Water

As Michael Caine competes for another Best Actor Oscar, Water has been included by some commentators in the list of the "bombs" he has taken on "to pay the bills." Ill-advised choices such as The Swarm and Jaws III certainly belong on the list, but I have always considered Water to have brought out Caine's comic ability rather well. The satire is sometimes heavy-handed (especially the Texas oil man caricature by Fred Gwynn) but I find that there is some pretty close to target satire of life, culture, and politics on the many tiny isles of the Eastern Caribbean. I lived on a couple of them myself, and I'm always finding some familiar old friends among Water's characters.

The writers Clement / LaFrenais (The Commitments / Still Crazy) have made a funny satire of the end of the british colonialism in the Thatcher-Era (2 years after the Falkland Conflict) and about TV and commerce.

Michael Caine gives a great performance as the Gouvernor of the island.

The rest of the cast is extraordinary, especially the comedian Billy Connolly (Mrs. Brown / Still Crazy) as leader of the 2-Men- Guerilla-Group of the island.

The film contains some good reggae-songs of the 80´s Reggae-Pop-Grandmaster Eddy Grant and some others.

A tip for all, who wanna have sun & fun for 100 minutes !

(Translated by my sister Antonia)

I was surprised by how badly this did at the cinema and at it's low score here as I find it hard to fault.

It seems to be a rule of thumb that the more stars you have in a film the worse their performances. Here at last is an exception with all the main characters rising to the challenge. Even Paul Heiney, a unknown non-actor who only played the part of the French commando leader as part of a TV series "In at the deep end", is flawless.

This is the British doing what they do best - making fun of themselves. The characters are stereotypes, which annoys me in an action film but is just what a comedy needs. Perhaps one or two of the bit parts suffered because they had only time to parody them without fleshing them out, but the main characters are all believable despite their ludicrous over-the-top personas. You can't help feeling (hoping even) there really are forgotten, unloved corners of the world where people like this can still be found.

Essentially it is an parody on Colonialism, so I was amused by another reviewer's comment that it bordered on "offensive" because foreigners argue over the fate of the locals. That's what colonialism is.

I recommend this film to you as a little known gem. And after 20 years isn't it about time for the DVD version to make an appearance?

I am quite disappointed with the average for this film. I found it to be one of the funniest films I have ever seen. The cast is superb and the script, although not one of the best written, is filled with humor that was was made even better by the acting. It was filmed on the island of St. Lucia. It's a story of a company drilling for oil and accidently discovers mineral water, a substance that is even more valuable than oil. But it is important to keep it a secret. Jimmie Walker, who I don't particularly like, plays the part of a radio dj and does it wonderfully. Michael Caine and Brenda Vaccaro are fabulous as is everyone else. Please give this film a chance. I think it might be one of those little surprises that come along every once in a while.

This is a really fun movie. It has great actors and the plot, political references, and music make it worth a look. Sometimes movies just need to be fun.

Michael Caine looks like he is having a good time making this movie and the other actors meld in with his actions. Brenda Vaccaro and Leonard Rossiter created characters that were almost embarrassing to watch. They were great.

Whoever cast Billy Connoly and Jimmie Walker was a genius. Fred Gwynne will be remembered as a Munster, but I think this was one of his great roles.