Product Details

• Actors: Brad Johnson (II), Karen Holness, Emily Lloyd, Jeremy Birchall, Kevin Smith (II)
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Universal Studios
• DVD Release Date: November 16, 2004
• Run Time: 86 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0002Y4TWE
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #56,691 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Riverworld" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

An american astronaut dies and is reincarnated with other persons who have lived throughout all of human history and end up on a mysterious planet called riverworld.The humans are left to their own devices and create tribal fiefdoms and succumb to brutal wars and raids. Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 11/16/2004 Starring: Brad Johnson Kevin Smith Run time: 86 minutes Rating: Nr Director: Kari Skogland

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable movie for all the family, February 14, 2005

By 

Kali "bengaligirl" (United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Riverworld (DVD)

It's a shame that this movie has been so slated by the critics, I really liked it and it's a double shame that a series didn't come out of it, because it was left wide open for that at the end of the movie.

All in all we have a good story-line and some very competent international actors and actresses.

Our main protagonist and hero is a man called Jeff Hale (a sexy American in the guise of Brad Johnson), once an astronaut who died in a crash and is reborn out of a bubble that is pierced with a spear along with other people who have lived throughout most of human history and who have somehow ended up on a mysterious planet called 'Riverworld'.

It seems that anyone who has ever lived and died on Earth comes to Riverworld rather than an afterlife and this does not exclude other world beings either. An extra-terrestrial call Monat (Brian Moore) has the unfortunate luck of dying on earth in 2039 when his space craft crashed and he too is "reborn" to Riverworld and all its mysteries and secrets.

The humans which include Emily Lloyd as Alice Liddell Hardgreaves, an African Priestess call Mali, (Karen Holness) and one Alien are pretty much left to their own devices and as you can imagine they end up becoming quite tribal in their outlook, especially as the Emperor Nero (the English actor Jonathan Cake looking pretty hot despite being a baddie!) has been reborn and he's looking to rule the "new born ones" in the only way he knows how, through the blade and sheer brutality,

A few of the "new born ones" get together and with Hale lead a revolt against Nero and in a river-boat designed by the mysterious Sam (Australian actor Cameron Daddo) set off to explore this mysterious new world made up of connecting rivers that lead to.....?

There is also a race of black hooded 'beings' who seem to have some sort of cosmic plan for the rebels in the riverboat but we aren't privy to what it is and this is a little irritating as there is no sequel to explain it all but that is what happens when a pilot movies flops.

All the same I really enjoyed this, and there is a nice little twist in the tale as you find out who "Sam" was in his previous life.

Not as bad as all the critics are making out, there are a lot worse Sci-Fi films out there, that is for sure!

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Clearly Unfinished, January 25, 2005

By 

Dorable Dora (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Riverworld (DVD)

This movie actually isn't bad, and is a pretty decent portrayal of the Riverworld series (well...the first two books anyway).

The problem is, that this "movie" was either part one of a miniseries, or a pilot of a series never made. At the end one is left with the feeling of, "That was great, when is the next part on?" Only to find that there IS NO NEXT PART.

So if you choose to buy this, hopefully you'll do so fully aware that you're buying something that feels like a multi-part series, of which you will only EVER get to see Part I, with absolutely NO conclusion of the main story issues, mysteries, etc. (Sub-plots are resolved, but the greater thread of the story is left glaringly unfinished).

I have no idea if another movie will ever be made, or if this will ever be made into a series by Sci-Fi, I wasn't able to find any information on it, and actually went to Sci-Fi to look up when the second part would be on...only to find there was no second part.

And I ran across this while looking up Phillip Jose Farmer's books, which I'd recommend buying instead. At least those are complete.

I'm giving this 2 stars, because it is not a "complete" movie, and I personally would be rather upset if I paid for it only to be left hanging. If it had been complete, I would have rated it much higher. It was good, certainly good enough for me to be interested in looking for the conclusion which was never made. :\

24 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sci-Fi for History Buffs, May 17, 2005

By 

Melissa McCauley (North Little Rock, AR) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Riverworld (DVD)

It's been quite a while since I've read Philip Jose Farmer's RiverWorld books, but I didn't think this movie was quite up to snuff. The premise is the same, the dead from all periods of history find themselves resurrected in RiverWorld. Gang fighting, Lord-of-the-Flies-type stuff ensues. My main attraction to the books was the protagonist, the dashing explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton. (Found the source of the Nile, first westerner into Muslim kingdoms, translated the Arabian Nights and the Kama Sutra, etc. He was the real-life version of the Victorian hero all those romance novelists try to recreate.) This movie has Brad Johnson playing an astronaut as the main character. Mark Twain is kept as a character, building Mississippi paddle wheelers to navigate the mighty river, but sadly John Lackland (Former King of England, Richard the LionHeart's brother - you know, the evil King John from the Robin Hood tales) has been changed to Nero, probably because the average TV viewer would say "John who?". Still, not a bad watch, could make an interesting series - the abrupt ending is obviously a set-up for a potential series.

If the concept interests you, I recommend reading the books instead. TO YOUR SCATTERED BODIES GO, THE FABULOUS RIVERBOAT, THE DARK DESIGN, THE MAGIC LABYRINTH, and THE GODS OF RIVERWORLD, all by Philip Jose Farmer. And if you're a Sir Richard Francis Burton junkie, read THE DUCHESS by Jude Deveraux, a funny and delicious romance with a Richard Burton clone as the protagonist.