Waterworld [4K UHD]

Great Movie!

very good!

Waterworld. One of the key staples from my childhood. I'll start by saying, the transfers for all 3 versions of the film are INCREDIBLE. Video is very clean and crisp without feeling overdone with the restoration. It still feels like watching a film and not just overtly, digital gloss. The audio tracks are also impressive, listen on a nice surround system and it feels like you're right there in the action. The extras: An incredibly in depth, insightful 1hr. 45.min feature-length documentary. "Dances with Waves"- a vintage featurette with behind-the-scenes footage as well as interviews with a lot of the cast and crew. "Global Warnings"- a short doc about environmentally apocalyptic movies. Production and promotional stills gallery. Original TV spots. Theatrical trailers. If 3 different cuts of the film and the hours of extras weren't enough for you, we also get: Double-sided poster with original theatrical poster on one side and the awesome, newly-commissioned artwork on the reverse 6 collectible postcards 60 page perfect-bound book featuring new writings on the film and amazing concept drawings and sketches from the production team All housed inside of a deluxe, hardshell slipcase. Amazon has this listed as a "2 disc" when it is actually a 3 disc set. If you're a fan of this movie, you should own this special edition. Get it while it's still available! And for such a reasonable price! It really is special, it's one of my favorites from Arrow. And that is truly saying a lot. It's nice to see this movie getting the treatment it deserves. This is incredible filmmaking at its finest. It features beautiful imagery and huge, grandiose stunts, all of which were 90% practically done. They don't make them like this anymore. And this set by Arrow Video goes beyond doing the film Justice.

Waterworld drowned in its own negative pre-release hype, which I along with pretty much everyone else bought into at the time (a similar set of circumstances rightfully crushed Gigli, which is so much worse than this film as to be in its own category). Upon age and reflection, Waterworld stands on its own as a coherent, enjoyable apocalypse film. It simply doesn't look like something that $200+ million was spent on (much of which went into rebuilding set pieces after a storm, so it had no effect on the look of the film). If you can get past whatever expectation that budget might have placed for you in terms of shiny effects, this is a pretty darn good movie. Costner is believable and entertaining as the Mariner, and the supporting cast does a good job. Hopper has fun chewing the scenery as the Deacon, leader of a huge pack of scavengers called Smokers due to the fact their vehicles and industry run off crude oil carried in their massive mobile oil tanker home. Most people bash Waterworld because of either its huge price tag, which didn't "deliver," or because they feel it is simply a rehash of Road Warrior but on the ocean. I believe there are strong counterarguments to both these claims. I love Road Warrior, but I hardly believe it invented the genre; there were films coming out 25 years earlier that had the same theme. An apocalypse film is usually the only way to posit an alternative reality movie without having to bloat up on futuristic robots and/or aliens (the other possibility is a caveman film, which we all know will be a resounding success). Costner's film parallels Road Warrior really only to the extent both involve a lone warrior in a savage post-apocalyptic world, which is how every single other film in the genre is also set up. It basically IS the genre. Waterworld takes its place in that genre quite adeptly. It has plenty of interesting but disposable side villians, neat gadgets and surprises, a cynical central adventurer with lots of deadly skills, and surprisingly good dialogue. Heck even the annoying child actor gets thrown overboard when she becomes too annoying. If only The Phantom Menace writers were taking notes. Likewise, the action in this film proves satisfying, as it is CGI free. Waterworld was a failure at the time, but it has aged well and deserves another look. It's not as good as Road Warrior, no, but what is? I'd take a screening of Waterworld over most of the recent "summer" action films (Hulk, Daredevil, S.W.A.T. etc) of this past summer any day of the week.

Great movie

Another epic Cosner flick worth any library.

It was okay

Really Good