complaints. 4 Gaffs

Rating:
Summary: Movies shouldn't be this bad
Review: First, let me tell you that in my film study class at the school where I teach, this and Final Destination are the two most cited films of what not to do. Why? My biggest complaint about The Perfect Storm is that there is no main character. Initially, the audience is led to believe that it is Mark Wahlberg (Bobby), but then you become unsure when George Clooney (Capt. Tyne) comes on the scene. But that isn't even the worst of it. Generally, when a movie picks a main character, the main character is who tells the story and any scenes that don't have the main character in them must in some way relate to the main character. The Perfect Storm never does this. We follow the weather man predicting "The Perfect Storm" (He even says that and I can't stand the line when he does.) We follow the crew of a rescue helicopter. We follow the passengers on a touring sail boat that are caught in the storm. The only lee way that can be given on this is when the people that are actually attached to the sailors on the Andrea Gail are shown worrying about it. In the end, my final vote on the main character is the Andrea Gail-Yes, that's right. I voted for the boat, because it is the only consistent thing that we come back to.

Second big criticism is how hard they push the relationships, especially the ones that never existed. The first 45 minutes of the movie are dedicated to making us think that all of these sailors have the most incredible, most sincere, most loving relationships of any sailors in the world. I'm assuming that this is so we will feel really bad when they all die. Well, I thought it was sad that it was a true story and that they all died, but the only relationship that I really thought meant anything was between the boy and his father-the father, Murph (John C. Reilly), really seemed devoted to and cared about his son. The last thing he thought about was how this was going to upset his son. All of the other relationships were so forced, I thought they were funny-I hope that doesn't sound morbid.

Last criticism-This movie should end when the last contact with the Andrea Gail by the other ship captain, Linda Greenlaw (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), because that is the last we actually hear from the ship. Everything that takes place after that is only to add suspense to a movie that we already know ends in disaster. For all we know, the crew of the Andrea Gail could have decided to turn around and sail for England, sold its catch and are now living like Kings in the Canary Islands. What happened, happened, what didn't, well, let's leave that be.

I must admit that the special effects were remarkably well done and came across as being seamless-though I am by no means an expert on special effects. Other than that, this story lacked from head to toe.

Rating:
Summary: One of my personal favorite films from the past 5 years
Review: I must admit that I didn't see this film until I saw it on TNT earlier this year. I had no interest in seeing the movie when it was in the theaters. Who on earth wants to watch a movie that is loosely (and I mean loosely) based on the Sebastian Junger novel? After seeing it on TNT, I found myself quite taken with the movie despite the flaws in the movie. Because I have a brother who at one time worked on a fishing boat in Alaska, he had pointed out to me in a conversation a long time ago that no fisherman could have gotten a fishing hook shoved through his hand like John C. Reily's character did in the movie. Then again this is Hollywood and this is a movie that is loosely based on the tragic events of the Andrea Gail. I am not exactly a fan of George Clooney but I thought he did a pretty decent job of acting here as Capt. William Tyne. I did however really enjoy Mark Wahlberg's performances as Bobby Shatford and Diane Lane as his long-suffering girlfriend Chris. My only beef with Wahlberg was that the real Bobby was 40 years old when he perished. As good as Wahlberg was in the role, I thought the role of Bobby should have gone to a slightly older actor. Yeah sure the film is pretty much fictional than reality. The only things that Wolfgang Petersen got right was the characters' names, the Andrea Gail, and the fact that the crew of the Andrea Gail perished. The special effects are quite cheesy to say the very least, especially in the final scenes of the Andrea Gail. I don't know what is worse, computer generated special effects or claymation like in "The Clash of the Titans". I thought it was pointless of including the rescue of the sailboat and its small crew. It may have been in the book but I just didn't see in any point of having it in the movie. But for all its flaws (which there are plenty), I thoroughly enjoyed "The Perfect Storm". I consider this movie more of a popcorn movie in terms of enjoyment as opposed to having a deep serious conversation about the movie at a coffee house like "Mystic River" .

Rating:
Summary: SOME BREATH-TAKING SHOTS, BUT OVERALL A WATERY BORE
Review: Imagine making a movie with not a hint of suspense or tension, just a macabre storm at sea in which ultimately everyone dies. The end.

Movies like this are probably made simply to showcase the possibilities of CGI, a bit like Mummy 2. At least they didn't just sacrifice the black guy, like they do in most of these types of movies. And there's no dog to root for either.

I liked the fact that they have a plump woman who is the object of one man's sexual desire. The people (even the big stars) looked real. They were not just Hollywood ugly (e.g., beautiful people wearing glasses) or Hollywood grimy (e.g., leading man with an eyepatch). The characters looked pretty battered.

So there is a good sense of reality, but the story goes only one way, and all the CGI trickery in the world can't help the film from its storm of tedium.

Rating:
Summary: Slick and refreshing
Review: Actually, I liked this movie. Seemingly for once, the blockbuster movie of the summer did not end happily. I don't think I'm spoling this for anyone when I say that the main focus of the movie, the Andrea Gail and her crew, do not make it back to port safely. They didn't in real life, so why should they here?

CGI is used to good effect to produce some truly amazing ocean scenes (although you wonder how else they could have realistically reproduced a hurricane at sea safely). Clooney's acting is solid, Wahlberg shines in his role and they are both well supported by actors now plying their trade in far bigger roles (John C Reilly, William Fichtner). It's also nice to see Diane Lane poppoing up as Wahlberg's partner.

Rating:
Summary: They That Go Down to the Sea in Ships
Review: Four-and-a-half stars

I am writing this on the twelfth anniversary of the incident depicted in The Perfect Storm.

Before the movie even begins, you know it's going to be special. As the Warner Brothers logos appear in turn, we hear the slow, pensive chords of an acoustic guitar, followed by the mournful horns, and then the strings, of James Horner's score.

Starting with the first guitar chord, we are treated to a stunning, eight-minute, opening sequence. We see a ship in the harbor of Gloucester, Massachusetts; a man on the dock, spreading out a plastic container of fish; a shipbuilder at work, much like his ancestors, 350 years before; men on the dock working with netting; Gloucester City Hall, and the honor roll inside; the statue of the "Fisherman at the Wheel"; a storm over the ocean; a sleeping woman crying out from a nightmare the name of her seafaring lover; and the fishing boats' return with their catch, the next morning. A sense of foreboding pervades the proceedings.

Whereas in other towns, the honor roll would be of men lost in foreign wars, at Gloucester City Hall, it is of the over 10,000 fishermen lost at sea, from circa 1623 unto the present day.

When the sister fishing boats the Andrea Gail and Hannah Boden triumphantly enter the harbor, the mournful theme is replaced by a loud, celebratory one, with electric guitars and rapid bursts of horns. Women run to the dock, to greet their men; children speed there on bikes, to meet their fathers. It is as if the men were returning war heroes. And they are heroes, every last one of them.

Some ships' payloads burst with swordfish weighing almost 500 pounds; others' pithy catches fail to make it to 100 pounds. We hear true Massachusetts accents. Along with the fishermen greeted by their families, we see those who have no families to greet them, or whose families have deserted them, men who work so hard, and for so little, that many cannot even afford a car. Their essential, honorable work, virtually unchanged for centuries, lacks all glamor, and they live without dreams or sentimentality. And yet, they do battle with nature, and do things that few today could physically survive doing, let alone do well.

A fisherman who passed away at sea, is carried away on a stretcher. Horner has the celebratory and mournful themes play point and counterpoint to each other. Even in joy, there is sadness.

The bringing in of a catch is rough, mundane work, if you're busy at it, but a thing of wonder to behold. Director Wolfgang Peterson, cinematographer John Seale, and Horner, give the proceedings the epic treatment they deserve.

Aspiring filmmakers would do well to study those first eight minutes, to learn how to establish plot, place, and characters.

In late October, 1991, as tropical hurricane Grace came north from Bermuda, she hit a storm system off Sable Island, on the Canadian coast, and was hit by a third system coming down from Canada, which had hitched a ride on the jet stream, to form an apocalyptic "tripleheader." It was the storm of the century - "the perfect storm."

George Clooney is gripping, if flawed, as Capt. Billy Tyne, who thinks there's nothing greater on earth, than being a swordfish boat captain. But Tyne has apparently lost his touch for finding where the fish are, and might lose his "site" (boat), if he doesn't start bringing in some big loads. Fast. And so, at the end of the season, he decides to go out for one last run. But what Capt. Tyne doesn't tell anyone, especially his boat's owner, who has expressly forbidden him from doing, is that he is headed for the Flemish Cap, hundreds of miles east of his usual fishing grounds, where there's "lots of fish ... and lots of weather." What Capt. Tyne doesn't know, is that he is heading straight into hell.

Tyne practically shanghais his men into the additional trip, threatening them with losing their sites (jobs) on his boat.

At dawn, when the men assemble to leave, bidding their women farewell, they look like motley gunslingers headed to the big gunfight, evoking the scene in The Wild Bunch, when Bill Holden's "Pike Bishop" says to Ernie Borgnine's "Dutch," "Let's go."

Eventually, the men must choose whether to risk their ship and their lives for a huge catch, or return home abject failures. The decision isn't about greed, it's about honor and pride.

The supporting roles are exquisitely cast. Passionaria Diane Lane, as crewman Bobby Shatford's lover, Christina "Chris" Cotter, has the Massachusetts accent down, and is believable, if at times over the top, as a woman desperately in love, who sees a way out of a dead-end life, that she fears the sea will steal from her. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio is solid as Linda Greenlaw, the successful swordfish boat captain who beckons to the hardbitten loner, Tyne, in her restrained fashion, as the partner he so desperately needs and desires, if only he has the sense to reach out to her. As Dale "Murph" Murphy, the face of John C. Reilly is a map of loss and regret. Murph's crewmate-antagonist, David "Sully" Sullivan (William Fichtener) has seemingly little to gain or lose in life. Michael "Bugsy" Moran (John Hawkes) is a man who, in spite of being consistently beaten down by life, has not lost his charm or sense of humor. As easygoing Alfred Pierre, Allen Payne makes the most of a sketchily-written role.

The special effects were so realistic, as to maintain their grip on my wife and me. Special effects that are "too good," that depict things that couldn't possibly occur in reality, leave me indifferent to whether things pan out on the screen.

While The Perfect Storm abounds in seat-of-the-pants action, it is always about the character of men in dire straits, which is why we care about them.

Finally, you might want to keep a fresh box of Kleenex handy.

Originally published in Toogood Reports, October 31, 2003.

Rating:
Summary: THE PERFECT CAST
Review: THE PERFECT STORM is one of those unabashedly sentimental epics Hollywood has been doing for years...and this is one fine addition to that list. Director Wolfgang Petersen commandeers a wonderful cast, and the special effects are stupendous. What made this movie work so much for me wasn't the leading roles of George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg or John C. Reilly, although they were just fine. It's the people in secondary roles, particularly the women, who made such an impact on me. Diane Lane is perfect as Christina, Mark's woman who wants to start a new life with him; even if her accent isn't quite up to par, her immersion in the role is great. Rusty Schwimmer as Irene, the overweight single mother who finds herself intrigued with Bugsy (John Hawke, in an outstanding performance) doesn't have a lot of screen time, but she commands it when she does. So does Janet Wright as Mark's momma, Edith. Wright's performance was right on key in both her love for her son and the acceptance of Diane into her family. Likewise, Merle Kennedy's role as John Reilly's ex-wife requires little screen time or dialogue, but her presence is powerfully felt. William Frichtner's painful presence as Reilly's nemesis is especially powerful as he saves Reilly's life and becomes more of a friend. Christopher McDonald as the metereologist who practically explodes in excitement with the birth of the perfect storm adds a strange tint of irony and sadness. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio's subtle sexuality ignites her scenes with Clooney and her eulogy is four or five hankies at least!
This is a movie movie and I enjoyed it immensely!
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Rating:
Summary: breathtaking
Review: a nicely done story of actual events. men who set out and then are faced with nature, excellent storm footage and the cast are top notch. Mark Wahlberg(The Big Hit, Boogie Nights), George Clooney(Solaris, From Dusk Till Dawn), Allen Payne(Jasons Lyric, Vampire In Brooklyn), John C. Reilly(Boogie Nights, Magnolia), John Hawkes(Identity, From Dusk Till Dawn), Diane Lane(The Glass House, Under The Tuscan Sun), Michael Ironside(Major Payne, Starship Troopers), William Fichtner(Equilibrium, Armageddon), Christopher McDonald(Requiem For A Dream, Terminal Velocity)and others make this a great view. the end will leave some women in tears