Somewhere inside The Perfect Storm there's a near-perfect movie drowning under gale-force swells of romanticized sea-faring melodrama. Here's a stomach-in-knots true story about the rugged crew of a swordfishing boat caught in the biggest sea storm in modern history--a terrifying human saga with unsurpassed, seat-gripping special effects, strong performances from a stellar cast (George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Diane Lane) and a potent level of realism. Yet the movie's potential got gutted in post-production, where director Wolfgang Petersen (Air Force One) slathered it in sentimentality-laden weepy voice-overs, choppy editing that cuts away to distracting sub-plots and an incessant, intrusive score (by Titanic's James Horner) that saturates every single frame of the film with pounding tympani and crashing cymbals. How frustrating to see a good movie ruined by its Hollywoodization. Still, a strong optional purchase, given its popularity and sell-through price. (R. Blackwelder)
The Perfect Storm
Warner, 129 min., PG-13, VHS: $22.99, DVD: $24.98, Nov. 14 Vol. 15, Issue 6
The Perfect Storm
Star Ratings
As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.
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