lavishly mediocre

Rating: 5/10 (25 December 2005)

The story of the Titanic has been told many times on television documentaries, and almost all of them - especially Thomas Lord's 'A Night to Remember' - were better than this film.
There must have been a sale on stereotypes in Hollywood, because the producers of 'Titanic' bought them all up by the bushel full. The people up in first class, with the exception of the one real life character portrayed in the movie, Molly Brown, were all fully stuffed shirts. They were so starched it is hard to believe they were able to bend over.
On the other hand, those poor folks down in steerage - sailing to their doom - were just the salt of the earth. Happy-go-lucky, fun loving, free spirited.
Some $200 million was supposedly spent on this movie. The special effects were indeed impressive. If they had only spent a little of that money on the screenplay, even including some intelligent dialog, think what a movie they could have had.