Rating: 
Summary: Waterlogged
Review: When Kevin Costner deservedly won an Oscar for directing "Dances with Wolves," he made the same mistake that Michael Cimino did after winning for "The Deer Hunter" -- he let it go to his head. Cimino went on to direct the notorious "Heaven's Gate," while Costner's next (albeit uncredited) directorial effort was the not-quite-as-notorious "Waterworld."The film takes place centuries in the future, where global warming has melted the polar ice caps and drowned civilization beneath the rising waters. (There is not nearly enough water locked in the ice caps to make this possible, but it's only a movie.) The few surviving humans mostly live in floating communities called atolls, while a band of marauders called Smokers armed with gasoline-powered jet-skis and airplanes prowl the endless seas looking for settlements to knock off. (One would think that with their extremely finite fuel source, they would have long since run out of gas in the hundreds of years since the waters rose, but it's only a movie.) Enter Costner as the Mariner, a mutated human sporting gills and webbed feet who travels the world in his boat. Stopping at one particular atoll to trade dirt (which he dredges up from the ocean floor) for spare parts, he meets Enola, a little girl who just happens to have a map to Dryland, the world's sole remaining above-water location, tattooed on her back. The Smokers, led by a particularly wide-eyed Dennis Hopper, want Enola and her map so they can despoil the last remaining bit of land on Earth. (Now, if someone else drew the map, wouldn't that mean someone else knows where this place is? I know, it's only a movie.) Eventually, the recitations of "it's only a movie" begin to pile up to the point where they threaten to swamp the whole film. "Waterworld" had a then-record budget of $175 million (the current record-holder is the $200 million "Titanic"), and most of it was seemingly spent turning the dilapidated sets to avoid having land appear in the background -- which didn't always work, as land is very visible in several scenes. Costner spends most of his on-screen time grunting, snarling, and generally making himself so unpleasant one almost roots for the Smokers to just kill him and get it over with. (He reportedly interfered so much with production that director Kevin Reynolds walked off the set with two weeks of filming left to go, leaving Costner to finish the film.) Jeanne Tripplehorn is utterly lost at sea as Enola's friend Helen, who despite her role as the girl's substitute mother seems to have no idea how to get her through the experience. While it's far from the worst film ever made (there are enough halfway decent action sequences to barely make this a 2-star movie) and isn't even bad enough to make for nicely brain-dead fun, "Waterworld" is instead a preachy, dull and waterlogged vanity flick. See it at your own peril.
Rating: 
Summary: It's not that bad
Review: I think ppl don't like it because of the expectations it had. I think the movie is very good. The only thing i have a problem with is the lack of detail of what happened to the old world, mountains, and cities and things of that nature. I think the ending was appropriate also. I think ppl should buy it if you want someting good to watch, but if your looking for a blockbuster, this isn't it.
Rating: 
Summary: This thing owes me money
Review: I have written a few reviews of movies and I haven't been really hard on any, but this is one is going to have it. First thing I'd rather pay not to see this aborted film again. Water and more water! all the time! What a pity the crew did not drown at the shooting. Now, please Mr Costner, you must have done this on purpose because nobody can achieve such a degree of calamity by some fatal coincidence.
I don't want to say anymore. It makes me sick just to think of it.
Rating: 
Summary: Engrossing story suffers from card-board antagonists.
Review: "Waterworld" had a lot going for it, and I'm a sucker for post-apocalyptic disaster films/novels. Although the premise of the polar ice-caps melting and covering the Earth is a little far-fetched (I doubt all but Mount Everest would be covered as depicted in the movie), I forgave that improbability and enjoyed the film anyway. What I didn't really enjoy that much were the card-board characters representing the "smokers", although I have to admit, Dennis Hopper did give the movie some comic relief. If the movie would have stayed primarily on the boat and dealt a little more with the interesting relationship developing between the mariner and the woman and little girl, and gave a little less time to the "smokers", I'd have enjoyed it more. As the movie played out, I often thought I was watching Mad Max on water. With that said, I have to admit the actions scenes were first-rate, and some were quite amazing. Actually, I enjoyed the expanded television version more than I enjoyed the theatrical release. The simple reason is because they added needed scenes (not action scenes) to round out the story. Between 1 and 10, I give the theatrical release and the VHS I purchased a 6, or a 3 star rating. The tv version, I give a 7, or a 4 star rating. (I should have taped the tv version).
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent sci-fi action
Review: I rented Waterworld, assuming I would at least end up with a few good laughs. After all, everyone hated it, right? Well to bad for those that avoided it due to bad publicity, because they missed out on an excellent movie. Waterworld tells the story, obviously, of a future world covered by water. (Yes, we know it wouldn't happen, but this is a movie. Accept it and shutup!) Kevin Costner plays the Mariner, a loner who gets pulled into helping a Helen (Jeanne Tripplehorn) and her foster daughter escape a bunch of bad guys led by Dennis Hopper. The daughter, Enola (played excellently by Tina Majorino) is believed to hold to secret to Dryland on a tattoo on her back. Acting is all up to a good standard; Costner does an excellent loner who (very) gradually warms up to his passengers, and amazingly keeps the movie from turning into a load of sap while doing it. Dennis Hopper is hilarious as the Deacon, the Smoker's (<- Bad guys) leader. Special effects are great, though the star is the Mariner's boat, which is an insanely cool vessel that could make MacGyver jealous. Cinematography runs a second to special effects; the camera shifts above and below water perfectly and the below water shots are stunning. Action is well done; you get everything from an attack fought between fifty boats and a large floating fortress to the Mariner sneaking through a huge boat killing what gets in his way, and the climax, his slide via wire across said boat, is exhilarating. There's really almost nothing wrong with this movie; the aforementioned part about water covering the world, some time scale problems (hundreds of years? It would a million for the Mariner's little secret to develop) and the fact that pure water wouldn't be so valuable, since salt water really isn't that hard to purify. A final note; the music, by James Newton Howard, is some of the best ever to grace a movie. I highly recommend the soundtrack. If you want great action with a touch of sci-fi, Waterworld is a top choice.
Rating:
Summary: More like 4 and half stars
Review: I never understood why people didn't like this movie more, When i first watched it I was entranced. When I watched again I thought it was just as good. For an aventure film it was great transfomable boats a post-apocliptic world what more do you need. Personally I think that people have some kind of gtripe against KEevin Costner for some reason I have enjoyed all the movies aof his I have seen.My only real gripe about the movie is that they burned the boat in the end.
Rating:
Summary: Waterlogged
Review: When Kevin Costner deservedly won an Oscar for directing "Dances with Wolves," he made the same mistake that Michael Cimino did after winning for "The Deer Hunter" -- he let it go to his head. Cimino went on to direct the notorious "Heaven's Gate," while Costner's next (albeit uncredited) directorial effort was the not-quite-as-notorious "Waterworld." The film takes place centuries in the future, where global warming has melted the polar ice caps and drowned civilization beneath the rising waters. (There is not nearly enough water locked in the ice caps to make this possible, but it's only a movie.) The few surviving humans mostly live in floating communities called atolls, while a band of marauders called Smokers armed with gasoline-powered jet-skis and airplanes prowl the endless seas looking for settlements to knock off. (One would think that with their extremely finite fuel source, they would have long since run out of gas in the hundreds of years since the waters rose, but it's only a movie.) Enter Costner as the Mariner, a mutated human sporting gills and webbed feet who travels the world in his boat. Stopping at one particular atoll to trade dirt (which he dredges up from the ocean floor) for spare parts, he meets Enola, a little girl who just happens to have a map to Dryland, the world's sole remaining above-water location, tattooed on her back. The Smokers, led by a particularly wide-eyed Dennis Hopper, want Enola and her map so they can despoil the last remaining bit of land on Earth. (Now, if someone else drew the map, wouldn't that mean someone else knows where this place is? I know, it's only a movie.) Eventually, the recitations of "it's only a movie" begin to pile up to the point where they threaten to swamp the whole film. "Waterworld" had a then-record budget of $175 million (the current record-holder is the $200 million "Titanic"), and most of it was seemingly spent turning the dilapidated sets to avoid having land appear in the background -- which didn't always work, as land is very visible in several scenes. Costner spends most of his on-screen time grunting, snarling, and generally making himself so unpleasant one almost roots for the Smokers to just kill him and get it over with. (He reportedly interfered so much with production that director Kevin Reynolds walked off the set with two weeks of filming left to go, leaving Costner to finish the film.) Jeanne Tripplehorn is utterly lost at sea as Enola's friend Helen, who despite her role as the girl's substitute mother seems to have no idea how to get her through the experience. While it's far from the worst film ever made (there are enough halfway decent action sequences to barely make this a 2-star movie) and isn't even bad enough to make for nicely brain-dead fun, "Waterworld" is instead a preachy, dull and waterlogged vanity flick. See it at your own peril.
Rating:
Summary: "Waterworld": It could have been a lot better
Review: "Waterworld" stars Kevin Costner, Dennis Hopper, and Jeanne Tripplehorn in this post-apocalyptic movie. The polar ice-caps have all melted and the earth is all covered with water. Of the few survivors that are left live on boats or small villages made out of scrap metal and boats. They are constantly terrorized by a group called Smokers who are lead by the evil villain, Deacon (Dennis Hopper). They kill everyone and steal all that they can find. Kevin Costner plays Mariner, a mutant man with gills so he can breath under water and webbed feet. He lives on his very amazing boat and lives by himself, a complete loner. He comes to a small village where he trades in real dirt for water. The people are suspicious of him, of how he came by to have real dirt when there is not dry land on Waterworld. They detain him from leaving then find out that he is a mutant. They capture him then put him in a cage, deciding to execute him. Before they can though, they are attacked by Smokers. A young woman named Helen (Jeanne Tripplehorn), makes Mariner promise that if she frees him, he'll take her and her foster child, Elona (Tina Majorino), to safety. Having not choice he agrees and takes them far away from the village and Smokers. At first he despises Helen and Elona, thinking them troublesome and noisy but after a while he starts to become friends with them. But after they are attacked by Smokers and get away, he begins to wonder why they keep coming after them. Helen admits that the reason is because of a tattoo which is on the Elona's back which is said to lead to Dry Land. But before Mariner or Helen can decipher the tattoo, Elona is captured by the Smokers while Mariner and Helen are left for dead. It's now up to Mariner to rescue Elona from Deacon and his followers before they can find Dry Land, thus becoming the most powerful people on Waterworld because of their control of Dry Land. As I said, "Waterworld" could have been so much better. It was a real neat movie, especially Mariner's boat which has everything. The acting was also pretty good, with Kevin Costner, Dennis Hopper, and Jeanne Tripplehorn. I didn't think much of Tina Majorino. I agree with some people who wrote that though the beginning and the end of the movie was really exciting and great, the middle dragged on a bit. They could have skipped some scenes, like the scene with the crazy trader and added more exciting scenes. So for those who want to watch "Waterworld", I suggest you rent it first to see if you will like it. There's another movie with Kevin Costner which is a post-apocalyptic movie, "The Postman", but unfortunately I haven't seen it yet. But if you want to watch a good Kevin Costner movie, I really recommend you see "Silverado", which is one of my most favorite movies of all time.
Rating:
Summary: They should release the extended version
Review: I first saw this movie as a rental of the theatrical version. It was okay. But I liked it much better when I saw the extended version on broadcast tv. About 45 minutes of footage is added to the extended version, which actually helps the movie a great deal in my opinion. While the extended version is shown on sci-fi channel from time to time (in a four hour time slot), it is not available on video. Nor is the additional footage contained on the DVD release - to my knowledge. So they should release the extended version on DVD, which would be worth buying.
Rating:
Summary: I agree, it's not THAT BAD ...
Review: Waterworld is definitely a flawed movie, but it's not awful. Pros: 1. Dennis Hopper is clearly having a blast playing 'The Deacon' as is really fun to watch. 2. The set design (and costume design) of the a-toll villages shows a great deal of creativity. 3. The action scenes are well choreographed and creative. ... However, as (laughing) MANY reviewers have pointed out, there are glaring problems that were never addressed. Leading me to... Cons 1. The idea to design the set on water, which was a major reason for the ridiculously inflated budget, totally backfired. It never seemed to dawn on anyone that (as opposed to a lush jungle, for example) one part of the texture-less, open sea tended to look like another. It's not like the cast was constantly battling the weather or the sea itself either. I might have been awed watching 'The Marnier' battle his way through a hurricane or a sea-squall, but we don't see anything like that. Just flat ... calm ... boring ... water.... everywhere. Could I, at least, see a wave? Or a swell? 2. Kevin Costner's impression of Clint Eastwood's 'Man with no name' doesn't work. Instead of making him dark and mysterious, Costner, I felt, actually alienated himself from the audience to the point where we didn't care WHAT happened to him. Eastwood could burn a hole through you with a glare and was an absolute master at acting with his eyes and facial expressions. Costner just seems to stand there with the same look on his face I get from my dog when it hears my voice coming from the answering machine. 3. Other then the villain, who we're not supposed to be able to connect with, there really wasn't a single "likeable" character. I was actually GLAD when Costner threw the little girl over-board; man was she getting on my nerves at that point. 4. The pace of the movie was TERRIBLE, and I read IT WAS CUT DOWN! WOW ... for an action movie, this REALLY trudged along at a snail's pace. I would have cut another 1/2 off, minimum. If the story's going to be a little weak, you could AT LEAST get to the battle scenes a little quicker. To sum up, I can't POSSIBLY recommend buying a copy, but you could rent it. Just make sure you keep your finger near the fast-forward button.
|
