Flood (2007)

User Rating:

4.8/10   

Director:

Tony Mitchell

Writers:

Justin Bodle (writer)
Matthew Cope (writer)

Release Date:

24 August 2007 (UK)

Genre:

Action | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

It's coming straight for us.

Plot:

Timely yet terrifying, The Flood predicts the unthinkable. When a raging storm coincides with high seas it unleashes a colossal tidal surge...

Plot Keywords:

Flood | Storm | One Word Title | Weather | Hurricane Floyd

Cast

Robert Carlyle	...	Rob Morrison
Jessalyn Gilsig	...	Samantha 'Sam' Morrison
Tom Courtenay	...	Leonard Morrison
Joanne Whalley	...	Patricia Nash
David Suchet	...	Deputy Prime Minister Campbell
Nigel Planer	...	Keith Hopkins
Ralph Brown	...	Mel's Dad
Gottfried John	...	Arthur Moyes
Tom Hardy	...	Zack
Pip Torrens	...	Army Liaison Officer Richardson
Susan Wooldridge	...	Nash's Assistant
David Hayman	...	Major General Ashcroft
Martin Ball	...	Wyatt
Poppy Miller	...	Nikki Fuller
Peter Wight	...	Johnson - Transport Chief

Runtime:

110 min | New Zealand:185 min | Finland:188 min (2 parts) | Italy:144 min

Country:

UK | South Africa | Canada

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

UK:12A | New Zealand:G (part 1) | New Zealand:PG (part 2) | Malaysia:U | Singapore:PG | Finland:K-11 | Philippines:PG-13 (MTRCB) | Australia:M | Netherlands:12

Filming Locations:

Cape Town, South Africa

Company:

Power

Trivia:

Last film role of Moira Lister.

Goofs:

Errors in geography: Just before the news helicopter reports that there are survivors stranded on rooftops, a scene shows the helicopter from below. The tall brown building in the far right of this shot of the helicopter is Safmarine House, which is situated in the Cape Town CBD.

Quotes:

Leonard Morrison: Not this much water!

Very poor...

There's something intriguing about disaster movies. The simple, primal premise can lead to several great stories. Granted, most disaster movies tend to explore familiar territory instead but I can usually live with that.

Unfortunately, Flood probably marks the low point in the history of this sub-genre. Robert Carlyle is undoubtedly the star of the movie, even though screen time is split between different locations and characters. He gives a barely decent performance. As well, Joanne Whalley is very uneven. Veteran actor Tom Courtenay (he played in Doctor Zhivago for heaven's sake) is particularly bad. I mean, his timing is completely off most of the time and his characterization is extremely poor. What an embarrassing performance for that man. The rest of the cast ranges from decent to really bad with one exception: Jessalyn Gilsig, whom I thought might be there as a plot device/eye candy gives by far the most convincing performance. Doesn't mean much considering how bad everybody else is but still nice to see that she cared.

The script is really bad, confusing and cliché. Some of the worse lines I have heard in quite some time are delivered by the actors one after the other.You've seen this story a thousand times. It employs every dramatic hook and tear-jerkers you've seen in "Outbreak", "Armageddon", the Poseidon movies (original and remake) and many others.

The direction is awful. No sense of timing, nothing inspired. The shots are bland, dialog and action both fail to flow. Editing is bad but how do you edit such a mess? Without a doubt, this movie tried to rely way too much on (rather poor) CGI. The human factor, the drama and struggles of the characters are glossed over. Scenes where the characters must actually face the flood are rare and poorly done. The made-for-TV feel gives nausea. Some guy is supposed to go down a rope from an helicopter? No problem, let's show him inside a helicopter and make a really poor cut/editing job and have the next frame with him safely on the ground, in the most obvious way possible.

The movie score is rather poor. All over the place, no timing.

The ending is probably the worse I have seen in quite some time. Very much like they ran out of ideas. Scrap that, you can't run out of something if you never had it in the first place. Must have ran out of budget.

This is a really amateur job. I give it a 2 for using London as a location, which is a nice change, for Gilsig being actually decent in a key support role and for the few CGI shots that were decent (those of the water closing in on London and the gates).

Do yourself a favor and check out Day After Tomorrow or just about any disaster movie before this one. This includes older classics like The Towering Inferno.