The Perfect Storm
Setting out for the one last catch that will make up for a lackluster fishing season, Captain Billy Tyne (George Clooney) pushes his boat the Andrea Gail out to the waters of the Flemish Cap off Nova Scotia for what will be a huge swordfish haul. While his crew is gathering fish, three storm fronts (including a hurricane) collide to create a "perfect storm" of colossal force, and Billy's path back to Gloucester, Massachusetts, takes them right smack into the middle of it. Wolfgang Petersen's adaptation of Sebastian Junger's seafaring bestseller is a faithful if by-the-numbers true-story account of a monster storm that rocked New England in 1991, specifically Tyne's commercial fishing boat and its crew. Junger's tale fashioned a compelling if staid narrative out of seemingly disparate events, but this film adaptation tends to flatten out the story into a conventional if absorbing story of man vs. nature, as the crew fights for survival against the awesome waves the storm kicks up. The central part of the film, which cuts between the Andrea Gail's fight to stay afloat and the attempts of the Coast Guard to rescue a yacht in peril, is suspenseful action of the first degree, aided by some awesome computer-generated waves. Still, it's a long way to that action, with an extended first act that consists mainly of stoic men, crying women, and a fair amount of "don't go out into the sea" dialogue--in other words, a compelling story has been shoehorned into standard summer movie fare. It's too bad, as Peterson assembled an excellent cast--including Mark Wahlberg, Diane Lane, John C. Reilly, and William Fichtner among them--but seems to opt for only a surface exploration of these characters, though Clooney seems to have a touch of Captain Ahab in him. You may still be won over by the movie, but for a more in-depth portrait, go to Junger's book for the missing details. --Mark Englehart
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Last updated: October 31, 2009, 3:20 am
The Perfect Storm Cusomter reviews:
Average Rating: 3.0 Total Reviews: 437
(One Claw, 2009-10-07) The Perfect Storm is an excellent movie with breathtaking special effects, especially noticeable on blu-ray format.
(Gregory Streeter, 2009-07-31) Most About the Perfect Storm has already be written here so I will limit my review to the HD-DVD mastering issue. I own both the HD-DVD and regular Widescreen DVD version of this film. I was surprised to discover the HD-DVD film transfer to video was NOT 1080p but rather a poor quality up-convert to 1080p from what was clearly a standard 480p master. You can see annoying blocking edges around all sharp lines as if the 480p video was bumped to 1080p with little or no interpolation. Ironically the regular Widescreen DVD looks way better, as my player has built-in up-converting interpolation that cleans up most 480p to 1080p edge artifacts. If you are looking to see this film in true HD, don't buy the HD-DVD. I have yet to try the Blu-Ray to see if it's in true 1080p. Any feedback on the Blu-Ray this would be appreciated.
(Jesus E. Rodriguez, 2009-04-09) Thanks for the product. I recieved it right on time, and in good shape. Once again thank you, and i will recomend the seller to my friends.
(E. Pierce, 2008-11-23) I enjoyed this movie in the theater and bought this Blu-Ray disc to see it in high definition. Unfortunately, the Audio on the disc box indicates Dolby Digital TrueHD 5.1. Even the Blu-ray disc menu shows TrueHD as an option, but it doesn't work! I use an Onkyo TX-SR605 receiver to playback the Hi-Def audio like TrueHD and dts-HD. The sound is a big improvement from regular Dolby Digital. For some reason, this option doesn't work with this disk. (Wonder if anyone else experienced this problem???) So, a four star movie gets only 3!
(Brennan Gordon, 2008-10-03) I felt like this movie did a lot of typical things movies of this sort do: bad things are going to happen to these plucky guys, so let's give you some back story so you sympathize with them. Some of the back story in this movie was pretty cheesy. The movie picks up once the storm rolls in, but the weather guy at the TV station in Boston commenting on the meteorology to bring you along was pretty cheesy, too. Everyone has a pretty good idea how this ends up, but I'll try not to spoil it. There is a pretty good side story with a Coast Guard ship and an Air Force Reserve helicopter. The movie condenses down a couple of stories from the book, and takes some other liberties that have made other viewers skeptical about this plot. Yes, the Air Force helicopter really went out on a rescue in the storm, and it did in-flight refueling, although the helicopter's mission didn't have to do with the Andrea Gail. The rest of the helicopter's story is pretty much portrayed correctly. Usually when I've seen a fair to good movie based on the book, I'll find that the book is definitely worth reading, and that was the case here. As is also usually the case, I'm glad I saw the movie first.