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| Available at Amazon.com |
Big time disaster films have huge budgets for a reason. In order to make such disasters look right, there is going to need to be a lot of money spent on special effects and everything that goes along with it. Twister had a budget of $92 million which was rather large for back in 1996. In 2004, The Day After Tomorrow came out to a budget of $125 million. As you can see, things go up in price as the years go by. And the more your budget is for top-name actors, special effects, and the best of everything money can buy; then the better your disaster flick is going to end up being. But if you start out by going straight to DVD and the cover art for your release is a replica of the original Jaws poster with a hand replacing that of a shark; then you aren’t starting out so hot.
I’m going to give you the quick and dirty summary of this film because that is all it really deserves. London is under attack, and not by anyone in a tank or holding a machinegun. A giant storm out in the ocean is causing a major disturbance and forcing the waters to get really wild and pour onto the city streets. And that isn’t all because the waves are so massive that they’re flooding neighborhoods up to the peak of homes and killing hundreds and thousands of people. Experts are doing all they can to figure out how lives can be saved and the water can be held back, but time is running out.
Holy hell on a stick.
This was bad, just bad. Fifteen minutes into the film and you’re going to be introduced to at least twelve different people that you know are going to be main characters, but if you can tell me more then two of their names, I’m impressed. You’ll remember Rob and Sam because they are married and have their names repeated a couple times, but you know nothing else about them. There is no back story and the film just kicks off right away with the large amount of water rushing onto land and into neighborhoods. But for as little as you know about the characters’ history; you are able to pick out very easily who their counterpart is from The Day After Tomorrow. Rob is Dennis Quaid, Sam is Sela Ward, and there’s a little girl who, while not their daughter, is supposed to be Jake Gyllenhaal. No, I’m not kidding. It’s that blatant.
Confusion sets in quickly because you just have no idea what else is going on except for a, for lack of a better word here, flood. How exactly did it start besides just saying there is a storm? Give us some technical jargon that we aren’t supposed to understand but sounds impressive. Don’t just have people wandering around and being the obvious choices to die. There had to be a reason that Flood that clocks in at over three hours, but it appears as if they just took that part of the film out. I’m guessing there was more backstory to the characters, but they figured showing shot after shot of London underwater would be more impressive. Sure some of them looked decent, but now I don’t give a damn about anyone in the film and honestly hope they all drown.
Moving on to the most absurd part of the film and it’s the budget. It is evident that they didn’t have much to work with, but tried to do the most with what they had at times. I give them credit for that and the natural disaster not looking incredibly awful at times, but there is one moment I cannot forgive them for. About twenty minutes into the film you’re going to see a helicopter traveling through the rain. Oh wait, scratch that. It isn’t traveling through the rain but simply coming straight down for a landing. The chopper is off the right of the screen and you can’t see the top blades or the back of it because obviously someone is holding the tail of this toy helicopter off screen. During this scene you can also see the kitchen sink sprayer start shooting water from the left side of the screen. It is laughable bad and so so cheap.
And I’ve just got to do this:
The film is shown in Widescreen format and it looks alright, but not spectacular. The colors are decent and bright enough, but the main problem comes from the production value and poor budget. The CGI is just awful and it shows very obviously.
The film is heard in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and it is not good either. The music overpowers everything at times while the dialogue is heard in whispers every now and then. One of the most annoying things is the constant static you’ll get out of your surrounding speakers when the music really kicks in.
None
Do not bother with this flick for any reason whatsoever. It is badly made and a serious rip off of The Day After Tomorrow with elements of other disaster films thrown in. The cheap budget, bad storyline, and awful acting are just a few of the things that will make you never want to see this film again. As if it also isn’t bad enough not having a single special feature; there isn’t even a “setup” menu. You can’t change languages or have subtitles or change the sound options…nothing. You think watching a cheap natural disaster film is bad? Try watching one that runs over three hours long and would give Mystery Science Theater 3000 enough material that it would actually surpass Manos, Hands Of Fate as the most “made fun of film” ever.
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Genius Products presents Flood. Directed by: Tony Mitchell. Starring: Robert Carlyle, Jessalyn Gilsig, Tom Courtenay, Joanne Whalley, David Suchet. Written by: Justin Bodle & Matthew Cope. Running time: 187 minutes. Rating: Unrated. Released on DVD: September 16, 2008. Available at Amazon.com
About Danny Cox
