Movie Review                                                                                                            

19 Dec 2002

US THEATRICAL RELEASE
Oct 25, 2002 (Wide)

NUMBERS
US Box Office: $29,126,344

MPAA RATING
R, for strong violence/gore, language and sexuality

RUNTIME
1 hour, 31 minutes

RELEASE COMPANY
Warner Bros.                                                  

Starring:

Julianna Margulies          Gabriel Byrne            Karl Urban              Isaiah Washington          Ron Eldard               Desmond Harrington

Directed by: Steve Beck

Movie Review                                                                                                            

Despite a cast of relatively unknowns, Ghost Ship surprisingly excel expectations and the cast put on an above average performance and display of potential talents all until the final few seconds which almost rot the moive to the bottom, just because filmmakers wanting a sequel.

In a thriller movie nowadays, special effects are definitely the key and the opening minutes of Ghost Shop is certainly one of the best scene I have seen in years. The opening scene of everyone being dissected from heads, arms, legs, bodies and mouths is both gruesomely visually stunning and mouth gasping. But then the movie never live up to the expectations of the opening sequences and starts to derail. With a great potential of a good thriller and storyline, the movie was overwhelmed by special effects.   

The story is this, a crew discover a long lost ship in the middle of an ocean and discovered gold inside. Not knowing it is a ghost ship one by one the cast (crew) is murdered by the ghosts. This was then solved by blowing up the ship to release the locked soul of the ghosts who die on the ship 50 years ago. Well you get the idea. Then the ending was just plain shit.

Harrington who all put on a above standard performance despite the at times lame script. The performance from the two male and female lead was particular good: Julianna Margulies shows a good portrayal of a heroic tomboy and Gabriel Byrne is cool headed as captain and the ghostly little girl was definitely a scene stealer. The performance of the child was that of an adult but performed by a young teen. But both credits and blame must shoulder upon the director of 13 Ghosts - Steve Beck who carelessly shot the awful ending.

Good special effects,  a good cast performance and some good tension at times making Ghost Ship a par above rotten thrillers but still the stupid ending stinks the Ghost Ship.

Ratings:

                   1/2                              5/10

By Andrew Chan (19 December 2002)