Waterworld

I wanted to stay up last night and watch something, but everybody except The Husband bailed. We chose Waterworld, since The Younger Son had already seen it and had no interest in going there again. Waterworld is a 1995 post-apocalyptic science fiction film starring Kevin Costner, Dennis Hopper, Jeanne Triplehorn, Tina Majorino, Michael Jeter (who has a Memphis connection), Jack Black, John Fleck (who has a Star Trek connection), Kim Coates, Jack Kehler (Star Trek connection) and Lee Arenberg (Star Trek appearances in 4 of the series). I had heard that this was dreadful, but I liked it fine. It won't be on top of the watch-it-again stack, but it was fun.

trailer:


the first 10 minutes:


Moria says it's a Mad Max clone, saying, "Waterworld is not a bad film by any means – it’s just that one can’t help but feel it should have been more than it is." 1000 Misspent Hours is pleasantly surprised:

Waterworld isn’t half bad. In fact, if you’re willing to set aside the expectation that budget should be commensurate with importance, and accept that this movie was never going to be anything more than Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome on the high seas, then Waterworld starts looking like a commendable attempt to put some of the fun back into “We Have Seen the Future— and It Sucks!” by rescuing it from both the played out desert settings of the previous decade and the increasingly dreary stranglehold of the cyberpunk school that was ascendant in the mid-90’s.

Roger Ebert describes it as "a decent futuristic action picture with some great sets, some intriguing ideas, and a few images that will stay with me." The New York Times has nothing good to say. Variety says, ""Waterworld" is a not-bad futuristic actioner with three or four astounding sequences, an unusual hero, a nifty villain and less mythic and romantic resonance than might be desired."