Instead, producer Gail Katz and director Wolfgang Peterson (who also directed such classics as *Das Boot*) have taken the hoary Gloucestermen-gamble-and-lose theme and turned it into a spectacular action film complete with some of the finest computer-generated special effects that have appeared on the big screen in many a year. Some of the dialog and thematic material is predictable, and yes, unabashedly "Hollywood," but so what? The end product is extremely well-crafted, technically breathtaking, and thoroughly absorbing. The film is worth seeing just for the computer-created storm effects, but on top of this, the acting, direction, and editing are all first-rate.

After all, don't most of us go to the movie theater with a willingness to surrender to a few cliches, as long as these are presented in a form that is powerful and entertaining? This film is definitely of the "Hollywood blockbuster" genre, but I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I think most other viewers will, too.

10 of 11 found the following review helpful:

This movie was great movie in many meanings.  Dec 10, 2004
By taka(Japanese
This movie, Perfect Storm was great movie in many meanings. The opportunity that I was interested to this movie at first was for that the main theme was weather phenomenon. I have known that incredible storms, their three storms touched each other, broke a few years ago, but I have not known about the detail things. I have the knowledge about weather to some extent because I am interested to weather phenomenon daily. For that, the movie that showed the rare phenomenon that theree storms including hurricane and cold front line etc contacted each other gave shock to me.

In addition to that, the movie expressed such unbelievable theme very well. I think that it is natural that the makers use the artficial technique like computer graphics and so on. But because the movie theme was nature, using the technique must have needed many care. But in such rimitation, the great expression was made, for instance wave is so. The makers made high wave that we can never see in our life. The wave was very natural. The thirilling case even that a fishing ship dived into wave wall was expressed with incredible excitment very well.

And except of their weather, there was climaxs in the movie. That was human drama. The main vhicle in the movie was a fishing ship. And the crew were wild and impoliteness in my first glance. But as the story went, my emotion for their changed little and little, that is to say, though they were a little crazy men who did the actions like diving to such storms, when I say in other view, they had bravery that they dared to go the storms without turning back, that was pure benefit that they derired to get back fishes to the hometown. Such bravery can be said to my daily life. As I am adult, tend to lose bravery and be timid, I felt that I should go to dangerouse scene even for achiving my goal in the movie.

Finally, they had been drunk by wave. I expected that the last would be happy end even if whether the movie was on non-fiction or not. But I felt in the other side that their bravery was testified by such ending again, before we think about the uneasy, anyway move to the goal.

Thank you for reading poor English.

7 of 8 found the following review helpful:

THE PERFECT CAST  Nov 03, 2003
By Michael Butts
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.

17 of 22 found the following review helpful:

Glorified TV movie!  Oct 21, 2000
By Amazon Reviewer
The Perfect Storm is not much more than a glorified TV-movie. Sure, it wasn't lacking goodlooking stars (George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Diane Lane) or money for special effects (the sea is quite terrifying), but really interesting, no.

This movie tells the story of a group of fishermen, who go out into "one of the biggest storms of all times", to catch some fish because they have kids to feed, people to support, they need the money. the tragedy can easily be foreseen of course.

What makes this movie attractive, is the emotional buildup, seeing the crew of the boat bond, set themselves over their prejudice, and risk their lives for each other, even those they thought they "hates". It is the story of courageous men who don't walk away, but face their enemy up to the point of losing, the real story of simple fishermen who risked their lives for others.

Regardless of the big stars, the money that went in, and the great ratings, I don't think this movie is worth buying. If it's on tv on a friday night, turn the tv on, (or if you're a big George Clooney fan, go see it cuz he looks sexy) but other than that, don't waste your money on this, there are much better movies out there!

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