Poor Man’s All is Lost: if you are going to watch a boat movie, at least go with the one that feels more authentic, even if Marky Mark and crew provide you with a good time.

★★★☆☆

Apparently, David has a thing for boat movies. So does Wolfgang Petersen. 2000’s The Perfect Storm is Petersen’s return to the water after making his first … splash … with Das Boot. Side note, he later returns again for the 2006 adventure movie Poseidon. Unlike Petersen and David however, I don’t really love the boat movie. You may my remember my mixed review of All is Lost from last summer, and you know its summer time again, because here comes the sequel.

The Perfect Storm is the story of a few brave, possibly desperate, commercial fisherman at the end of the fishing season in the early 90s. It takes place in a small town in Massachusetts. After a particularly disappointing trip, Captain Billy Tyne decides to go for one last haul before the season is officially over and the weather makes the water too dangerous to fish. Tyne is played by George Clooney and is therefore, by default, charming. He gathers his crew together for a turnaround, taking them back out onto the water only a day after they returned. His crew is made up of Mark Wahlberg, John C. Reilly, William Fichtner, John Hawkes, and Allen Payne. Every member of the crew appears to be going through a divorce and struggling to pay the bills and so they all agree to take on this one last mission.

I don’t want to discuss too much more of the plot. Many of you, like me, will probably know the ending of this movie before you sit down and watch it. Honestly, the rest of the movie plays out with very few surprises. If it wasn’t for the incredible likability packed into the cast, I’m not sure this movie even sees release. That being said, it does have the cast it does and it makes this a fun movie to catch if its on TNT or some other basic cable channel. Or if it’s streaming on Netflix (which this currently is!)

On the surface (pun intended), boat movies should resonate really well with me. Pretty much take any movie that takes place on the water and set it in space, and I am good to go. Something about having them grounded (pun intended again) in the real world really takes away some of the magic for me. Maybe its because I’ve dreamed of going out to space but never really have seen myself as someone who would take to the waters. Maybe its growing up around the ocean. Whatever it is, these movies just don’t seem to hit me in the way the directors want them too. If you find yourself really enjoying boat movies (and having already seen All is Lost) then check this one out on a lazy sunday afternoon.

The Perfect Storm is streaming on Netflix.