Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The disaster genre has not been successful in the past several years, rarely does a good, or at least memorable movie manage to squeeze out of the genre nowadays, The Impossible in 2012 for example. Every once in a while comes a surprise from this underused genre, this disaster drama directed by Wolfgang Peterson is one that graciously memorable and one that should still hold to this day. This movie set in the fall of 1991 tells the true story of Billy Tyne (played by George Clooney), a swordfisherman who leads his crew of fishermen on one last fishing expedition for the season across the Atlantic Ocean, despite the warnings of Captain Linda Greenlaw (played by Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) of a nasty hurricane approaching. As you may guess, what starts off as an enjoyable time of fish hunting and drinking becomes a terrifying fight for survival when the crew is caught into the powerful storm that puts their lives in serious peril. Highlighting a stellar cast aside Clooney of Mark Wahlberg, John C. Reilly, William Fichtner, John Hawkes, Allen Payne, and Diane Lane; this movie pulls a truly terrifying experience sparkled with a great screenplay and credible performances.The title speaks well as this storm was called by meteorologists 'The Storm of The Century', and with the story dealing with such a devastating disaster; you should more than likely anticipate some emotional intensity to come. This is indeed, a really intense film that leaves your heart pounding and praying for the characters' survival, especially as this is a true story. Like many real-life based films, the accuracy of the events is subject for debate, but those who grow enticed by the moving story are likely to ignore the possible liberties this film takes. The characters are thinly developed but grow to be likable, even when they are shown to have rude sides such as the heated tension between John C. Reiley and William Fitchner. The performances by the cast are quite good, though none of them solidly stand out whether it is George Clooney stepping into the role of the well dedicated captain, or Mark Wahlberg playing a young rookie fisherman with a cautious girlfriend back at home played by Diane Lane . Nothing Oscar-worthy should be expected. The story moves at a decent pace and builds up to anticipated climax where the film reaches it's the highest point of it's emotional heft. The entire sequence of the violent storm are mightily brought to life by chilling special effects and dazzling visuals to embrace the authenticity, and leaves just enough room for an emotional impact to sink in as you fear for the characters' survival. The Perfect Storm does not sit on the throne of disaster movies, nor does it to. But it is a powerful film that is both entertaining and somewhat tear-jerking, and not in a manipulative manner. The cast performances are great, the screenplay works like a charm, and director Wolfgang Peterson does a gracious job on paying a tribute to the victims of the the disaster. The Perfect Storm is something worth watching.

"The Perfect Storm" features some excellent special effects and some good thrills while at sea, but the film ultimately fails to generate real drama. The story spends ample time developing the characters and getting us to know them, but nearly half of it is on land so I felt like I was missing out. My understanding is that if you take the book this film was based on, you take some of the actual facts of what happened on the commercial fishing boat Andrea Gail, you make up a events and toss some wicked special effects together you've got the plot of this movie. Desperate for money after a series of bad catches, Captain Billy Tyne (George Clooney) and his crew, consisting of Mark Wahlberg as Bobby, John C. Reilly as Murph, William Fichtner as Sully, Allen Payne as Alfred and John Hawkes as "Bugsy" all set sail… unaware that there is a storm brewing on the ocean… The titular "Perfect Storm"! Once at sea the crew spends so much time barely making it through the day and bickering between each other that when they get into some severe weather trouble we really don't feel like they stand a chance. They never proved to me that they can handle your run-of-the-mill stressful situation so when things went bad here, I was underwhelmed. We never see the well-oiled machine that would boldly go into the ocean thinking nothing can stop them so the ensuing streak of catastrophes feels like it was just something inevitable instead of a tragic and frightening development. It'd be like mocking Freddy Krueger on a Halloween night while staying at Crystal Lake. It would be a shock if you DIDN'T end up being in a horrific situation. I also feel like a big gripe that I have with the film is its length. The film also has several sub plots that could have been dropped. At 2 hrs. + this disaster film is way too long for its own good and some audiences will check out way before the titular storm even arrives. Whether you get bored or not you'll likely leave puzzled after seeing the ending. Even though the final events do follow the rest of the film logically and it's clear that it was genuine respect and admiration that inspired the film it's a big miss-step that brings it down even further. In the end it's not really that the movie is that bad as much as it's underwhelming considering how great the well done moments are. I say it's a middle-of-the-road picture because half of the movie is just kind of OK, and when the storm is raging, it's awesome so it averages out to… an average movie. I do admire the special effects though, if this movie was ever released in theatres again, and maybe even in 3-D it would look terrific and I'd jump to the opportunity to see it again. (On DVD, October 29, 2012)

Captain Billy Tyne (George Clooney) is struggling with a string of bad results. Others like Linda Greenlaw (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) are outfishing him. His crew is also struggling and they risk to go further than all the others. When their refrigeration goes, they either sit out the storms and lose their catch, or make a dash home through the Perfect Storm.The drama isn't really there. We all know what's going to happen. Wolfgang Peterson doesn't really give us any surprises, but quite frankly, I don't think he had any surprises to give. The background family stories aren't anything imaginative. He probably should have treated this like other disaster movies. Get to the disaster and have some action fun. It takes too long to get to the disaster.

George Clooney was trying to shake off his Dr Doug Ross "ER" image and Mark Wahlberg was trying to shake off Marky Mark for good. As both give a strong performance with great support from character actors Michael Ironside, Dale Murphy, and a then unknown John C Reiley. Based on a fact based movie in which a 1991 New England ship got lost in the storm aka hence the title. As the crew led by George, as the crew is hard pressed for money. Despite fears of a thunderstorm, they reluctantly agree to go.Which will test them professional and personally. As they bond together despite their differences. But really it makes you think that it is real. You forget that they are actors.They are ordinary people that just want to make a living and put food on the table. As the storm nears, the men must lean on another to make it out. Easier said than done.George and Mark have since gone onto better and bigger things since this movie thirteen years ago!