Can you say "cliche"?

Rating: Null/10 (4 February 1999)

I rented this a while ago with very high expectations. After all, it is the highest grossing movie of all time (as of the time of this writing). I was left pretty disappointed. That's not saying the movie is without its perks. The special effects are breathtaking. You can tell that lots of time, money, effort, and care were put into creating them. The special effects are about all there is to the movie. The story really isn't too bad, but how many ways can you tell the same story? A rich girl meets a poor boy and fall in love. Her parents disapprove. Not really ground-breaking. The story has been told better many times before. The acting is pretty mediocre. Leonardo is definitely just there for his looks. If they had casted a good, but not as attractive an actor, would the movie have grossed as much as it did? I think not. I know about twenty girls who saw the movie fifty times each to see Leo's face. Kate Winslet isn't as bad, and the remaining actors do fairly well. It's just no surprise this didn't win any awards for acting. Length is also a problem. If the movie were half as long, I'd like it more. The boat sinks for over an hour! It looks good, but it could have easily been cut down. As Kevin Murphy might say, "It's like they have two servings of tension and they're stretching it out for seven people". It just strikes me kind of funny that the "Best film ever made" failed to win academy awards for best actor, actress, supporting actor, supporting actress, OR screenplay. On the whole, there are worse ways to spend your time, but the best film of 1997 should have been won by "Good Will Hunting" or "As Good As it Gets" instead of this. I'll give it 5/10.