Rating: 
Summary: So bad it's funny
Review: Ok, I had high hopes for this flick, but I was very let down. Judd Nelson is pathetically unbelievable. His acting is horrible compared to his performance in "Breakfast Club", which says a lot. Lance Henrikson does a fair job, and his character is somewhat convincing, but any role the man portrays screams "Millennium" (former TV show). The DVD itself has no special features that would set it apart from a VHS copy, save the digital audio track. The only reason to watch this movie to show your friends that, although "Freddy Got Fingered" really is the worst movie ever, you've found a serious contender for a 2nd place finishing.
Rating: 
Summary: Voyage of unrealized potential
Review: There's just something about ghost ship movies that I cannot resist, so when I spotted Lost Voyage, I had to watch it. The fact that the movie is a straight-to-video/DVD release I had never heard of before made no difference. Judd Nelson was a familiar name from the 1980s, and the presence of Lance Henriksen from TV's Millennium series seemed to bode well. It's quite an interesting movie, not necessarily in a good way. There are a few moments of decent suspense, and the acting really isn't all that bad, yet the movie seemed to pose questions it never intended to answer, and the special effects are just plain weird. As the movie opens, we see the beginning and ignominious end of the final voyage of the cruise ship Corona Queen in 1972; somewhere in the vicinity of the Bermuda Triangle, the ship disappeared into an unexplained atmospheric phenomenon. No sign of the ship was ever found � until now. After more than twenty-five years, the ship has suddenly been spotted by a fishing vessel off the coast of Bermuda. This news is particularly interesting for Aaron Brown (Judd Nelson), whose father and step-mother were among the passengers of the ill-fated cruise. He has obsessively studied the Bermuda Triangle ever since, and now he finds himself one of the first human beings to set foot on the mysterious ship in over a quarter of a century. With him are Dana Elway (Janet Gunn), the star of a paranormal based news show, and her crew, alongside a trio of salvage men led by David Shaw (Henriksen). They discover the ship to be in remarkably good condition, but no sign of crew or passengers is to be found. As you might expect, bad things start happening that try to be creepy but never really are, and the dwindling number of individuals on board find themselves in danger of heading back into whatever claimed the ship way back in 1972. The visions that some of the characters see on board the ship supposedly represent their biggest fears or most disturbing memories, but they don't really play that well. We are treated to numerous flashbacks and mysterious new visitations by Aaron's long-dead father, but none of these personal stories seems at all important in the end. I do have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by the performance of Scarlet Chorvat as the younger reporter scheming to take Dana Elway's job, and her storyline actually seemed to make a little bit of sense. The really weird thing about Lost Voyage, though, is its special effects. Things aren't really that bad until the closing scenes of the movie, when CGI animation suddenly runs amuck. Many of the climactic scenes look like the kinds of animation you would see in a computer or gaming console game; in a game, they would be impressive, but in a movie they are quite disappointingly fake; I can't recall ever seeing another movie wherein the animation suddenly took on such a peculiar look. The real source of weakness in the movie, though, is the plot. Too many story elements are introduced for no apparent reason, almost nothing about the fate of the ghost liner is revealed, and the end of the movie is quite disappointing. To make matters worse, the two epilogue sequences make very little sense to me and only serve to reinforce the failed opportunities that seem to define Lost Voyage. Despite all of these problems, though, I cannot say I actually hated the film. It had enough potential to keep me interested, but a lot of that potential was wasted in the end.
Rating:
Summary: Voyage of unrealized potential
Review: There's just something about ghost ship movies that I cannot resist, so when I spotted Lost Voyage, I had to watch it. The fact that the movie is a straight-to-video/DVD release I had never heard of before made no difference. Judd Nelson was a familiar name from the 1980s, and the presence of Lance Henriksen from TV's Millennium series seemed to bode well. It's quite an interesting movie, not necessarily in a good way. There are a few moments of decent suspense, and the acting really isn't all that bad, yet the movie seemed to pose questions it never intended to answer, and the special effects are just plain weird. As the movie opens, we see the beginning and ignominious end of the final voyage of the cruise ship Corona Queen in 1972; somewhere in the vicinity of the Bermuda Triangle, the ship disappeared into an unexplained atmospheric phenomenon. No sign of the ship was ever found ' until now. After more than twenty-five years, the ship has suddenly been spotted by a fishing vessel off the coast of Bermuda. This news is particularly interesting for Aaron Brown (Judd Nelson), whose father and step-mother were among the passengers of the ill-fated cruise. He has obsessively studied the Bermuda Triangle ever since, and now he finds himself one of the first human beings to set foot on the mysterious ship in over a quarter of a century. With him are Dana Elway (Janet Gunn), the star of a paranormal based news show, and her crew, alongside a trio of salvage men led by David Shaw (Henriksen). They discover the ship to be in remarkably good condition, but no sign of crew or passengers is to be found. As you might expect, bad things start happening that try to be creepy but never really are, and the dwindling number of individuals on board find themselves in danger of heading back into whatever claimed the ship way back in 1972. The visions that some of the characters see on board the ship supposedly represent their biggest fears or most disturbing memories, but they don't really play that well. We are treated to numerous flashbacks and mysterious new visitations by Aaron's long-dead father, but none of these personal stories seems at all important in the end. I do have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by the performance of Scarlet Chorvat as the younger reporter scheming to take Dana Elway's job, and her storyline actually seemed to make a little bit of sense. The really weird thing about Lost Voyage, though, is its special effects. Things aren't really that bad until the closing scenes of the movie, when CGI animation suddenly runs amuck. Many of the climactic scenes look like the kinds of animation you would see in a computer or gaming console game; in a game, they would be impressive, but in a movie they are quite disappointingly fake; I can't recall ever seeing another movie wherein the animation suddenly took on such a peculiar look. The real source of weakness in the movie, though, is the plot. Too many story elements are introduced for no apparent reason, almost nothing about the fate of the ghost liner is revealed, and the end of the movie is quite disappointing. To make matters worse, the two epilogue sequences make very little sense to me and only serve to reinforce the failed opportunities that seem to define Lost Voyage. Despite all of these problems, though, I cannot say I actually hated the film. It had enough potential to keep me interested, but a lot of that potential was wasted in the end.
Rating:
Summary: Ghost Ship without the writing, acting, or special effects
Review: What a horrible movie. No redeeming value whatsoever. This movie is what happens when all of the budget goes to CGI special effects (and they ain't that great) and none is spent on writing or editing.
|
