Day 152 - 6/1/09 - Movie #152
BEFORE: So, I'm in a quandary - I'm scheduled this Wednesday to take the test for the movie week of "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire". I could try to cram a lot of movie trivia in before then, or just stay the course. I'd hate to stop watching my daily movie to absorb a lot of useless facts, only to have a question come up about a movie that I WOULD have watched if I stuck to my schedule...this is how I'll drive myself crazy.
Continuing with the theme of planetary disasters and apocalypses, I'll watch this critically-panned disaster. What if the icecaps melted, and the world flooded so that humans had to live on boats and floating platforms?
THE PLOT: In a future where most of Earth is underwater, a mutated mariner fights starvation and outlaw "smokers," and reluctantly tries to help a woman and a young girl find dry land.
AFTER: This movie tanked at the box office, so it's got that smell of failure about it, but I don't think it's as bad as its repuation. It's a solid action movie, the hero is heroic, the villains are nasty, the main characters are on a quest - essentially it's just "The Road Warrior" on an ocean instead of a desert, right? RIGHT?
It's visually impressive, too - looks like a lot of money got wasted making this movie, based on what it brought in, but that in itself doesn't make it a bad film. I don't know, my rating system was called into question this weekend, when a friend of my BFF disagreed with my low rating of "The Man Who Fell to Earth", but you know what? It's all subjective. There are bound to be critically-acclaimed or well-liked films that I don't care for, and conversely there are bound to be critically-panned films that I'm going to rave about.
"Waterworld" probably won't become one of my favorite films, but it didn't bother or offend me either. Also, there was no grand message, or even much of an overall point, so in the end it gets a fairly neutral rating. As always, your mileage may vary, no money orders or C.O.D.s accepted, offer good in 49 out of 50 states. Sorry, Tennessee!
RATING: 6 out of 10 jet-skis
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I too don't have any animosity towards this film. I enjoy it, but all the commotion that went on about the production problems and costs of the film do tend to taint most people's view of the film.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I still greatly enjoy the Waterworld Show at Universal Studios (Holywood and Osaka only), and recommend watching it if the opportunity arises.
I've recently found out that there is an extended cut of the film, which has been lost, but I still hope that some day I may track down a copy of it, and it may reveal a better film than how it is presently regarded.
Opening scene: Mr. Waterworld pees into a receptacle. Then he empties it into a device where the warm urine percolates for a little bit before emerging as clean drinking water, which Mr. Waterworld then drinks.
ReplyDeleteAll while this is happening...HE IS SURROUNDED BY TRILLIONS OF GALLONS OF SEAWATER.
I failed to work out why he wouldn't prefer to process the seawater. I was left with the inescapable conclusion that Mr. Waterworld just enjoyed drinking his own pee.
Which left me with the inescapable conclusion I'd seen everything I'd need to see about Mr. Waterworld's Hero Journey.
>>>I was left with the inescapable conclusion >>>that Mr. Waterworld just enjoyed drinking his >>>own pee.
ReplyDeleteOk, that could be the funniest thing I've ever heard...