Waterworld

Drama, Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Thriller

Kevin Costner	Mariner
Jeanne Tripplehorn
Tina Majorino
Chaim Girafi	Drifter (as Chaim Jeraffi)
Rick Aviles	Gatesman
R.D. Call	Enforcer
Zitto Kazann	Elder/Survivor
Leonardo Cimino	Elder
Zakes Mokae	Priam
Luke Ka'ili Jr.	Boy
Anthony DeMasters	Boy
Willy Petrovic	Boy
Dennis Hopper
Michael Jeter

Director	Kevin Costner; Kevin Reynolds
Producer	Kevin Costner; John Davis; Ilona Herzberg; Andrew Licht
Writer	Peter Rader; David Twohy; David N. Twohy

Let's be honest: this 1995 epic isn't nearly as bad as its negative publicity led us to expect. At the time it was the most expensive Hollywood production in history (it had a Titanic-sized $200 million budget), and the film arrived in theaters 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