With the great exception of "The Love Boat," most movies or tv shows pertaining to ships navigating the rugged seas tend to be actioners. This cable telepic MOBY DICK suffers from not only a dull, stagy script, but builds very little, by way of any real suspense, as the movie progresses. It also lends true credence to the rule that "Special effects does not a movie make." In this case, not so humbling special effects. The performances ranged from lackluster to outright "pass the mustard" ham.
Patrick Stewart, as Ahab, spouts a lot of his lust for revenge; and works the crew up for it, as well. Yet, it never feels convincing to the viewer. The deluge of very long, descriptive, seafaring phrases would have been fine, if colored with the backdrop of reality of the gritty conditions of life on the sea at that time. (Those being, but not limited to: rats, bad food, sporadic rape, extreme lack of personal hygiene, diseases, etc.) The platitudes were delivered so unconvincingly, they started to sound humorous, and that's NOT good for a serious yarn like this. Unfortunately, the only thing this overlong excercise did for me, was leaving me for a yearning for fish N' chips, hold the "hush puppies", please.
To summarize, this version of MOBY DICK missed the boat.
9 out of 16 found this helpful