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'Ghost Ship' sinks from weight of similar horror flicks
Gabriel Byrne (center) in 'Ghost Ship'
Vince Valitutti, Warner Bros.
When several good, equally prominent character actors gathered for "Alien" (1979), part of the fun was that we couldn't guess the sequence in which they'd die, and we really didn't know who would survive.
When it turned out to be Sigourney Weaver's Ellen Ripley, we were gratified. (I'm not spoiling anything; she did three "Alien" sequels.) But Weaver and Ripley started a cycle that won't stop: the indestructible macho babe.
We've seen the character weekly for 23 years. We don't worry about her. Unlike the John Waynes and Clark Gables who seldom died and invariably triumphed, the macho babe isn't surrounded by an interesting gallery of characters of all ages and both genders.
Instead, as in "Ghost Ship," she gets the standard half dozen indistinguishable bores, lacking backstory or interest, who move from movie to movie — all about the age, or just slightly older, than the target audience.
They're a shallow sitcom ensemble all nastied up to be greedy and, as needed, abruptly villainous.
"Ghost Ship" asks us to believe that in 1962 almost everyone aboard a luxury liner was rat-poisoned or sliced and diced with a mysterious piano-cord-like thread.
In the present, young Jack Ferriman (Desmond Harrington) says he has found the long-lost ship in the Bering Sea off Alaska and cuts a deal with a salvage crew to return and pillage it.
Crew honcho Murphy (Gabriel Byrne) brings along Dodge (Ron Eldard), Greer (Isaiah Washington), Santos (Alex Dimitriades), Munder (Karl Urban) and the inevitable Epps (Julianna Margulies).
Once aboard, they find gold, oozing blood, a liquid supply of appearing and disappearing water and apparitions, including the child Katie (Emily Browning).
The initial exploration of the ship has moments, but the screenplay by Mark Hanlon and John Pogue quickly degenerates into another of those overproduced, under-humanized horror films that is all concept and no sense and that hopes to get by on ambiguity.
After 40 years, the ship is to sink in three days — we're not spared the cliche of the artificially imposed deadline — and as in 99.44 percent of all treasure movies, the removal of the priceless booty will cause a calamity.
Director Steve Beck sustains "Ghost Ship" with explosions, effects and editing. Too bad he didn't have any interesting people aboard.
| 'Ghost Ship' |
Director: Steve Beck
Stars: Julianna Margulies, Gabriel Byrne, Ron Eldard
MPAA Rating: R, for strong violence/gore, language and sexuality
