"The Perfect Storm," which is ultimately a not-very-good movie, is basically a combination of "Twister" and "Armageddon"
-- two other not-very-good movies. It has a more intellectual and sophisticated look about it than those other movies; in fact, its tone is more like "Titanic" than a traditional summer action blockbuster. Director Wolfgang Peterson takes his sweet time setting things up, allowing us a full 30 minutes of exposition before any boats ever leave the dock. The characters are a disparate group of swordfishermen in Gloucester, Mass., who decide to head out to sea on one more fishing trip before possibly hanging it up and finding more lucrative work. Since this is based on a true story -- and, again, keeping with the anti-blockbuster mentality -- the characters are fairly realistic and not the one-note caricatures you'd find in, say, "Armageddon."
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