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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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