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The Perfect Storm
Metascore
59 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 36 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 20 out of 36
  2. Mixed: 15 out of 36
  3. Negative: 1 out of 36
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  1. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    100
    This is one perfectly terrifying movie, an instant classic.
  2. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marc Savlov
    89
    Nearly a perfect film, from its bold and epic man-vs.-nature conflict to the breathless scripting, editing, acting, and direction.
  3. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    88
    A well-crafted example of a film of pure sensation. I do not mind admitting I was enthralled.
  4. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Jay Carr
    88
    'Titanic'' was a case of a cheeseball story riding terrific effects. The Perfect Storm is in every important way deeper.
  5. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Ann Hornaday
    88
    Accomplishes a delicate balancing act, that of entertaining the audience with the thrills and adventure of the Andrea Gail's final journey.
  6. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    80
    As a movie, this is exciting stuff.
  7. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Lisa Alspector
    80
    Scary and exciting.
  8. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Wilmington
    75
    Unabashedly designed to blow its audience away.
  9. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    75
    Dive right in if you're looking for an old-fashioned entertainment that delivers corny romance, turbulent action, and enough wave-churning seascapes to make "Titanic" seem landlocked.
  10. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jami Bernard
    75
    Petersen's speculative reenactment makes for gripping summer entertainment -- if you don't mind a little corn floating in your brine.
  11. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Steven Rea
    75
    The problem with The Perfect Storm is that while its roiling collision of weather systems is pulled off with cinematic deftness, the actors who stand there getting lashed and splashed don't have anything terribly interesting to say.
  12. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Edward Guthmann
    75
    Does about as good a job of simulating that terror as it possibly could, but it's no competition for what we create in our mind's eye while reading.
  13. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    70
    Has noticeable problems with characterization and dialogue. But once that awesome storm, one of the most terrifying ever put on film, gets cranked up, it's hard to remember what those difficulties were, let alone care too much about them.
  14. Newsweek
    Reviewed by: David Ansen
    70
    Impersonal Hollywood filmmaking at its most paradoxical. It keeps you glued to your seat, and leaves no aftertaste whatsoever.
  15. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Shawn Levy
    67
    The stick-figure people in the script haven't the slightest chance of making an impression, and you're more excited at the prospect of the next big wave?
  16. TNT RoughCut
    Reviewed by: Susannah Breslin
    65
    The perfect example, of how the newest visual effects movies have the capacity to overwhelm everything--from actors to plotlines--except in the end, maybe, their audiences.
  17. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Rene Rodriguez
    63
    The movie is "Twister" on the high seas, a spectacular-looking, spectacularly hollow tale about foolhardy men vs. imperious nature.
  18. San Francisco Examiner
    Reviewed by: Wesley Morris
    63
    An enthralling special-effects tour de force with a lover's nook.
  19. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Susan Wloszczyna
    63
    So much water. Such a dramatic washout.
  20. Charlotte Observer
    Reviewed by: Lawrence Toppman
    63
    By the end, I felt like a beetle going round and round in a toilet bowl that just wouldn't stop flushing.
  21. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Maitland McDonagh
    60
    Overall, the book is a far more rewarding experience than the movie.
  22. Film.com
    Reviewed by: Robert Horton
    60
    The storm is the reason to see the movie.
  23. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    58
    Petersen gives us monumental images of waves and rain and wind, but the editing is so choppy that the images don't build and crest.
  24. Mr. Showbiz
    Reviewed by: Kevin Maynard
    50
    But jaw-dropping trailer aside, there isn't much movie here.
  25. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: William Arnold
    50
    Not terrible, but distinctly disappointing, not nearly as engaging or thrilling as its premise seems to promise.
  26. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: J. Hoberman
    50
    Rains on its own parade.
  27. Film.com
    Reviewed by: John Hartl
    50
    Big effects; threadbare story.
  28. Film.com
    Reviewed by: Tom Keogh
    50
    Once at sea, The Perfect Storm collapses in a heap of spectacle and a dubious piling-on of scary incidents.
  29. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Stephen Holden
    50
    The Perfect Storm is no "Titanic."
  30. Time
    Reviewed by: Richard Corliss
    50
    What's true about The Perfect Storm is true of many effects epics: it's not a bad movie, except for the people.
  31. Variety
    Reviewed by: Todd McCarthy
    50
    The yarn's emotional undercurrents never take hold, resulting in a picture that leaves one thinking less about the fates of the characters than about how the actors had to spend most of their working days soaking wet.
  32. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Stephanie Zacharek
    40
    Its spectacular special effects threaten to swallow characters whole, and there are times when overwrought and clumsy dialogue... nearly pitch you right out of the movie's mood.
  33. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Manohla Dargis
    40
    The whole thing is kitsch of the most pricey sort, and it's a good guess that it will be a smash.
  34. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    40
    It's shocking, considering the talent involved, the The Perfect Storm looks and feels fake.
    All this critic's reviews
  35. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Robert Wilonsky
    40
    It may have been the perfect storm, but this is the imperfect movie.
  36. Slate
    Reviewed by: David Edelstein
    30
    It's like a memorial service with killer special effects.
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User Reviews

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User Score
6.0 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 24 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 13
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 13
  3. Negative: 4 out of 13
  1. Spielberg00
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click full review link to view. The thing that really irks me about THE PERFECT STORM is that I had read that it was a disaster film (and it's made pretty much clear in the title), but the actual disaster didn't get started for a whole forty minutes, which almost brought me to the point of thinking that "Perfect Storm" was some kind of metaphor. The basic layout is as follows: 1-30 minutes - characters are introduced with enough relationship statuses, innuendos, overly charismatic drama to create an entire soap opera; 31-40 minutes - the characters leave their spouses/fiancées, board the ship, but continue with the non sequiturs and double entendres that make you groan, "Enough already!"; 41-120 minutes - over an hour of TITANIC-esque intensity and dazzling (but terrifying, considering this is based on a true story) disaster scenes--which is exciting, but it makes you think, "We go from soap opera...to disaster?", because the beginning does NOT make sense to the rest of the film; 121-128 minutes - the film is coming to an end, with slightly less intensity, but thankfully no "return of the soap opera"; 129 minutes - the film's over, folks, you can go home now. That's the gist of this mediocre movie. It's just what you expect of a shipwreck film.… Full Review »
  2. Scottyv523
    9
    The Perfect Storm is movie based on a true story, about a skipper (captain) and his crew of a sword fishing boat going out and fishing in one of the worst storms to hit New England. The crew goes through trials of will and character when many things go wrong on the boat throughout the trip. The movie is based off a true story that actually happened about a boat that was lost to a freak accident of nature creating what meteorologists call the perfects storm. Overall the perfect storm was a great movie in my eyes had great acting, good visuals, awesome story and fantastic realism all mixed in one. I would recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys movies based on true events. The perfect storm was overall a great movie for it being based off real events. The story was great, I would give it a 9 out of 10. The acting was fantastic I had no problem believing that George Clooney Mark Walberg and the rest of the crew were fisherman. When George Clooney says âI will find the fish, I always find the fishâ at the beginning of the movie it sent chills down my spine, I could really feel the passion he had for his role as captain of a sword boat. Near the end of the movie the ship starts to sink after trying to make it up what looks like a wave the size of a 4 story building and ends up sinking. After the boat sinks mark Walberg escapes and George Clooney almost does to but decides to go down with the ship like a real skipper should. After Mark Walberg escapes he makes a speech at the end of the movie just floating in the water that nearly brought a tear to my eye. I felt so bad for his girlfriend losing what seemed like her soul mate. The acting in this movie was so good I was enthralled with the story and felt like I was really there and that the outcome of the movie actually affected my life. The realism of the movie was also great, very similar as to what it was like to be on a real sword boat. I am an avid watcher of the series Swords a television reality show about what it is like to fish on a real sword boat and the movie was spot on with what actually goes on in these boats and how the crew acts. Even down to the boat they used in the movie looked exactly like a boat that came out of Gloucester, mass in fact 10 years after the movie was filmed; they took the boat used in the movie painted it over and turned it into a regular fishing boat in Gloucester harbor. The routine and the weather that the crew braved few were pretty accurate except for a few exaggerations near the end of the movie when the boat tries to make it up a 100 foot wave. The storyline itself was an exceptional tale for being based of a true story, it kept me on the edge of my seat through the whole movie. Although there were a few details in the story that were skewed just for the sole purpose of making a exciting fluid movie that sold tickets. Linda green law the female skipper in the beginning of the movie was not really friends with Billy Tyme the skipper played but George Clooney; in fact they never even met in real life. also in the beginning of the movie when Linda brings in her huge catch and Billy (George Clooney) has a greatly smaller catch it was in fact the opposite it was Billy who had the huge catch and Linda who was struggling to find the fish that season. Besides the few flaws in actual facts the storyline was great and a lot of the other facts were very much true like the lady that worked at the crowâs nest really having a son on the boat that was lost in the storm. The special effects in the movie were also fantastic. You could tell that parts of the movie and some waves were digitally animated but for a movie that is 10 years old I was pretty impressed with the visuals of the movie. The boat perfectly represented what a real sword fishing boat looked like. At some points in the movie you could tell the crew wasnât really out out to sea, but what else can except for a movie that is almost 11 years old. For the most part if I was watching the movie back in 2000 I would be amazed with the special effects, in fact I think I was amazed back when I watched it at 12 years old. Overall the movie was great, I give it a 9 out of 10. Except for a few flaws in the real story facts and some aging special effects, I would recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys fishing and enjoys a movie based on true events. The acting was good, the realism was on spot, and the visuals were good and the storyline was intriguing. I couldnât have enjoyed the movie more and it is definitely a movie I will get on DVD and watch over again.… Full Review »
  3. Lwppopz
    3
    This is amongst one of the worst movies I have ever seen. I only gave it a 3 because the waves looked good in 2000. It's doesn't seem to go anywhere and the movie made no effort of making me want to care about the crew. The only up side to this movie is that it is not a bad as Miami Vice (Movie).… Full Review »
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