Waterworld (1995)
4/10
God what a fucking turd of a movie.
There are very few Kevin Costner movies that wouldn't have been substantially improved by casting anyone but Kevin Costner in them.
Waterworld is a WEIRD film.
Dances With
Smurfs Wolves - which we can all agree is a fantastic film - stars AND was directed by, Kevin Kostner.
Waterworld was directed ky Kevin Reynolds, which *in theory* should improve the film (actors commonly do poorly when directing themselves) and instead the result is a turd. #
Because
turd is the perfect word to describe WW.
WW was from 1995, so Kostner would have still been in the same mindset as DWW. There is no obvious explanation as to why one is shit, and the other excellent. Dennis Hopper was given a role that should have fit him perfectly, the concept isn't terrible - after all, it's
inverse Mad Max - and they had tons of money to make it come alive.
I can only speculate, so what follows may be straight out my butthole;
i have read that Steven Spielberg - the guy who did Jaws, another film-at-sea - warned Kostner to NOT shoot at sea, but rather to shoot near shore and to use filmmaking tricks to make it look like they were at sea. Instead Kostner shot the film at sea, and this proved very difficult for the crew.
In DWW, the film itself is gorgeous; the lighting, photography, costumes, and the acting of the supporting cast. Being shot on land, they were more relaxed, and had the concentration to focus on their art.
Instead WW was shot at sea, between nausea and diarrhea, the costumes are shit because they tried to make it look "real" (and didn't even go all balls-out as idk, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome did), so the crew & cast didn't really have a chance to give their best.
Kostern himself had a massive and $$$$ beach house, so he was above the problems of the filthy peasants working for him, which probably contributed to the whole mess.