Waterborne (2005)

Takes itself way too seriously

Such a frustrating disappointment

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

The concept alone is good. And believable, with water resources experiencing an ever growing demand and so becoming a more likely target for attack. Although the story seems to jump between different messages it does come together well and particular praise must go to how the film hints at human nature.This movie makes you think, not because of the complexity of the storyline. Everything is pretty straight forward, but it puts your mind into the situation the characters are experiencing, makes you wonder how you would react and in some manner makes you more weary of water supply. What would we do if we no longer had access to something as simple as drinking water? I must point out, the reason it is not as bad as the cover implies? It IS exactly what it says on the cover but what it says on the cover isn't very much. The cover (in the UK anyway) gives the impression of a very low budget, badly scripted plot, but we know we shouldn't judge by the cover right? Apart from jerky filming, and yes a lot of close ups, it's not too bad at all. Definitely worth the watch, just expect less suspense and more pondering.

"Waterbourne" had a lot of potential, and it's really a shame that someone with the cash didn't pick it up and make it properly. It deals with the fears and absolute terror that come when one is deprived of one of the very necessities of life...water, and the desperate things that one will do in order to survive. As one reviewer has said before, it's like a cross between "Crash", and another disaster movie like "Earthquake" or something else equally earth-shattering.I lived through 30 days of no water during the floods of 1993 here in the Midwest of the United States (Des Moines, IA), and this film probably comes closest to demonstrating the fear that was experienced by many people during the first 24-48 hours after we realized that our water supply for a city this size was shot. Luckily for us, we didn't experience a situation like "Waterbourne" displayed for us. Our people pulled together, and worked together. We gained strength from our situation. This, unfortunately wasn't an aspect shown in this film.Not a bad movie, but not a great movie either. As previously stated by another reviewer, the camera work is very rough. It's definitely a thinking persons movie though...very dark and foreboding, so if you enjoy that type of movie then this is the one for you! I wouldn't recommend this for any person with psychological difficulties or anyone seriously disturbed by thoughts of terrorism. It has the potential to mess with your mind.

I, as a witness to the world Trade disaster. I felt very emotionally evolved in this film. I guess I didn't notice the cinematography problems some have commented on. I saw the reality of what can manifest out of the suspicion of innocent people just because they look and act in a different way than most of us expect. As Americans we hardly look inside of ourselves, Perhaps the reality of one of us harming innocent people is hard to except. So we force the blame on what we do not understand about others and strike out against them.I Feel this film is entirely underrated. It should be seen by all of us as Americans. We have to realize that there is good and bad in all. I don't understand why we expect the bad before all.

If you saw crash this movie will remind you of that (the way the main characters were connected, and the minority middle eastern guy getting his store robbed). I also thought that some of the edit work looked like Traffic. This movie has a lot of rough-spots which a little more work could've helped out a lot. You will not feel anything for any of the characters because their stories seem generic, that's not to say this film was formulaic although some parts do seem to mimic Crash. The soundtrack sounded decent except for its placement, there's this one sappy tune that plays for what seems like an eternity. One poster noted that the acting felt "wooden" and I couldn't have put it better.*Possible Spoilers* Now for the good points. In this post 9/11 era, domestic terrorism hasn't gotten that much attention which this movie brings in it's own form. Although this movie went for realism, the use of derogatory by the younger army officer did seem a bit forced as well as the guy who burst in anger for not getting all his water. The whole racism thing could've been better but at least they didn't butcher it that much. Another poster suggested that this movie brings attention concerning security with water supply, but in effect this could also be taken to mean any kind of bio-chem attack.Overall, this movie was half good half bad. It had its moments and almost as if on purpose right after something that made no sense.