The Wave (Bølgen)

More than anything, The Wave's ability to sustain tension out of its tired scenario makes it even more impressive than its Me Decade ancestors.

The whole thing is pure formula. But The Wave, which was Norway's official entry for the Academy Awards, makes it work anyway.

The movie works; the setting feels grandly unfamiliar, and the aftermath of the wave, with its elemental mix of water and fire, seems like a plausible vision of Hell.

Something like The Wave is indeed a rarity - without skimping on the spectacle that glues eyeballs to the screen, it takes the time to develop its characters.

Having laid out my qualms in advance, I am happy to report that The Wave... is pretty good. It's also pretty strange.

Gives the fright-inducing natural events their due, but also gives the human drama the same courtesy.

The Wave may be cut from B-movie cheesecloth, but a fresh, frank perspective is still capable of enlivening old cinematic tropes.

he three principal actors are charming and Norwegian movies can always be counted on for sublime scenery -- even when that scenery turns malevolent -- but boy is this thing cliche-ridden and predictable!

As a good, old-fashioned hunk of big-screen disaster, you could do a lot worse than The Wave, say last year's far more expensive and less involving San Andreas.

The Wave, based on some actual rockslides from decades ago, may try for a little bit of respectability, but it doesn't have much to say, and then says it in a somber closing credits: Watch out for rockslides, basically.