Plotwise, this is just a variant on the MAD MAX films, with a lone rebel fighting off a gang of bad guys in a post-apocalyptic world. One good moment comes where a CGI monster jumps out of the waves to eat Costner, and this works because it's brief. While there are a lot of stunts and gigantic explosions, these lack realism. Indeed most of the budget has gone into simple location shooting, and there are no fancy special effects here. This is probably down to the troubled production and spiralling budget which plagued the film, and taught the producers that it was a bad idea to shoot the entire thing on water. Enjoyable on a 'switch off the brain' level, it lacks any real depth or intelligence to raise it above the ranks of other blockbuster fare. While not quite as bad as the critics would have you believe, this bloated blockbuster is still pretty awful. It's too bad WATERWORLD was doomed from the start but it remains a fun movie. Everyone seemed to forget that the people leaving the theater actually liked the movie. I remember watching this when it was originally released and everyone was going crazy about the budget. Majorino is also fun as the young girl who befriends Costner. Hopper delivers that crazy type of performance we all love and Tripplehorn is good in her supporting bit. Costner also turns in a good, not great, performance in the lead and he at least keeps you interested in everything going on. The battles at sea were really just things we had previously seen in pirate movies but they were still fun. The action scenes were also extremely well handled and especially the ending with all the explosions and fires. The futuristic atmosphere also worked and the look of the costumes, ships and supplies were all realistic and fun. I thought the director managed to do a good job creating a world where the viewer really did feel was nothing but water. I think a lot of credit has to go to the actual look of the film, which of course turned out to be some of the biggest issues with the production. WATERWORLD runs on a bit too long, loses focus on any type of story and yes the budget was crazy but in the end it's still a pretty entertaining summer blockbuster. A part-man, part-fish (Kevin Costner) gets involved with a family (Jeanne Tripplehorn, Tina Majorino) and soon must defeat some bad guys (led by Dennis Hopper) who has kidnapped the girl. The story is pretty simple as in the future all the world is covered by water, although there's rumors of land somewhere. There are countless problems with this film but for the most part I've always enjoyed its ambition and it keeps me entertained. I've personally never seen how good or poorly a movie does at the box office should have any impact on its entertainment or quality level. Waterworld (1995) *** (out of 4) Talk all you want about how this thing was a bomb at the box office.

Waterworld movie rating