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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Worth the price of a matinee, October 26, 2002
Julianna Margulies (of past ER fame) and Gabriel Byrne (Stigmata, The Usual Suspects) turn in respectable performances in the fairly average scary movie, Ghost Ship, directed by Steve Beck. It's worth the price of a matinee if you can't resist the seduction of shipwrecks, ghosts, and the sea. Ghost Ship is about the Antonia Graza, an Italian luxury cruise ship that blipped off of radar in the 60s. An elegant ballroom scene aboard the doomed vessel opens the film. This scene has a perfect 60s look and feel to it, which initially made me wonder if I were in the wrong theatre. It was a far cry from what the previews led me to expect. But I was in the right place. Not very long into the movie, we see a gruesome piece of what happened to the crew and passengers. Beck does a respectable job holding viewer interest as the story progresses, inserting more pieces in the puzzle until everyone sees exactly what happened to the original passengers and what's going on now. As the intrigue begins, Gabriel Byrne (Murphy) is the captain of the Arctic Warrior, a salvage ship. His crew looks a bit young and not nearly alcoholic enough to be true sea dogs, but they have one thing in common with other salvage teams: the love of treasure. International maritime law states that it's "finders, keepers" out there, so when Murphy's crew is presented with a chance to make a big score, the tired but greedy crew decides to climb back aboard the Arctic Warrior and head off to the Bering Sea to find the Antonia Graza and return with her treasures. Once aboard, the team splits up to explore the ship and sure enough, the fun and suspense begin in earnest. They discover her great treasure, but when they try to offload the booty from the Antonia Graza, it's clear she has other plans. That's when it gets ugly. There are a lot of dead things on this ship, and she desires that the living would soon join her other dead captives. I loved the atmosphere of this flick, with its greenish hues and dark, creepy set. There's night, rain, mystery, the sea, and a pretty tore up ship. Although the ship was never submerged, it looks as though it's been through quite a battle, with its wiring pulled out and hanging from the ceiling in practically every shot. I know sea air is corrosive, but dang! There's also a bit of gratuitous language, usually an early tip-off to a lack of purposeful dialogue. Fortunately, when things start happening, there's less swearing and the dialogue moves the story forward.
The editor deserves a tip of the hat. Ghost Ship runs about 75 minutes, just the right amount of time to develop the story and lead to its conclusion without getting submerged in subplots that go nowhere. This movie sticks to the main theme of creepy ghost ship, how it got that way, and what the current captives must do to get out with their lives. Ghost Ship has all the standard creepy special effects and a few stunts that rival those on Fear Factor. There are several very cool, original special effects as well, and the ending is a lot of fun. Like any scary movie, the plausibility gap is often wide, but the story moves along at a fair pace, keeping you interested to the end. I thoroughly recommend Ghost Ship if you're in the mood for this sort of fare. Bon Voyage!
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28 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Ghost Ship is Surprisingly Good., March 21, 2003
This review is from: Ghost Ship (Widescreen Edition) (DVD)
I decided to ignore most reviews of this film and check it out anyway. I am very glad I did. I don't understand why people think its so bad. Ghost Ship is about a crew who aboard an abandoned ship that went missing in 1962, and was never heard of again. The crew finds it and strange things begin to happen. They start seeing Ghosts, hence the title. The ghosts are the passengers who were brutally killed on the ship, obviously.
The film has a few scary moments and it moves along quickly. There is a major plot twist at the end that I did not see coming at all and I thought it was brilliant. You can't comment on the acting of a horror movie, it's pointless, but luckily Ghost Ship has a cast of well known, and talented actors such as Gabriel Byrne, Julianne Marguiles, and Ron Eldard. If not for them, the film could have been a lot more cheesy, but I thought the film was intriguing, scary, and creepy. The opening scene by far one of the most gruesome scenes in film is worth seeing this film for.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
"I think I saw something I couldn't have possibly have seen.", October 12, 2006
This review is from: Ghost Ship (Widescreen Edition) (DVD)
`Old man rhythm is in my shoes
No use sittin and a singin the blues
So be my guest, you got nothin to lose
Won't ya let me take you on a sea cruise?
Oo-ee, oo-ee baby
Oo-ee, oo-ee baby
Oo-ee, oo-ee baby
Won't ya let me take you on a sea cruise?' - `Sea Cruise', sung by Frankie Ford
Boy, that's about as weak a tie in reference I've come up with in awhile to start a review...directed by Steve Beck (Thir13en Ghosts), Ghost Ship (2002) features Gabriel Byrne (The Usual Suspects), Julianna Margulies ("ER"), Ron Eldard (Mystery, Alaska), Isaiah Washington (Romeo Must Die), Karl `Eomer' Urban (The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers), Alex Dimitriades (Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo), Desmond Harrington (Wrong Turn), and Emily Browning (Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events).
As the film begins we're aboard a luxury ocean liner set sometime in the past, I'm guessing, given the size of that beehive hairdo on one of the women. Anyway, while a number of passengers and crew are cutting a rug on one of the decks, there's an unfortunate accident (or is it?) with an overly taut steel cable resulting in nearly everyone on the deck (except for a little red-headed girl, played by Emily Browning) being literally cut down in size. Fast forward to the present where we meet a crew of professional sea salvagers, led by a man named Murphy (Byrne). Among the crew is Murphy's right hand, a woman named Epps (Margulies), divers Dodge (Eldard) and Munder (Urban), first mate Greer (Washington), and Santos (Dimitriades), the mechanic. After a recently successful haul the group is approached by a man named Jack Ferriman (Harrington) with a proposition. Seems Ferriman, a pilot of sorts, knows the location of a derelict ship, and wants Murphy and his crew to salvage it, with a percentage of the take going to himself. After agreeing on terms they locate the ship they learn it's actually the Antonia Graza (given the ship's rusty condition it should probably be renamed the USS Tetanus), an Italian ocean liner missing for the last forty some odd years (it also happens to be the same ship we saw at the beginning...big surprise). Anyhow, as the crew begins its reconnaissance, a subtle strangeness sets in, indicating perhaps they're not alone (the red-headed girl we saw at the beginning appears and disappears). The crew gets a little jittery, but their fears are temporarily waylaid after finding a fortune in gold in the cargo hold, to which they decide to forgo trying to save the ship (which is severely damaged and sinking), and make off with the gold...sounds like a plan, but forces conspire to keep them on the derelict ship, where they eventually discover some disturbing truths about what happened to those previously aboard the Antonia Graza...
It's probably worth mentioning up front the opening sequence is pretty gory, so if you've a weak stomach or easily disgusted, you may want to skip the film. Once past this, there's not much else that comes close to this level of nastiness. While the opening bit didn't bother me, it seemed odd (and unnecessary) its inclusion given I was expecting more of a traditional, psychological type ghost story. Well, it turns out the director Steve Beck, has a background in special effects, so I guess he wanted to start off the film with something he knew...and speaking of effects, I think that's probably one element many people who've seen this film can agree on is that the special effects tend to drive the movie more than anything else. One aspect I found especially strong was the settings as it appeared there was a whole lot of effort involved in creating atmosphere in terms of the Antonia Graza. As far as the other elements of the film, the story, the script, the performances, well, I really wasn't impressed. I just never felt the sense of dread I would hope to feel in a solid ghost story, which is, in my opinion, what this feature strives to be...the story, while containing some interesting aspects (along with some serious plot holes), fell a little flat, the script was pretty minimal (which was more a positive than a negative), and the performances barely there and a bit too artificial (laced with a whole lot of machismo), but this may have been due to the skimpy material the actors were given. The film does sometimes move a little too slow as the intent seemed to be a build up towards some not so juicy revelations (often shown in flashbacks), but I thought most of the characters not very interesting so spending time with them felt almost a chore (once they started getting knocked off I felt very little empathy for them). There was one shining moment well into the feature and that when an Italian actress named Francesca Rettondini shows us the goods (specifically her goods) that helped make the overall experience somewhat more worthwhile. All in all this isn't a rotten film, but I just wish the writers had put as much effort into the story as the filmmakers put into the effects.
While the actual film may not have been all that hot, the picture, presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1), looks beautiful and sharply detailed, and the Dolby Surround 5.1 audio, available in both English and French comes across well. There's a good helping of extras including a making of documentary (15:05), a visual FX featurette (6:01), a featurette titled A Closer Look at the Gore (5:30), another focusing on the design of the ghost ship (5:44), a music video featuring the band Mudvayne and their song `Not Falling', which was used in the film, a puzzle game titled `Secrets of the Antonia Graza', cast and crew filmographies, a theatrical trailer, and subtitles in English, French, and Spanish. Also, the DVD case features a nifty holographic type image on the cover.
Cookieman108
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