Tidal Wave: No Escape

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.

While I was idly flicking through TV channels one afternoon I stumbled upon TIDAL WAVE: NO ESCAPE, a 1997 TV movie starring Corbin Bernsen, I decided to give it a whirl. My interest in the film was mainly generated by my suspicion that the title was a misnomer and I was soon proved correct: it's not spoiling things too much to say that the lead characters DO escape from tidal waves in this film, multiple times too.

As cheesy B-movie go, this one isn't too bad and at least there's plenty of incident to keep you watching. Bernsen (THE DENTIST), playing probably the world's most unlikely Nobel Prize winner, has to figure out the science (it's dodgy) behind some inexplicable tsunami disasters and yet still has time to romance a pretty colleague.

What follows is a mix between low-budget disaster antics and wronged man thriller; the latter is developed because of the lack of budget to focus too much on the disaster side of things, so the writers throw in a human villain and have Bernsen going on the run for much of the time. Saying there, there are some pretty silly CGI-enhanced moments, like when Bernsen attempts to out-drive an incoming tsunami and decides to take a road running parallel to the shore rather than inland.

This is hardly art, but it is a damn sight better than KILLER FLOOD: THE DAY THE DAM BROKE, I have to say. And no, that isn't a down-on-his-luck George Miller of MAD MAX fame directing, just a namesake.

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.

This was from before it was a thing to purposely make a bad disaster movie.

Back then they tried to make it the best movie they could and the actors gave it their all. To me that makes the goofier moments that much more fun.

It is still a predictable movie without much in the way of suspense, but for a lazy Sunday afternoon or an exhausted weeknight it is entertaining enough.

If you are watching this in the 2020's (or later) and expecting to see lots of destruction from huge waves then you will be disappointed.

Special effects were expensive and complex in 1997, so they had to fill more of the time with people actually acting.

Corbin Bernsen and Julianne Phillips were fun. Gregg Henry's character was a bit over the top with his cane, pimp walk and hair sticking up; but he was entertaining none-the-less.

This definitely made me nostalgic for the disaster of old where they weren't 70% cheaply done CGI and 30% bad acting.

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.