One of the Hollywood's all-time colossal commercial debacles, this critically-skewered Kevin Costner vehicle is not quite as horrendous as predicted, but severely flawed nonetheless. With obvious visual similarities to the Road Warrior films, the film is stylistically stunning. The actual concept itself is fairly intriguing, but despite its two hundred million-dollar-plus budget, Waterworld comes up short. Costner is surprisingly misanthropic with his shrouded hero figure; luckily, Dennis Hopper adds some over-the-top cult flavor. The film has loads of flair but is markedly deficient in the substance category, even for the action genre. After a while, the homage to Road Warrior borders on out and out carbon-copying. The direction of Kevin Reynolds isn't the main problem -- his majestic ocean overlays are quite splendid. The film is eventually undone by its insufficient plot and schizophrenic tone. But for a movie so negatively hyped, the final product actually exceeds the ultra-low expectations.