FLOATING SOME STANDARD-ISSUE SCARES.Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic THE TITLE ``Ghost Ship'' says it all. The crew of an Alaskan salvage tug A salvage tug is a specialized type of tugboat which is used to rescue or marine salvage ships which are in distress or in danger of sinking, or which have already sunk or run aground. find a derelict Italian ocean liner that went missing 40 years earlier in the Bering Sea Bering Sea, c.878,000 sq mi (2,274,020 sq km), northward extension of the Pacific Ocean between Siberia and Alaska. It is screened from the Pacific proper by the Aleutian Islands. The Bering Strait connects it with the Arctic Ocean. . They board, find some booty, see some strange things - and one by one die horribly (jargon) die horribly - The software equivalent of crash and burn, and the preferred emphatic form of die. "The converter choked on an FF in its input and died horribly". . With minimal imagination, you could restage the whole thing in your bathtub. Except that you probably wouldn't be able to do so in as slick and professional a manner as director Steven Beck Steven Beck (born June 4, 1984 in Liverpool, England) is an English footballer who currently plays for the League of Wales team The New Saints. His position is central midfielder. (the ``Thirteen Ghosts'' remake), his crack crew of artisans and uniformly decent cast, which includes ``ER's'' Julianna Margulies Julianna Luisa Margulies (born June 8, 1966) is an Emmy award winning American actress best known for her role as Nurse Carol Hathaway on the NBC medical drama ER. as a tough chick with heart, Gabriel Byrne as an Irish skipper with a drinking problem and Australian actress Emily Browning as a sweet, dead little English girl. Filmed mostly on artfully rotted sets, with miniatures for the high-seas stuff and good if unexceptional un·ex·cep·tion·al adj. 1. Not varying from a norm; usual. 2. Not subject to exceptions; absolute. See Usage Note at unexceptionable. un CG during the supernatural doings, the movie gives off an effective sense of eerie isolation without ever achieving a distinctive vision. Shock effects are skillful skill·ful adj. 1. Possessing or exercising skill; expert. See Synonyms at proficient. 2. Characterized by, exhibiting, or requiring skill. but not real exciting, the plot unfolds sensibly enough despite making little real sense in that modern horror movie kind of way, and the picture has nothing in common - other than ghosts and ships - with the previous productions that have borne the same title. So, if you like your scares generic and cleanly dispatched, ``Ghost Ship'' is the movie for you. For a little more real creepiness and originality, though, you might want to give the less-disciplined but deeper, more haunting ``The Ring'' a call. GHOST SHIP - Two and one half stars (R: violence, language, nudity, children in jeopardy) Starring: Julianna Margulies, Gabriel Byrne, Ron Eldard, Desmond Harrington, Isaiah Washington, Emily Browning. Director: Steve Beck. Running time: 1 hr. 29 min. Playing: Citywide. In a nutshell: Straightforward horror thriller about salvage operators stuck on a haunted luxury liner. There've been worse, there've been better - but mainly there have been more distinctive chillers. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Isaiah Washington and Julianna Margulies struggle to keep afloat after their salvage crew investigates an old, abandoned ocean liner, in the spooky if unspectacular ``Ghost Ship.'' |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion