A Masterpiece!

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

Blistering performances.

I'm a sucker for disaster movies and I hadn't previously seen flooding tackled in the genre, but I still sat down to watch this 2003 film with low expectations given its made-for-TV nature. Unfortunately, it turns out to be a really cruddy movie, one which focuses on soap opera family drama over disaster and wastes all of its potential.The film opens with a minor accident at a dam that sees a token black character drowned. From then on in, the film slows way down with its tale of a broken family and a dastardly developer who cares nothing for human lives. It quickly becomes apparent that the budget is the lowest of the low, because there are only two scenes of flooding and a couple of dodgy composite shots of a flooded city. The flooding scenes themselves are hilariously awful, achieved by miniature effects that wouldn't look amiss in a '70s flick but are woefully dated by modern standards. And don't get me started on the misnomer of a title – approximately two people die in the entire film, leaving this dull-as-floodwater outing extremely anti-climatic.

Cinematic Perfection.No single two words can be more suited to the genius that is this masterpiece of all moving picture shows.The acting: Sublime.The script: Dramatic.The visual effects: Like you can smell, taste, even hear the water, or feel the blood running through poor, downtrodden, dam-bolt-bulleted Frank's fingers. Delicious.The sound effects: When David and Garth run-crawl through the metal tube, you can hardly tell the difference between above mentioned and a tin can rattled by a spoon. Technological brilliance.The Direction: Standing ovation. And kneel in submission.The Conclusion: Hands down, the single most thrilling moment in filmography. *Spoiler Alert* The make-out scene involving the legendary dam architect, David Arthur Powell, and the sexy sultress interim mayor, Natalie Powell. *Spoiler Alert conclusion* It just captures the embrace of the audience, the latter flailing in desperate attempts to tie up the loose ends of their frazzled psyche. The estranged, mentally unstable husband. The mayor-wife searching for answers through the fog of love. and hate. The strong, Einstein's-Theory-of-Relativity-smart, 12 year old puberty-ridden Garth, resentful and abandoned, abandoned resentfully. The plight of Deputy Sheriff Bloom beginning the movie in shy obscurity, but coming out, Blooming if you will, into a passionate and firm officer of the law. If you cannot shed a tear for the moment that brings these lives back out into the light where we belong. Wherever we belong. If you cannot shed, then you must be dead. Emotionally. Bravo.If only just for one day I could rate a movie above 10 stars.10.1 / 10 The Endnote: If you have not had the privilege, nay honour, to witness this movie-industry revolutionary then you may as well not witness life itself. Here's lookin' at you kid. Good night and Good Luck.

This is a well directed well acted disaster movie. The script keeps the interest up right from beginning to end. This may not have the special effects budget of other like movies but that does'nt stop it packing a real punch. When it comes to casting this movies leaves the likes of Day After Tomorrow in the shade. Bruce Boxleitner is super as the baddie, this actor does'nt put a foot wrong and if this is anything to go by is very underrated. Michele Greene is top notch as the mayor and watch out for Mathew Ewald as her son. The term the next James Dean is often used loosely but it can be used confidently in relation to this young actor. This kid is going to go far. Finally Joshua J Masters puts in a lovely performance as the Deputy Sheriff. Do'nt miss it!

Killer Flood: The Day the Damn Broke: 1/10: Finally a movie whose title is spoiler proof. Even by the low standards of disaster movies, excuse me allow me to correct myself, even by the low standards of made for TV disaster movies this is truly awful. Where do I begin? The dam modeler may have once seen a photo of a dam but I doubt it. Most dams, especially large ones that generate electricity have oh I don't know a power plant nearby, some sluice gates for water to run through, heck even a high tension electrical wire or two. The dam is also somewhat understaffed. Two, count them, two employees staff the entire dam, all three shifts. And the employees were apparently imported from a clichéd ridden world war two film, as they heroically and rather needlessly have long eulogized death scenes complete with photos of grandchildrenn floating by. Heck one of them manages to get shot by the dam itself in a way that defies description. The special effects consist of flowing water superimposed on photo's of the town in a method that makes a sixties Godzilla film look like the Matrix. A three-year-old drawing with a blue crayon on the film stock would have yielded better results. Since the disaster money shots are worthless how is the rest of the film? Needless to say the script and acting follow the special effects lead. This is no diamond in the rough. This is the rough. So is it a guilty pleasure? Killer Flood is awful enough to generate some laughs and the film itself has that earnest incompetence that makes a good cult classic, but bad disaster films need to age like a fine wine. (Avalanche, The Swarm, Meteor) It is also doubtful that Michelle Green hiding from the flood in a dumpster with a golden retriever will ever match the great Henry Fonda being pelted by raisins that are supposed to be killer bees. Check back with me in 2024.