Scott is able to make it fresh and lyrical, as well as give us rousingly exciting scenes of nature in eruption. [02 Feb 1996]

I enjoyed the movie for the sheer physical exuberance of its adventure. It is magnificently mounted and photographed.

White Squall is a success because the good elements are so well-orchestrated that they dwarf the few obvious flaws. This film offers just about everything, including a twenty-minute white-knuckle sequence and a chance to shed a few tears. In short, it's first-rate entertainment.

Amid the action heroics of White Squall, Bridges creates a character of consequence.

The story has its corny aspects, but thanks to Scott's skill as an image maker and as a storyteller--proceeding from the very blue and very abstract water seen behind the credits to the climactic, extended storm--this is superior to both "Dead Poets Society" (as a tale about a boys' school and its charismatic teacher) and "Apollo 13" (as a true-life action adventure).

White Squall is lovely to look at, but frustrating to behold.

A misshapen allegory wrapped around a truly awe-inspiring set piece, Ridley Scott's latest is another waste of his prodigious talent.

The 15-minute squall is spectacular and the movie's partial redeemer - the minimum you'd hope for in a movie called White Squall, don't you think? [02 Feb 1996]

A curiously compulsive drama that for all its inevitable Dead Sailors' Society trappings is still highly entertaining.

The psychology of the story is shallow, but the action scenes pack a good visual punch.

As a coming-of-age melodrama and high seas adventure, White Squall is fair.

Director Ridley Scott's lavish production isn't totally satisfying, coasting aimlessly at times before suddenly leaping to a more intense dramatic plane.

Stunningly photographed, acted with occasional bravura and structured with exacting precision, it fails to sing more than once or twice, and then only briefly. [2 Feb 1996]

The shipwreck comes too late to rescue movie from endless banalities. [02 Feb 1996]