Perfect Storm, The

New York Post Lou Lumenick

This is one perfectly terrifying movie, an instant classic.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Nearly a perfect film, from its bold and epic man-vs.-nature conflict to the breathless scripting, editing, acting, and direction.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

'Titanic'' was a case of a cheeseball story riding terrific effects. The Perfect Storm is in every important way deeper.

Baltimore Sun Ann Hornaday

Accomplishes a delicate balancing act, that of entertaining the audience with the thrills and adventure of the Andrea Gail's final journey.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

A well-crafted example of a film of pure sensation. I do not mind admitting I was enthralled.

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

Scary and exciting.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

As a movie, this is exciting stuff.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

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.

San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann

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.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Unabashedly designed to blow its audience away.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

Petersen's speculative reenactment makes for gripping summer entertainment -- if you don't mind a little corn floating in your brine.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

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.

Newsweek David Ansen

Impersonal Hollywood filmmaking at its most paradoxical. It keeps you glued to your seat, and leaves no aftertaste whatsoever.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

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.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

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?

TNT RoughCut Susannah Breslin

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.

San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris

An enthralling special-effects tour de force with a lover's nook.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

The movie is "Twister" on the high seas, a spectacular-looking, spectacularly hollow tale about foolhardy men vs. imperious nature.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

By the end, I felt like a beetle going round and round in a toilet bowl that just wouldn't stop flushing.

USA Today Susan Wloszczyna

So much water. Such a dramatic washout.

Film.com Robert Horton

The storm is the reason to see the movie.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Overall, the book is a far more rewarding experience than the movie.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

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.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Rains on its own parade.

Variety Todd McCarthy

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.

Film.com Tom Keogh

Once at sea, The Perfect Storm collapses in a heap of spectacle and a dubious piling-on of scary incidents.

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

But jaw-dropping trailer aside, there isn't much movie here.

Time Richard Corliss

What's true about The Perfect Storm is true of many effects epics: it's not a bad movie, except for the people.

Film.com John Hartl

Big effects; threadbare story.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

The Perfect Storm is no "Titanic."

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Not terrible, but distinctly disappointing, not nearly as engaging or thrilling as its premise seems to promise.

Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky

It may have been the perfect storm, but this is the imperfect movie.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

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.

LA Weekly Manohla Dargis

The whole thing is kitsch of the most pricey sort, and it's a good guess that it will be a smash.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

It's shocking, considering the talent involved, the The Perfect Storm looks and feels fake.

Slate David Edelstein

It's like a memorial service with killer special effects.