Ghost Ship (2002)

Ghost Ship

Rental

Hm. Ghost Ship, starring some mid-level actors and what appears to be a ghostly child. Not so appealing. I was faintly more intrigued to see this film after the previews started airing - and having seen it, I can tell you that the preview itself is very well edited - it shows a great deal of the best stuff without ruining anything. These days, that is a rare and precious thing. While the film itself generally totters around in search of solid ground, it does deliver some genuine creeps, mostly in the middle. As it begins, the romantic comedy font for the titles and the swoony Lucy-on-quaaludes music does not prep one for an evening of horror and mayhem; slowly we build to a pretty creatively awful end of the prologue...and that reminded me of Resident Evil.

Basically, Gabriel Byrne leads a team of ship salvaging pirates including ER alums (and onscreen exes) Julianna Margulies and Ron Eldard. Margulies looks at home being tough and competent, and she is the strongest character to boot. After proving their extreme chutzpah on one wreck, they find out about a ship in international waters ripe for the plundering and of course, greed leads. This would be of course the titular Ghost Ship. Creeeeeepy! Afloat since 1962, it's dark and scary and ripe for the spookin'. The story is nothing to write home (or you) about, but the really good stuff is the material that was cribbed from other movies, namely The Shining. So if you liked The Shining, you will be able to enjoy Ghost Ship. It's actually a little shameful when you break it down, how much the film borrowed from that superior film; try not to think about the Shining when you are watching Ghost Shine. Er, I mean Ship.

A scary movie isn't a scary movie without someone doing something colossally stupid, along the lines of the teenager in her panties investigating noises in the backyard, and Ghost Ship does not disappoint on this count. There is also some mystery as to what really happened on that ship so long ago, which (after tantalizing us) is then solved without any real work on the part of the crew.

These folks aren't dealing with any ordinary haunted ship. No, like the Overlook Hotel, (you know, from The Shining) the drifting Antonia Graza has its own agenda. It is this agenda that is the film's weakest point. The filmmaking, especially camera work and set design, is great, and the acting is just fine, but once The Agenda steps in, the film weakens terrifically. Once the conclusion is reached, which is as satisfying as the movie could then possibly get, given the parameters it forced itself into, it's not so much interesting or scary. But the scary stuff at the beginning is pretty good. Too bad it's in the theatres for Halloween instead of on tape. -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ These reviews (c) 2002 Karina Montgomery. Please feel free to forward but just credit the reviewer in the text. Thanks. reviews@cinerina.com Check out previous reviews at: http://www.cinerina.com http://ofcs.rottentomatoes.com - the Online Film Critics Society http://www.hsbr.net/reviews/karina/ - Hollywood Stock Exchange Brokerage Resource http://www.mediamotions.com and http://www.capitol-city.com

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