Rating: 
Summary: book was better
Review: Not a bad hollywood version of the book, but misses the nuance of Junger's original fine book
Rating: 
Summary: Perfect DVD - film 3 & 1/2 - DVD = 5 stars - average 4 star
Review: The movie is great, if you've read the book it's a pretty faithful adaptation in terms of feel and incidents.In the book Sebastian Junger recounts tales(incidents & scenarios)that took place on earlier expeditons of the Andrea Gail and on other ships. In the movie obviously no one really knows happened in the last hours of the Andrea Gail so Wolfgang Petersen takes dramatic license and adapts the stories as if they happened on the Andrea Gails last fatal outing. If you can get that key element into your head - dramatic license- you will enjoy this movie, because it does suffer from some overly sentimental scenes. Such as the scene with(Dale)John Reilly and his son before the Andrea Gails ships out and the very last truly horrendus scene where Walhberg is seen with soap opera voice over declaring his love for his other half (although this is described by Junger in the book as being a dream that Billy Shatfords girlfriend Christina had it should've been filmed differently - no voice over would have been more dramatic- especially seeing as Diane Lane playing Christina also verbally recounts the dream to Bobbys mum anyway - bad screen writing). Anyway the truly great thing about this is the enlighting DVD commentaries by Sebastian Junger & especially Wolfgang Petersen. Petersen is a true joy to hear, always jolly and humourous- obviously a man who has a love of filmmaking and life in general.
Jungers commentary is also very informative, a good companion to the book. Petersen's commentary still has to be the best commentary I've heard on a DVD period. The docus and making of a pretty good to, all in all the extras are not too overwhelming like on some recent DVDs, just enough to be enjoyable, yet through and informative too. Buy it.
Rating: 
Summary: A disappointment
Review: This movie was so hyped that I came to it with the expectation of a really fine work of art. Unfortunately, that's not what I got. As tragic as this movie was, I didn't feel sorry for these fishermen. They knew the horrible combined storm that was brewing and went out in it anyway. They risked their lives for a load of swordfish? Talk about people who need to set their priorities straight!
Rating: 
Summary: The Not-So-Perfect Storm Movie
Review: The "A Perfect Storm Movie" is about the sad story of poor fishermen who cannot seem to catch enough fish to get by. When their captian finds a large group of fish, the crew sets off on a dangerous journey. While they are returning home, a massive storm forms. They stupidly decide to continue home even though it means battling huge waves.
While watching this movie, I found myself bored out of my mind. The character-developing section is unnessisarily long. You will begin to grow restless waiting for the wave scenes. Then as wave after wave tossel the ship around, you will wonder why you purchased this movie. Why buy this movie when you can just wait for a hurricane to be televised on the news. As the movie draws to an end, one question enters your mind, 'Why did I waste all that time watching this?'
Rating:
Summary: Not perfect, but good
Review: I did not want to see this movie... but my wife talked me into this one, and I was pleasantly surprised. It is a story of a group of fishermen who go a little farther from shore then they should have and get into a big, BIG storm on the way back. The special effects in this movie are really good--the waves on that ocean are very intense. Clooney and Wahlberg head a cast that is good, but not great. Still, they make the story believable, and the story develops nicely. Overall, this is a good movie, and one I recommend at least to see. I don't know if I'd buy it, but you can decide that after. 'The Perfect Storm' is definitely worth your time.
Rating:
Summary: The Worst God-Awful Movie Ever
Review: Where do I begin? This is the worst movie ever. The cast did a horrible job, and the script was so corny i had to leave the theater. The DVD (a friend showed me, I didn't buy it) is just as bad, with the same horrible movie, and a bunch of features that are the same as on any other DVD. There is just some lousy behind-the-scenes stuff that you would see on any other DVD, like the cameras rolling across a cart following the cast or something, and nothing major about how the wave effects were made. As for that, the movie itself is just bad. 6 fishermen set out from a port in Maine, and go very far out to sea looking for the big catch. When they finally get it, they start back, only to find out a huge hurricane is in their path. They go anyway, and it turns out that the ending sucks almost as badly as the movie itself. This is really just a sappy love story involving fish. If another movie like this ever comes out I'll go paranoid. I'll just put it the simple way: This is the worst movie to come out in the past 10 years and it should have never made it to video, let alone DVD. Then again, the effects in this movie are amazing, which is why I gave it 2 stars. I don't know how they did it, but the special effects made the movie better. Considering how bad this movie is to begin with, the effects guy should have gotten an Oscar for those waves. Other than the effects, this movie starts a snore war everytime you watch it. If you like sappy romantic dramas, then get this. Otherwise, save yourself some money and and get a good movie, like Orange County or Crouching Tiger. Hidden Dragon.
Rating:
Summary: A Fun movie with a great cast
Review: The "Perfect Storm" has three themes pulling to appeal for a broad audience: first, a glamourized view of six seaman lives and their relationships. Second, the story of a Henry Shackleton like captain. Third, the natural castrophe known by meterologies as the storm of the century. The producer Gail Katz and director Wolfgang Peterson selected a great cast: George Clooney
Mark Wahlberg
William Fichtner
Bob Gunton
John Reilly
Allen Payne
John Hawkes
Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio
Karen Allen Economic pressure revealed some of the harsh realities about the fishing business mainly the oceans have been overfished. Fishing yield was down caused from over fishing, smaller fish sizes, and better scanning technology preventing fish to reach maturity and reproduction. The cost of the ships, men, and banks increased the pressure on the captain to make a large fishing score. The captain knew a place where there would be fish. It was a well kept secret. Willing to venture into more remote channels the captain recruited his team of six. Was the captain acting irrationally? History protrays him as being heroic. If viewed as the Henry Shackleton of the Altantic, he was a hero. Willing to endure the buffets of the storm, smartly navigate his ship against the bitter cold wall so water, and rally and fighting his men against mutiny; the captain rational was unquestionable. The payoff in captured tuna presented a stronger temptation then returning to safety. The odds seemed to be against the captain. This creating a very interesting and compelling tension through the movie. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio was the voice of reason. She was largely ignored and viewed as the challenge to be proven wrong. The meterological facts causing the storm of the century could be a movie in itself. Computer models detected the probability of two jet streams colliding. The effect was the storm of the century: thousands of tornado, incredible lighting storms, hurricane winds, and massive flooding. Storm warnings indicated one of the most massive storms in recorded history. Documentaries of the storm show the wide spread range of destruction. We learned how powerful mother nature could be. In short, I liked the movie. I felt the movie could have been tighter in focus increasing the drama of the story.
Rating:
Summary: Uneven, Hollywood-ized
Review: This is not as bad as I feared. I would never have watched it except that it was mentioned twice in a noncommittal way in a book I had just finished reading, Stuart Pimm's The World According to Pimm: A Scientist Audits the Earth (2001). It starts out like something from any of half a dozen big project Hollywood directors, e.g., James Cameron (Titanic) or Lasse Hallstrom (Chocolat), with faux realism and intrusive atmospheric sights and sounds and bits of background sound-bite conversations played too loud. I'm already shifting in my seat when I realize that Wolfgang Petersen, who produced and directed The Perfect Storm is none other than the very same Wolfgang Petersen who produced and directed the internationally acclaimed German language classic, Das Boot (1981), one of the best war movies of all time. So now I'm thinking, how bad can this be? Turns out that The Perfect Storm is one of those movies that can't decide whether it's a man's action flick or a woman's relationship saga. Petersen spends an inordinate amount of time giving each of his crew members some kind of relationship before sending them off into the mother of all storms, reminding me of movies where the guys go away to war and the women stay behind keeping the home fires burning. Enough time is spent in the bar to make me think we're watching "Cheers" or we're on shore leave before the final assault. Strange thing about this is that Petersen, in making Das Boot, didn't care in the slightest about establishing relationships or engaging the female audience. But times have changed. Today's Hollywood director knows that to get people into the theaters you've got to make sure that women's issues and interests are addressed. "Not that there's anything wrong with that!" (A quote from Seinfeld in a different context, that you might recall.) But imagine how diluted and unfocused Das Boot would have been had Petersen spent half an hour delineating each of the crew's fraus and frauleins. However, some of the work was worth the effort. The relationship between Irene and Bugsy (Rusty Schwimmer and John Hawkes, both doing a good job) was different and compelling: "I wish it was night so I could say, Goodnight, Irene." He speaks true corn. "There'll be a time for that" she rejoins, to the point and suggestively. (I'm paraphrasing from memory.) But the relationship between male and female fishboat captains (George Clooney and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) never got off the ground, and I yawned through the all too familiar quandary of young lovers, Mark Wahlberg and Diane Lane. Anyway, at last we are out the harbor and onto the fishing grounds. I was hoping for some real authentic, little known color about long-line fishermen, and I got some: the storage cells where the fish are packed with ice, the lines going out baited, the shark on deck, still biting...but that was about it. I was also hoping for some fisherman point of view on the world-wide controversy about over fishing and the "Tragedy of the Commons," but all we get is that they're not making as much money as they would like, and the boat's owner gets more than seems fair. Okay, so let's see the storm. And we do and it's a monster, with massive waves throwing people all over the place threatening to swallow up the little fishing boat. Best action shot: the wave blasting the cargo containers off the deck like toys (actually they were toys). But I kept thinking, who really knows what it was like on that boat in the middle of that storm? The boat flips over and flips upright and then flips again. Nobody knows who tried to get out and who didn't. And were the lights still on? I would think it would get pitch black at night under the water. What I'm saying is, the cheap cutouts used for some of the water scenes in Das Boot were more effective than the millions spent on special effects for The Perfect Storm. At least in the former we knew they were merely simulations. Here the attempt at realism underscores the fact that I'm watching a movie. Oh, and the musical score: not only intrusive, but unnecessarily directive in the sense that it's telling me how I should feel about what I'm watching.
Bottom line: This is just interesting enough to keep a drowsy couple awake on a Sunday night, but be forewarned. The kids will want to stay up and see the storm.
Rating: 
Summary: An Edge-of-Your-Seat Thrill Ride
Review: Wolfgang Petersen ("Das Boot") has delivered a first-rate thriller with "The Perfect Storm". George Clooney stars as Billy, a down-on-his-luck fisherman in search of one last big catch before the season ends. Mark Wahlberg stars as Bobby, the hard-working shipmate who dreams of making a better life for himself and his girlfriend. Billy (Clooney) decides to sail his ship, the Andrea Gail to the Flemish Cap, which is many miles from their home port of Glouster, Mass. Upon reaching the cap, Billy and his crew find the fishing plentiful, but they are forced to cut their trip short when the ice making machine which is used to keep the fish cold breaks. Reports of a developing storm are received and the Andrea Gail decides to head for home. The storm, which was spawned by a convergance of multiple weather fronts, shows its fury to the Andrea Gail. The ship is tossed about like a rag doll from the force of the waves. Ultimately, the Andrea Gail capsizes and sinks, leaving Bobby (Wahlberg) floating in the sea at the end. This movie is loaded with awesome special effects. The storm sequences are fantastic, and the rescue effort by the Coast Guard crew is excellent. If you enjoy suspense and action-packed movies, then "The Perfect Storm" is one you shouldn't miss.
Rating:
Summary: just ok
Review: this movie can be made much better. it is based on a true story that a group of fisherman met "the perfect storm" and how they go through it. The special effect for the storm and tidal waves are nice but the story a bit slow and boring.
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