WATERWORLD is a film with a troubled history. After going over-budget and Kevin Costner kicked director Kevin Reynolds out of the editing room during post-production (Costner did the same thing to Reynolds during the post-production of ROBIN HOOD: THE PRINCE OF THIEVES). The TC is what Kevin Costner and Universal Pictures provided to the public without the director's final say.

The Extended Cut- which includes over 40 minutes never seen in the theatrical cut- shows that the TC has enough plot holes to sink a ship. The extended cut first aired on ABC over two nights and it has also been shown on the Starz! and Encore channels in two versions (with the language intact and language censored cut). It is a shame that the extended version wasn't the version that was shown in theaters because it is far superior to the theatrical cut and fleshes out a great many things including the people in the Atoll and the people on the Deacon's ship- The Exxon Valdez, the relationship between the Mariner (Costner) and Helen, The Mariner gets a name,, and you know where they landed. I thank Universal for making the Extended Cut available to DVD, but I wish they included more extras than the theatrical trailer like an audio commentary or a featurette on the troubled history of the film from production to post to the extended cut being shown on ABC. If you haven't seen the extended cut and didn't think too highly of the theatrical cut, you should give WATERWORLD second look and get the Extended Edition DVD. After that, you might never want to watch the Theatrical version ever again

this DVD review is (c)11-3-2008 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission. send all comments to lord_pragmagtic@hotmail.com  

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