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The Worst Film Ever

Great Film overall

An Exercise In Nonsense

Although Tony Mitchell's 2007 film, "Flood," begins well and promises to be a serious warning about the dangers of global warming, this low-budget disaster epic soon descends into a maelstrom of stock characters and Irwin-Allen-inspired clichés. A super storm devastates the Scottish town of Wick, and, after weather "experts" initially dismiss any subsequent danger, the powerful storm hugs the eastern coast of Britain and sends a storm surge up the Thames at high tide. The surge renders the Thames barrier ineffective and floods an area the size of Ireland. Unfortunately, the special effects are low-tech, and the made-for-TV film plods on seemingly forever with evident padding and freeze frames that indicate commercial breaks intact.A decent cast of British actors is largely wasted, although they acquit themselves well and manage to retain straight faces and stiff upper lips, while reciting inane dialog and facing preposterous situations. Tom Courtenay plays the scientist whose initial warnings were dismissed; Robert Carlyle plays his estranged son; Jessalyn Gilsig is the requisite strong female and love interest; David Suchet is the deputy minister, who is supposedly in charge while the Prime Minister is in Australia; Joanne Whalley is a commissioner and the requisite worried mother; and Tom Hardy plays a slightly daft underground worker. Initially, the veteran talent and inter-woven stories hold viewer attention, but, eventually, the characters over-stay their welcome, and the unexpected perils fail to elicit either sympathy or suspense; many watery scenes evoke "Titanic" and "The Poseidon Adventure," but without the suspense or technical skill. Although the seemingly inept government leaders express surprise that any Londoners survived the disaster, viewers will be wondering why everyone did not just climb four stories up and ride out the storm; all the elaborate evacuations could have been avoided, not to mention the superfluous histrionics in underground stations, parking garages, flooded streets, stranded boats, and chaotic hospitals. Many crowd scenes look like footage from unrelated events edited into the storyline.At more than three hours, "Flood" is overlong, often ponderous and self important, and lacking in state-of-the-art special effects that might have raised the film's entertainment quotient. Viewers will wade through a dozen implausible situations and one of the most outlandish and coincidental reunions on film before the end credits roll. Only die-hard fans of Tom Courtenay or Robert Carlyle may enjoy this massive disappointment or possibly Tom Hardy complete-ists, who want to see Mad Max before he donned his mask; others should be-forewarned and, unlike the clueless meteorologists in the film, realize that "Flood" is not a perfect storm.

I accidentally fell on this film on TV while David Suchet was speaking to an audience, so I thought this could be interesting.But I was wrong, because in the face of an extreme emergency, a natural disaster which creates a live or die situation for them, it seems to me that most characters are simply incapable of making even the most basic logical thought or plan. They, even the "professionals", act driven by their emotions and therefore the whole movie makes no sense.One example: what do you do when you, a government employee, are on a dam, and you have foreseen that a great wave is going to hit the dam and the great city behind it in 3 hours or maybe less? You warn your superiors and make sure they understand it is serious, alright, and this is what our hero does. But then she refuses to leave, because "the boys are not leaving, and I am not leaving without them". I am not even sure who the boys were and why they wanted to stay on the dam (to enjoy the show perhaps?), but when after a while the dam is in fact hit, our hero runs and swims desperately for her life. Why? I mean she clearly showed she is not interested in saving herself when she had enough time to do it, why has she changed her mind and what has she accomplished by staying in her position in the meantime? As I said, just one example.

there have been some half decent disaster movies like 2012 and Knowing and there have been some total berserk ones like Volcano in New York and Arctic Blast.This entry into the canon has been totally panned by other IMDb reviewers, largely for the so-called poor acting of what at first glance resembles an ensemble cast with the likes of Robert Carlyle, David Suchet and Tom Courteney. Personally, I think Nigel Planer was put on this planet for his role in this movie to be honest it is the best casting I have seen in ages.Anyway, the plot is an insane event where London is subjected to a Tsunami. Some of the action scenes are OK concerning the seismic waves and disaster effects.On the other hand the command of London in the depiction descends into farce but I cannot see why Suchet is so panned for his role in this movie as his acting is not poor.If anyone likes seeing what would happen if London was rocked by a massive amount of water, check this movie out. There is a phrase reserved in the event of something like this; it goes something like "London isn't working".1 - 2 - three!

I really wanted to like this movie, as the concept of a waterlogged London intrigued me and I love a vast majority of the cast. But what a bitter disappointment. Granted the photography and special effects are great and very cleverly done. And the music is decent. Everything else however went down under-water like a sunken ship.The story and concept were really intriguing. But it wasn't told very well. Why? Because the film is very stodgily paced, while the subplots are badly underdeveloped and clichéd and the climax is very badly botched. Then we have flat direction and an awful script. Even the acting was disappointing. Robert Carlyle, Tom Courtenay and David Suchet are truly talented characters, but their characters are not interesting. Neither are everyone else's. In fact all the characters are very cardboard especially Jessalyn Gilsig's and Joanne Whalley's.Overall, a big disappointment, looks great but it is badly told and dull. 4/10 Bethany Cox