Product: Moby Dick [VHS] (1998)
Rating: 3.0
THERE SHE SUCKS!
Actually, I can't pinpoint what exactly is wrong with this movie, but something doesn't click. Or doesn't click like it shoudda click. Or overclicks -who knows? Overall, the entire thing sinks faster than the Pequod with the Titanic on top!Maybe it's the CGI whale. It looks fake and plastic, like a glistening cake of white soap emerging from a tub. Or maybe it's that weird Chinese harpooner who looks like Fu-Man-Chu. Perhaps it is the script, which is -depending on what version you get to see- either too long or too short, and takes too many liberties with the book; hindrances that add little to the plot and only serve to enrage the Melville purists.Shame, for I think the cast is above average. Patrick Stewart makes a believable Ahab and Henry Thomas a splendid Ishmael. Ted Levine deserves special praise as Mr. Starbuck, and even Piripi Waretini's Queequeg (his annoying "blahhhh!!!" notwithstanding) rings true to character. As the cherry crowning the cake, Gregory Peck evokes warm memories in the patriarchal role of Father Mapple.And yet... I dunno; maybe the entire trip was cursed from the beginning. But where is Elijah, then?