Seriously, it’s utterly beyond me.

I’m one of that truly rare handful of people who actually enjoyed Waterworld.  And now that it’s made its rerelease on Blu-ray, I can bring it up for you, a whole new pack of people who may not yet have had a chance to enjoy this.

Featuring the much-maligned (and usually with good reason) Kevin Costner as The Mariner, a guy who cruises around on a three-hulled trimaran with loads of nifty options.  He’s just out to make a living in a world that’s become mostly swallowed up by water in an example of science that would make even Roland Emmerich scrunch up his nose and say, dude, even I know that’s idiotic.

But anyway, he’s cruising around and he runs afoul of the Smokers, a kind of waterborne gang that deals in mechanized ocean craft, ultraviolence, mayhem, and their universal adulation of “Saint Joe”, otherwise known as Captain Joseph Hazelwood.

For those of you you don’t remember, he’s the one who was in charge of the Exxon Valdez when it hit a reef and dumped light sweet crude all over the landscape back in 1989.

I did enjoy this one, for a few reasons.  One, I love dystopian fare and post-Apocalyptia in most stripes.  This definitely qualifies.  Two, I’ve always loved boat movies and this one ABSOLUTELY qualifies.  For me this was like a huge Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup of a movie, with dystopian chocolate and peanut butter boating all mingled in one.

Oh, sure, I can see where people might have a problem with the science. Not even Al Gore suggests that most of the planet would be underwater if the polar ice caps melted.  I’m not all that sure there’s even enough water on the PLANET to completely flood most of the landscape without a whole lot of it being introduced from elsewhere.

And yes, Dennis Hopper is always something of a scenery chewer, and Kevin Costner was never very good—even in his better roles he’s still not that great.  But still, I maintain there’s a lot of fun to be had here, with plenty of great action scenes and some amazing scenery.

It’s not perfect, but even the Screenhead Ten Scale can’t help but hand over an eight out of ten for a movie that packs plenty of fun and excitement and even some laughs into its proceedings.  Definitely not perfect, but still plenty of fun.