Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

I was wide awake and ready to enjoy a movie when I put this 2 part tele movie on. 20 minutes into it and having trouble staying awake. The repetitive, monotonous muzak, the annoying, pointless twaddle passing for dialogue, and the 50 gazillion camera angles (someone's desperate attempt to add drama??) and the constant use of freeze frames of actors with utterly expressionless faces...as if they needed to slow the pace even more? As if emphasizing how bored the actors are? my only motive for staying awake and watching to the end was to be able to properly pan this digital Stilnox. But I gave up halfway through part 2. So maybe it suddenly got much better after that. From what I saw, apparently the British response to flood disaster is to 1. show no emotion 2. state the obvious repeatedly "there are millions of people" (5x) "we need to get out of here" (12x) "we need to get to higher ground" (21x) 3. run around pointlessly at street level 4. go and make a cup of tea. I gave it a 2 instead of a 1 because it was mildly and briefly interesting to see Nigel Planer (Neil from The Young Ones) in a military role.

This is a review of the 3 hour miniseries version, rather than the heavily edited 100 minute cut. I had originally only planned to watch Part 1 today, but I was sucked in and quickly put on Part 2. That has to say something. The film certainly grabbed me, but I must admit to being a sucker for disaster movies. It had all the twists and turns you would expect. Cruel public officials, broken marriages, scientists deemed crackpots turning out to be right all along. With three hours to get through, it certainly covers all the angles. After a storm hits Scotland, it soon becomes apparent that the storm will sweep along the east coast of England and eventually flood London. The cast is varied from bad roles and bad performances, bad roles but good performances, and passable roles good performances. Carlyle and Gilsig are the usual divorced couple, forced back together by this natural disaster. Courtenay is Carlyle's estranged father, they are also forced back together due to the flood, as they all happen to work within the parameters of the same field. Most notable are smaller performances from Nigel Planer as the head of the MET office who failed to predict the storm. He feels genuine grief over the tragedy he could have helped avoided and an early performance by Tom Hardy. He is the only real person that feels human throughout. He has some completely unrelated dialogue regarding his mates and a dog. It is perhaps the only time we hear somebody talk about something other than the weather. Seeing a big disaster in England is a welcome change and the effects were actually quite good. The film does have many flaws though. It is incredibly predictable and the bulk of dialogue is exposition or corny family feuds. The editing is annoying, as it constantly freezes and shows us the time, or flashes back to something we saw just minutes a go. The music is very repetitive. I had the main 'dramatic' tune down within 3 minutes (no exaggeration). Towards the end of the second part, all the real threat is over with and they spend a good forty minutes unflooding London. This makes for a film that has reached its climax much earlier. However, if you like seeing disaster films just to see how different parts of the government would react, this is mostly competent.

I was struck by the awful acting and script for this movie. All the characters seem rendered immobile by personal issues - rather like deer in headlights. They dither around whining and moaning about their emotions when decisive actions need to be taken. I found myself yelling at the TV screen trying to wake them up to their situation and DO SOMETHING! The plot line is implausible. Every time there is a key decision to be taken by a lead character, one of the other characters has to bring up all the problems with the obvious decision as though to further render the decision more difficult - it is a tried melodramatic ploy and just wants to make you groan. Clearly the import of the decision is obvious - you don't need to treat the audience as idiots. Overall - there is just too much emotional melodrama in the whole movie.

This movie couldn't have been televised at a more appropriate time - it really coincided with Hurricane Ike and all the destruction and flooding in Texas, especially around the Galveston and Houston areas. The opening was very graphic yet totally believable. You really begin to realize just how helpless we all are against the forces of nature. I only hope that somewhere, someplace there is someone or something that has been organized to deal with a catastrophe like the one depicted in The Flood. I believe that no matter what does happen in the world - there will be help for us - but so far in my life I'm glad that I've never had to experience any thing like The Flood. Both my husband and I enjoyed the movie and hope to see more film directed by Tony Mitchell.