Ghost Ship
Review
by : Gareth Von Kallenbach
Starring:
Gabriel Byrne, Juliana Marguiles
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Sailors of old have often passed long, cold, and lonely nights
at sea with tales of ghost ships that travel beyond this realm
accumulating victims to their spectral crew with each appearance.
There have been several boats that have vanished only to be
found without a crew, and such tales have inspired films for
years. There has been the monster in the dark variety such
as "Deep Rising", to the supernatural with a twist such as
"Event Horizon" which attempted to give a new twist to the
old genre by substituting a space ship for an ocean going
vessel.
This Halloween
season brings us two new entries into the genre in an attempt
to scare up some revenue from a season that is surprisingly
devoid of the traditional slasher films. Last week saw the
gripping and creepy submarine film "Below" surface in theaters
and this weekend will bring audience and the first sighting
of the new film "Ghost Ship". The film centers on the crew
of a salvage ship in the Bering Sea. The captain of the ship
Murphy( Gabriel Byrne) is a loyal and dedicated captain who
watches out for his crew and is something of a father figure
to them especially to the only female on the crew Epps (Julianna
Margulies). While relaxing after a successful salvage effort,
the crew is propositioned to investigate a mysterious but
large ship by a pilot who claims he has recently seen the
ship. For a percentage of the bounty, the pilot provides the
crew with what he knows and tags along as they set out to
locate the ship.
The crew
eventually arrives at the ships and discovers that it is an
Italian luxury liner that has been missing for nearly forty
years. The crew boards the derelict and finds it abandoned
but a treasure chest of salvage opportunities and with visions
of dollar signs motivating them, set out to repair the ship
in order to tow it back to port. Now this would not be much
of a ghost story if everything went as planned so naturally
all manner of strange and tragic occurrences start to befall
the crew, especially once they uncover a cache of unmarked
gold bars that is worth hundreds of millions. Of course all
hell breaks lose in no time and the crew is forced to try
to escape with their very lives.
While
the storyline of "Ghost Ship" is very simplistic and has been
shown many times, there are some interesting diversions in
the film. I found the opening scene while predictable to be
a very effective and fresh scene that had many in the screening
audience gasping with shock and morbid delight. The special
effects were nothing outstanding and the characters were not
well developed at all. I found the captain to be the most
underdeveloped as we were told early in the film that he never
drinks yet see him struggle with a bottle later when he has
the opportunity to have a drink in private. The suggestion
is that he is a recovering alcoholic yet this point is sadly
not developed at all and he like most of the cast are left
as bland charactures that generate little to no sympathy for
them or their well being from the audience. I did like the
way that the film incorporated ideas from "The Shining" as
manifestations from the past interacted with the cast making
them question reality and react with the images even if it
ultimately lead to their doom. I was reminded of Nicholson's
character descending into madness as he returned to drinking
while conversing with the ghostly bartender in the snowbound
hotel. Sadly though "Ghost Ship" lacks the gripping drama
and characters of "The Shining" and Byrne seems to be walking
through his role wasting his talents on a part that is paper-thin
at best. There were a few nice twists now and then but far
to little to keep this sinking ship afloat. My advice, save
this one for a rental.
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