Tidal Wave: No Escape

My TV magazine announced this movie as having nice special effects. Where the heck did they get that idea?! The CGI waves never looked remotely real because they did not integrate with their surroundings. Scenes such as people in a boat on the sea were so obviously shot in a studio as I last saw them in 50's movies.

Add to that an implausible plot (though the basic premise was OK), cardboard characters, pseudoscientific gobbledygook that makes even the layperson's hair stand on end, and wooden acting especially be the supporting cast, and you have "Tidal Wave". Even disaster fetishists expect something better!

On the plus side, the female lead, Julianne Phillips, is nice to look at (I was surprised to learn she is Bruce Springsteen's ex-wife), and both she and Corbin Bernsen do their best, but this movie cannot be saved. 3 out of 10.

have just finished seeing this movie on the science-fiction channel, most of the move seems OK, the actors are doing an decent job of rescuing this movie, selecting celebrities for a movie is not always a warranty for making a movie good.the special effects are OK, except one involving waves meeting each other, with the intended purpose in this movie to be causing a cancellation of both waves. This can only happen in Hollywood, where natural laws of physics sometimes seem non-existing. everybody with a little education know that two waves moving towards each other cause the amplitude at meeting point to be the sum of each wave, and that each wave will continue at same direction as before meeting other waves.

Tidal Wave: No Escape begins with two tidal waves or tsunamis which seemingly coincidentally strike one after the other. One in Japan and one in the U.S. It is later learned that they were most likely man made and it soon becomes apparent when the man behind the waves demands 1 billion dollars. The only question to those in the movie, who are constantly pointing their fingers at the wrong guy, is who is really causing the tidal waves and how? We, the viewers, are let in on the perpetrator pretty early, so very little guess work is involved for us. This is more of a sit back and enjoy the special effects without using your brain type of movie.

Speaking of the special effects, how can they be so good and so bad at the same time? The tidal waves themselves were awesome. Having never even seen a picture of a real tidal wave before it crashes, this looked pretty realistic to me. So how they managed to create a giant wave that wreaks havoc through a few cities and why they need an obvious blue screen on other shots make the movie so horribly sub-par.

Corbin Bernsen, Julianne Phillips and Gregg Henry star here, but that really does not matter. The movie and these roles were so one dimensional, that nearly anyone could have played them. Gregg Henry should have steered clear entirely because he is a better actor than required here, as he displayed in Payback. This is definitely one for the special effects only. 6/10

This made-for-TV drama is near being a disaster itself. The story line is just not believable enough to get very excited about. The CGI tsunamis look cool, but not fearsome. When destructive tidal waves put the coast of California in harm's way; retired weapons expert and Nobel Prize winner John Wahl(Corbin Bernsen)is suspected of instigating the peril. Oceanographer Jessica Weaver(Julianne Phillips)is about the only one in the scientific community to feel differently and offers to help Wahl prove his innocence.

Bernsen does the best he can; and Phillips is definitely nice to look at. The two are just not enough to make this movie any better than it is. Rounding out the cast are: Harve Presnell, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs and Gregg Henry, who is so easy to dislike. The surf may be up; but the urge to hit the beach is just not there.

This is a TV movie made back in 1997, and decent for TV for its time. Not a big budget, so one should not have big expectations. What is really comes down to is a man who 'retired' under somewhat of a cloud (John Wahl), and is now being blamed for what is happening. And the man in charge of the Institute is convinced he is responsible, and doesn't want to hear anything different. So John Wahl has to try and clear his name and pin in on the real person who is triggering the tidal waves. And naturally he finds help with a woman associate who he once knew. And she seems the only one who believes him.