Waterworld (1995) Reveiw
June 10th 2010 04:21
“Waterworld” was the most expensive movie of all time by far when it was made at over 170 million dollars. It was only later surpassed by James Cameron's Titanic in 1998. Combine the Hollywood clout of superstar Kevin Costner and director Kevin Reynolds and you pretty much get a blank check from any producer.
Waterworld almost seems like a attempt at spending as much money as possible, the concept alone screams “expensive”. In a Nutshell, Waterworld is like “The Road Warrior” without roads, or land to put the road on, a world without land. Meaning that not only the entire production was one big outdoor location shot. Keep in mind this is before the days where CGI could easily scrub out bits of land that get caught in the shot, every last set had to be built from scratch, and able to float freely in the open sea.
As summarized in the opening crawl, the polar icecaps have melted, and the world is now one enormous ocean. People eke out a living on artificial islands called “Atols” or drifters that live on rotting old fishing boats, and live a life of trade and fishing for sustenance. A third group on this bleak backdrop is the Smokers, a cabal of jet-ski riding pirates who slaughter drifters and attack atols for supplies. Against this bleak backdrop, we meet an unnamed drifter who seems to have strange abilities, like staying underwater for longer than any man should be able to. He drifts to an atol in search of supplies, to find that like most atols they have almost nothing to offer him, being that they are slowly dieing. This Atol however has something special, a little girl with a mysterious tattoo on her back, that a few of the locals believe is the way to a mythical “Dry Land” the last bit of land in the world.
The story is hardly important, this is an action sci-fi film about cool stunts and explosions right? Well, sort of, the goofy and scientifically ridiculous concept is pretty hard to ignore. While the movie is exciting, and the story is compelling, you'll constantly find yourself questions as your watching it. How do the pirates refine oil? Where do they get bullets? Wouldn't all the wood and metal be rotted away after a few decades? Could the polar ice caps melting even really cover every bit of land? However, if you manage to turn your brain off for a while and just accept the concept, you'll find a very well made movie. Kevin Costner did an excellent job in the movie, playing the mysterious, stoic hero but even his performance pales in comparison to the late great Dennis Hopper who played the evil “Deacon” who rules over the Smokers with the ruthlessness of a dictator and the twisted charisma of a televangelist. The Deacon's demented speeches are delivered flawlessly by Hopper, one of Hollywood's most underrated supporting actors.
In the end, Waterworld is good dumb fun, it's high adventure that pales in comparison to most of the big budget Hollywood efforts. It has the mindless fun, action and adventure of a Saturday morning cartoon without the annoying PSA message. It's one of the first screenwriting works of David Twohy who went on to give us sci-fi cult classics like “Pitch Black” and “The Chronicles of Riddick” so the story is surprisingly well thought out. However, to get the full intention of the writer and the director, you have to get the much longer special edition DVD with nearly 45 minutes of added footage that fills in a lot of the plot holes in the theatrical cut. For reasons beyond me, the DVD's edition of this extended cut maintains all the TV censorship, so all the intense violence and swear words are commicaly cut or replaced. Luckily the PG-13 original cut of the movie is on the flip side, with all the blood swearing a nudity intact.
What can I say about Waterworld? Most people like to pretend they don't like it, because it's quite honestly goofy science fiction, not all that cerebral. However, the move is edge of your seat fun, it's full of action and excitement. It makes you feel like a 12 year old again, so suspend some disbelief and just enjoy yourself.
Kevin Costner may have gotten some bad press about his performance, but he did a good job here.
Some of the cast and crew actually lived on this Atol set for almost a month of shooting
What can I say about Waterworld? Most people like to pretend they don't like it, because it's quite honestly goofy science fiction, not all that cerebral. However, the move is edge of your seat fun, it's full of action and excitement. It makes you feel like a 12 year old again, so suspend some disbelief and just enjoy yourself.
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Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Waterworld seemed bad back then, but compared to some of the fodder released these days it may well be ahead of the curve
Not saying I rank the film , only I have seen much worse from some films that gross over 300 million.
Comment by Joshua the Samurai
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Comment by Matt Shea
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While I'm not big fan of Costner, Reynolds is a director who is a little underrated. Love this particular effort.
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