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Article written by Allan Harris on 16-Feb-2003
Water World: a look at water on DVD

INTRODUCTION
We're in the middle of a long, dry summer and suburban folks across the nation are finally waking up to something that rural Australia has known for months: water is a valuable commodity indeed. With the continuing drought comes the threat of increased water restrictions. That isn't always the case on celluloid though, where water can often be found in abundance. So we here at DVD Bits have decided to take a look at how the precious fluid is represented on DVD.

The Big Blue

'The bottom of a pool is no place for a tea party'

Luc Besson's underwater epic looks at Jacques Mayall (Jean-Marc Barr), an expert deep sea diver. Old friends Jacques and Enzo (Jean Reno) are both talented divers. Enzo is an opportunistic and unscrupulous diver who does not suffer fools. Jacques is a gentle humanitarian to whom diving is more a calling than a job. Separated after the death of Jacques's father, it becomes a friendship divided by geography. Both men continue with their diving, Enzo becomes a rescue diver for profit and Jacques a rescue diver for fun. Johanna works for an insurance investigator and once she meets Jacques she is smitten. Enzo's intense competitive nature draws him to his old friend to determine once and for all who is the world's best diver. Johanna organises her way to meet with the two and discovers that friendships come in all shapes and sizes and the big blue might be a good place to hide.

The night before the world diving championship, Jacques and Enzo are waiting for competition, they have a surreal tea party at the bottom of a pool. After several minutes, Johanna angrily orders the boys to act their age and stop the competition. Still their competitive natures will take this stunt into dangerous territory.


Titanic

'Oic-berg, Right Ahead!'

In the highest grossing film of all time, love conquers all, including a sinking ship. Irish peasant Jack (Leonardo Di Caprio) and his Italian friend win their way onto the historical passenger ship HMS Titanic on its way to America. At the same time, blue blooded lady Rose (Kate Winslet), her family and her elitist fiancé, Cal (Billy Zane) also join the passengers of Titanic. En route to its final destination, the Titanic hits an iceberg. Nearly 50 years on, a diving expedition journey deep into the ocean to the wreck. An enigmatic lady comes forward to shine some light on some of the ships darkest secrets and one of the most passionate loves affairs in history.

Sailing across the Atlantic, the Ocean Liner dubbed "unsinkable" hits an enormous iceberg. Slowly but steadily, the gigantic ship begins to sink and with no other ship within rescue distance, evacuation becomes inevitable. Thousands of people from every class scramble to get aboard the ships lifeboats, of which there are half as many as necessary.


Little Mermaid

'Darling it's better down where it's wetter, take it from me!'

Disney's animated smash hit sees mermaid princess Ariel constantly singing, laughing and generally content amongst the underwater kingdom ruled by her father, King Triton. Seeing her future elsewhere though, she becomes restless with her underwater existence. Her only desire is to live on land with a chiselled-featured human. The only way she can live on land is to lose her flippers, grow legs and become "human". Knowing her father will never allow condone this lunacy, she resorts to striking a terrible bargain with Evil sea witch Ursula to get her wish. The price: her wonderful voice.

Sebastian, the princesses lobster chaperone, tries desperately to convince that the best place for her to stay is Under The Sea. In true Disney style, a startling range of piscene performers get together to put on this spectacular, underwater musical showstopper.


The Perfect Storm

No one was prepared for this storm

Billy Tyne (George Clooney) is the captain of the commercial fishing vessel, the Andrea Gail. Motivated by a succession of poor bounties, he convinces his crew to head out in the savage weather once again. As the weather seems to hold off, Tyne, growing increasingly desparate daily, ventures further East, something almost unheard of in fishing circles. While they are successful, they become trapped by an unusually severe storm, produced when multiple storms collide.


The Mummy Returns

'Water, Water Everywhere'

In the second installment of The Mummy series, archeologist Rick O'Connell (Brendan Fraser) must once again make the journey across the harsh Egyptian landscape to face the King of the Undead, the ancient high priest Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo) as he once again returns from the grave.

Imhotep's powerful sorcery can manipulate most worldly things and he uses an impressive array of plagues to combat O'Connell. The team decipher clues as they go, and at one stage they must make a journey by airship through the narrow Egyptian canyons. As a supreme display of power, Imhotep commands the seas to rise and with a giant Wall of Water tries to kill our heroes.


Jaws

'You go in the cage. Cage goes in the water. Shark's in the water. Our shark.'

Something strange is attacking people off the coast of small vacation island Amity. Fresh from New York, Police Chief Martin Brody (Roy Schneider) suspects the cause may not be random. His ideas of a Great White shark terrorising the beachside community run into opposition from Amity Mayor Vaughn (Murray Hamilton), who wants to see the summer tourism dollars keep flowing. After several further attacks and with help from veteran fisherman Quint (Robert Shaw) and oceanographer Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss), Brody must tackle his own fear of the ocean and venture into murky waters to hunt for the shark responsible.


Lost Boys

'How about Holy Water?!'

Single mother Lucy Emerson (Dianne Weist), along with her sons Michael (Jason Patric) and Sam (Corey Haim), move to the quiet coastal town of Santa Carla. While still trying to settle in, a spate of mysterious murders and disappearances lead the the boys to realise that the rumours they have heard are true: vampires are making a home for themselves in town.

When Michael meets a girl at a local fair, and participates in her gangs bizarre rituals he begins to withdraw, becoming incresingly distant day by day. Worried, Sam seeks the help of local comic bookstore workers - and self professed vampire specialists - Edgar and Alan Frogg (Corey Feldman & Jamison Newlander). As the evil element becomes more brazen, anti-vampire sentiment is high and the boys lead their ragtag army against the hordes of the Undead. Holed up in their grandfather's house and with the attacks coming from all sides, Sam and The Frogg brothers prepare for a last stand. Complete with an impressive array of weapons, the young fighters try to dispose of the bloodsuckers one by one. And if garlic doesn't work, holy water will.


Lake Placid

'Evil lurks in the black water of Lake Placid'

Deep in the wilderness and black waters of a Maine lake, a diver is attacked by an unidentified animal. Fish and Game warden Jack Wells (Bill Pullman) heads the team that has to investigate the mysterious disappearance. Tagging along is suburban palaeontologist Kelly Scott (Bridget Fonda), a fish-out-of-water in the great outdoors. They join laidback local sheriff Keough (Brendan Gleeson), who is the verbal punching bag for everybody's taunts and jibes.

Eccentric millionaire, and alligator fanatic, Hector Cyr (Oliver Platt) soon barges in on the investigation. Bringing with him fancy equipment and a wholly unnatural desire to swim with alligators around the world. When Cyr takes a dip with the resident beast and barely survives, the team discover the shocking secret behind the attacks.


Jurassic Park

'I... I... I'm fairly alarmed here'

Eccentric billionaire John Hammond (Richard Attenborough), and his team at science and technology company Ingen, are together breaking through the barriers of medical science. They have uncovered the secrets of successfully cloning dinosaurs from preserved DNA. Being an entrepreneur Hammond decides to create a theme park with live dinosaur attractions. One weekend prior to the parks opening, he invites several pre-eminent scientists - paleontologists Alan Grant (Sam Neill), Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) and chaotician Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) - to experience the park first hand and sign off for the company insurance agents.

A loving grandfather, Hammond also decides to invite his curious grandchildren along to ride in the automated tour cars. After several abortive attempts at seeing dinosaurs and as the day enters a showery night, the tour passes through the T-Rex enclosure for the second time. Suddenly, as the rain pelts down around the cars, the ground begins to shake with monstrous thuds. The children notice a glass of water on the dashboard as it signals the arrival of a very large, toothy danger.

CONCLUSION
So there you have it. In the magical land of celluloid, water isn't always the elixir of life. Sometimes it is a place to hide, sometimes it can be used as a weapon and on the odd occasion it can be a swimmer's nightmare. In Australia at the moment though, it is a valuable resource that's in short supply across our nation. So, the next time you are thinking of using a giant wall of water to attack your enemies, hopefully you'll think twice.

 


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