Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6609 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-02-24
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: French, English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 135 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Let's be honest: this 1995 epic isn't nearly as bad as its negative publicity led us to expect. At the time, Waterworld was the most expensive Hollywood production in history (it had a Titanic-sized 200 million US dollars budget), and the film arrived in cinemas with so much controversy and negative gossip that it was an easy target for ridicule. The movie itself, a flawed but enjoyable post-apocalypse thriller, deserves better. Waterworld stars Kevin Costner as the Mariner, a lone maverick with gills and webbed feet who navigates the endless seas of Earth after the complete melting of the polar ice caps. The Mariner has been caged like a criminal when he's freed by Helen (Jeanne Tripplehorn) and enlisted to help her and a young girl (Tina Majorino) escape from the Smokers, a group of renegade terrorists led by Dennis Hopper in yet another memorably villainous role. It is too bad the predictable script isn't more intelligent, but as a companion piece to The Road Warrior, this seafaring stunt-fest is adequately impressive. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

Waterworld - Kevin Costner is innocent.
It was only after I'd seen the film that I was told how dreadful it was. I wish somebody had told me earlier - I feel dirty..and used. I realise now that I have thoroughly enjoyed this movie under false pretences.
I remember the days when a young(ish) Clint Eastwood grimaced his way through a whole bunch of dollars - more or less giving birth to the anti-hero - what a shot in the arm for the genre that was. So....imagine the same character with flippers and you're halfway there. Mind you, there's more than a referential nod to Errol Flynn, there's more swashing, buckling and derring do than anyone called Kevin really has a right to participate in, but he pulls it off with more aplomb than most. What's more, you never feel as though he's taking liberties - he plays the whole thing straight - which is quite something when you consider the size of the holes in the plot and the infernal nit-picking that ensued as a result. And as for Mr Hopper, yes he's a cartoon villain - that's pretty much what I paid my dollar for - he may not be an American Psycho, but he's got an eyepatch and that's good enough for me. Anyway, why are you looking at him when you've got Ms Tripplehorn on screen ?
All in all it's hardly a a work of high art, but if you're the type that thinks poor reviews are a plus point, then you'll buy it anyway - and you'll have a great couple of hours.
Anyway - what do I know - I loved the Postman too.
Ignore the tiresome little typewriter tappers.
They need to get over it.

UNJUST CRITICISM
Someone said this is the worst film they have ever seen. They obviously watch one film a year. Whatever BBC1 chucks out on Christmas day probably.
To start off with it is very much an original idea. The opening sequence where the Universal logo becomes the flooded feature of the story is worth an oscar alone!
described as 'Mad Max' on water is quite simply a fair way to put it and can that be considered a criticism? I don't think so.
Costner plays the part very well, a kind of human/fish should have been looked into deeper but instead they take us to the action. Good stuff!
Speed boats, jet skis, aeroplanes, kamikaze water skiers - its all here.
The scene where Costner catches food for lunch and the part where they come across the mad Irish drifter are highly original,
Dennis Hopper is such a breath of fresh air as a villain with an attitude which can only be described as quite happy but apologetic for being bad, (trying to be best friends with a girl he has just kidnapped).
Two gripes however.
The soppy kid who knows the way to 'dry land'.
(Thankfully our Kev takes an instant dislike to her & chops all her hair off as punishment for graffitiing his boat!)also
Why is dirt so valuable when it isn't really useful to anyone?
Water in a desert is, dirt in the middle of the ocean is not.
Having said that the actions and the explosions should keep any destruction junkie happy.
I gave it 5 stars when it should only have 4 simply because it deserves better then what has been said about it so far.
If you have seen it once and did not like it maybe you should give it another go, I think it is worth it unlike however 'Cut Throat Island' which deserves to remain in the bargain bin.

Eco Armageddon
The production standards of this film are stunning, including a quarter of a mile wide floating artificial atoll constructed especially for the movie and regularly manoeuvred so it always pointed out to sea.

Kevin Costner is the Mariner, a mutant that can breath under water and lives on an astonishing trimaran controlled by complex lever and pulley mechanisms and other wonderful improvisations. He is later joined by Helen (Jeanne Tripplehorne) and Enola (Tina Majorino) a great performance from a ten year old girl.

The villain is Deacon (Dennis Hopper) and as a fan of his in other films I query his casting in this role, he is just too over the top for the rest of the film, the contrast is so great it brings an unfortunate taste of “Treasure Island” (including an eye patch) which jars.

However the environment of a world overwhelmed with water was not well thought out, some examples, where did all the petrol come from for the water skies, why is everyone so hungry when the seas must have been teaming with fish, the Mariner and Helen would have been crushed to death during the descent to the bottom of the ocean, with so much water why is there never aly rain.

With special effects, stunts and gadgets that are stunning, great photography and direction, this film is well worth watching if it takes your interest.