 "Completely satisfied" | 2010-07-19 |
| - Reviewed By tracy d |
| this was the first time I ever purchased a used DVD from Amazon. I have to say I was completely satisfied with how quickly I received the DVD and the quality is just great. I would not hesitate to purchased another used item in the future. |
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 "Classic movie" | 2010-05-16 |
| - Reviewed By P. Souther from Chattanooga, TN USA |
| I owned this movie on VHS and decided I wanted a DVD copy as well. It's a classic fictional movie based on a real-life tragedy. The story of the Titanic has always facinated me. This is one of those "must own" movies. |
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| "Great" | 2010-05-11 |
| - Reviewed By Abdulla from Bahrain |
Well
This was great I loved the features and the deleted scenes
and watched the making which was amazing |
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| "Seriously...where's the blue-ray!!?" | 2010-05-02 |
| - Reviewed By Alison Hunter |
| This is a movie I can't help but love. On a lazy day you sneak it out of your collection and enjoy the pure cheesiness, yet granduer of an epic film. Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet light up the screen, and I'm secretly hoping that if they do another film the ending won't be so depressing. How about a RomCom? haha. I'm more than curious to see what they do about the 3-D version coming out in 2012...I feel like I might want to bring scuba gear, a wetsuit, and floaties. As of right now I'm waiting for the Blue-Ray version because it is one movie I'd be willing to shell out $25 for. |
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 "Whopper of a blockbuster, whopper of a disappointment" | 2010-04-16 |
| - Reviewed By J. Renouf |
As a recent subscriber to Netflix, I finally got around to watching Titanic. At the time of its release, I had heard both plaudits for and censure of this film, one of the most celebrated in the history of the Academy Awards. The movie left me with an impression analogous to my assessment of the Harry Potter novels: to quote the eponymous subject of the masterful film Capote, "I don't understand what the fuss is all about."
Simply put, the film really has nothing of interest to tell us -- no information of more than superficial value. The dialogue is a melange of cliches; the acting, with the exception of the British shiphands and captain (Bernard Hill gives a characteristically noble performance as the captain), is utterly saccharine and devoid of any credibility; and the plot is monotonous at best.
Most of the praise of this movie stems, as far as what I can see, from the belief that millions of moviegoers can't be wrong. Even the Amazon editorial reviewer feels compelled to mention the film's box office success, which seems to me to be irrelevant to a critical evaluation. Of course, many of the film's detractors are saying that the premise of the movie -- a story of thwarted passion against the backdrop of one of history's greatest manmade catastrophes -- simply can't work. This has perhaps become a cliched critical position in itself, but I would at least argue that it is incredible that Cameron would have us believe that this is anything other than the lustful pairing of a bored hussy who has become disillusioned with upper-class society to an on-the-make street urchin who at first sight is beady-eyed for a woman who is beyond his social milieu, then driven forward by the thrill of adventure and the hunt. At best, though the underlying idea might be superficially appealing, the development of a profound love affair is implausible within the four-day time frame of Titanic's voyaging existence.
The overarching problem that detracts from any ability to have a more workable plot is Cameron's meretricious focus on visuals. I have to confess myself being initially wowed by the special effects -- the rending of the ship and the plunging of the upper half into the Atlantic, the inner workings of the engine room, the underwater sequences. But in the end, it comes across as nothing other than sensationalism and the creation of cheap suspense through action. And it's all so far-fetched anyway, whether it's Rose's rescue of Jack from the ship's "dungeon" after being imprisoned for allegedly stealing the diamonds or Jack's last-minute unlocking of the gate for him and his "soulmate" to avert drowning. Such sequences as these offer the viewer a cheap thrill that is soon overcome by the question of why we should care a whit about Jack's and Rose's moral sham of a relationship when many other more worthy people around them are plummeting to their deaths.
The movie's banality comes to a climactic point in the ending sequence in which Rose, now a centagenarian and the Titanic's sole remaining survivor, drops the jewel that her former fiance had given her. What was perhaps intended to be a culminating message of quiescence, as Rose lets go a memento from her past into the rippling vastness of the deep, ended up being to me an annoying reminder of the scene in which Rose and Jack first meet, at that same place, when Rose is about to melodramatically leap to her death (possibly one of the most overworked, shamelessly indulgent suicide attempts in movie history). "Why, oh why, couldn't they just slip their footing and rid us of their inane trifling repartee for ever?" I asked myself.
Even if one excuses the obvious lack of reflection that went into making this movie, it all just simply goes on too long. Every moment you want it to end, it drags into another meaningless action scene, image, or piece of drivelly dialogue. Those who want to be encapsulated inside a cocoon filled with sickening sweetness for three hours may enjoy this. Me, I like to think when watching a movie. |
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| "It's the film you either love or hate, but I'm personally in the middle of it" | 2010-04-13 |
| - Reviewed By Eric S. Kim from Southern California |
Back in the early 2000's, I used to watch James Cameron's Titanic numerous times when it was still on VHS. Now that I come back to it, my appreciation of the film has slightly waned. I'd still recommend it, but only for specific reasons. The flaws are clearer to me now than back when I still had a VCR player. First off, I would like to say that the dialogue is truly cheesy. The words spoken by the main characters (especially Jack, Rose, and Cal) come straight out of a sappy soap opera. Plus, the love story is one for the female audience; men won't be interested in it, anyway. I myself don't find the love story very intriguing, but at least we care for the main leads. But dialogue and romance aside, the film remains a visual masterpiece. The ship looks fantastic. It is so accurately detailed (the staircase, the boiler rooms, the promenade deck, etc.), that it almost looks exactly like the real RMS Titanic. And of course, we shouldn't forget about the second half of the film. Believe it or not, the sinking of the ship is one of the most spectacular displays of tragedy ever put on film. It's still amazing that 1,500+ people perished in the Atlantic.
Again, the sappy romance and the horrible dialogue (and a small fragment of James Horner's score) are the weakest links of the film, but the rest of the film works. Watch Titanic for its astonishing visuals, and for the powerful second half of the film.
Grade: B- |
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