Customer Reviews

Killer Wave

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I just watched this on TV and I look forward to seeing it without commercials. There's a fair amount of intrigue, action, romance (implied) and simple special effects to keep my interest. Good cast includes Angus McFadyen & Karine Vanesse, on the lam from really nefarious bad guys, because Angus' character was framed, and knows a secret and...well, you get the picture. Able support from Stephen McHattie & Tom Skerritt, and some very memorable types along the way; I enjoyed it a lot. Maybe a little too long, but directors Kevin Connor & Bruce McDonald keep things moving at a reasonable pace.

OK, first of all, you need to know that I'm a sucker for just about anything that has to do with the ocean, oceanography, and marine biology. So, when I started watching this show I was more or less hooked because it's about the ocean and oceanographers.

I remembered seeing the lead actor, Angus Macfayden, in the movie Braveheart where he plays Roger the Bruce. I liked him in that, so I thought I'd give this a shot. Frankly, I was impressed by the fact that he was cast in the role he played. I know quite a few marine biologists and oceanographers, and he looks more or less like them. They are not the stainless steel and sex-appeal types often cast in leads. He has the facial hair characteristic of the discipline, he's a little overweight, and he wears casual attire worn by them. I was not impressed by the slick character cast to play the director of the oceanographic institute. Anyway, I pushed forward and watched the whole thing.

There is actually pretty good suspense and drama that appears here and there, but I felt like the backgrounds of the characters were not fleshed out well enough. All they give you is that something bad happened, and you never really know what the technology was that they were working on, and how it could be altered for sinister designs.

There is the powerful, but desperate corporate mogul (Tom Skerritt) and his conniving 2nd in command, and the 2nd in command's strong-arm man. This sounds pretty typical, and it was. There are also a couple of FBI agents who seem to be able to act pretty independently, like they have no supervising officer, but that may happen sometimes. Some of the characters were WAY too typecast - like the killers that show up later in the show. Talk about people on steroids!

There was relatively little in the way of special effects, but they did get the basic idea of water being sucked offshore as the wave builds. I thought that was pretty cool.

All in all, it grabbed and held my attention, largely for the reasons I listed above, but I was happy I saw it. It was not a life-changing event, and it was just OK. I don't think that I'll be recommending it to anyone. So, 3 stars. That's it. I liked it, I didn't "really like it", and I certainly didn't "love it", so 3 stars.

As this kind of movie goes this one is not too bad. The CGI is fairly good and the plot and acting is adequate. You have all the customary character types, the evil corporation headed by either evil or incompetent types, the brilliant hero scientist, the brilliant, attractive girl scientist, the lumbering, bureaucratic government, the fanatical scientist who helps the bad guys, and surprisingly two fairly interesting FBI types who begin to garner some sympathy from the viewer.

You mix all of this together with some fairly interesting Canadian scenery and you wind up with a reasonably watchable movie. While there are a number of clichés, there are not too many and they are actually used to advance the plot. I'll have to admit at one point a specific cliché scene was so frustrating I had to stop watching the movie until the next day but even that one was used to advance the story.

By and large the movie holds together well enough that it encouraged me to watch it all the way through and see how it ended. As one reviewer pointed out the scene on the cover does not happen in the movie except in the minds of the evil corporate bosses. The ending has a surprise twist which I will not reveal but it is not a traditional ending so you may have a surprise in store.

The highest compliment I can pay it is to say my wife watched it all the way through, she is not a disaster flick fan and yet she stuck with it all the way to the end; that takes some doing to accomplish.

Be advised the fantastic picture on the cover does not happen in the movie. This is absolutly false advertising. This is a 3 hour miniseries with no big dramatic end. The wave does not hit Boston!!

This was more a low-budget thriller than a science fiction or disaster movie. It becomes pretty obvious early on who the real culprits behind the deadly waves might be. The two secondary characters who play feds are probably the most interesting, but underused throughout. The ending is a bit of a let down, for many reasons. The special effects are sparse. Reports of disaster scenes look like they have been purloined from actual news events. It was a very long film. I came back to the film two days after taking a break to watch the final hour. Boring and not very compelling says it all.

I had purchased a movie similar to this one. What a let down this one was it was the same story of the other movie. However the other movie was better. It was more involved with emotions and better detailed. This one was boring.

This one is a hard one to stay awake for and includes some of the very worst acting and dialogue I have EVER seen. Three hours of complete wasteland-type cinema. Save yourself some money and grief -- watch some Looney Tunes re-runs instead!!!!

The movie plot left a lot to be desired. It tried to touch on science, but even that was lacking in detail.
The Special Effects were good, and mostly believable, but some showed up with flaws that the director let slip through. Overall, an enjoyable movie, provided you don't take it too seriously!

In the first few minutes of the movie the "who-dun-it" is crystal clear. The movie goes on and on and on and . . . . . . it is so predictable that it's boring. The only redeeming quality is that there are moments of action. good thing I bought this on sale from Amazon. If I'd have paid full price, I would have been really cranky!!

I love science fiction movies. I could not imagine water to overflow tall buildings and yet man survived! How Exciting!!!