Official Synopsis:
Timely yet terrifying, Flood unleashes the unthinkable. When a raging storm coincides with high seas it unleashes a colossal tidal surge, which travels mercilessly down England s East Coast and into the Thames Estuary, overwhelming the Barrier. Torrents of water engulf the city. The lives of millions are at stake. Top marine engineer, Rob (Robert Carlyle, The Full Monty, Trainspotting), his father, and his ex-wife come together and have only two hours to drain the city of water and save a city on the brink of annihilation. An achievement in the disastertainment genre, Flood features amazing special effects, a great cast, and a heart-pounding catastrophe of a great metropolis.

  
Our Take:
I’m a disaster movie junkie, and I have been ever since I saw The Towering Inferno on TV as a kid. Give me a tornado, an avalanche, a hurricane, a volcano, or any form of nature’s fury unleashed, and I’m there. Make it even bigger and badder, such as with The Day After Tomorrow, and I’ll be guaranteed to be in that movie theater seat.

What I’ve learned over years and years of disaster flicks, both good and bad, is that they hinge on two things: the special effects and the characters. I hate to say it, but this is one genre of film that really doesn’t work when the special effects are weak. You have to believe the danger is real to be able to get wrapped up in the storyline, and when the CGI looks like it came from a PlayStation game, the movies fail. Likewise, you have to have interesting characters with appealing back stories, or at least a healthy dose of charisma.

Flood, which posits a massive flood basically sinking London, manages to fire on all these cylinders. It’s unfortunate that it was a miniseries, though, as the three-hour-plus running time is its biggest problem. Even the best films can drag at over three hours, and Flood, while quite good, isn’t that austere of a movie that it needs that much time for its storytelling. With a top-notch cast that includes Robert Carlysle and Jessalyn Gilsig (Heroes) and some pretty solid special effects work, Flood is a pretty fun ride overall, though.

The only extra feature on the disc is:

* Cast and Crew Interviews (26 minutes) – Most of the cast and the filmmakers talk about the rigors of filming.

Flood is a bit long, but it will easily capture the attention of people like me who love disaster movies. It’s better than about 90% of the other made-for-TV movies I’ve seen that deal with this subject matter, so it’s definitely worth a look.

Overall Picture:
Movie: B+
DVD: C

- Mike Spring

Editor