Lost Voyage

I wish someone would make a Bermuda triangle movie that gave an explanation of the phenomenon. It doesn't have to be true - just make sense. This silly show doesn't even try. A ship lost 25 years ago in the BT comes back and a group of people take a chopper out to the ship to investigate. Then all sorts of strange things happen but none of it makes any sense. I busted out laughing when one of the women is standing on the deck when, for no reason whatsoever, the floor gives way and she falls thru to the next level and meets her long dead mother!!!

Janet Gunn and Scarlett Chorvat are the best part of this flik. Two really cute babes. Judd Nelson has a big part and wins the young Rob Reiner look-alike award.

It must be harder than it looks to make a movie set aboard an ocean liner. Gritty dramas ("Souls at Sea"), thrillers ("Across the Pacific") or oceanic tearjerkers ("Titanic" & its predecessors") have scored, but among ghost stories set aboard ship, the nearest to the mark have been "The Wreck of the Mary Deare" & "Pirates of the Caribbean"--and it's generous to count either one of them. "Lost Voyage" doesn't really try very hard but is simply another installment in the Bermuda Triangle genre. Florida paranormal researcher Aaron (Nelson) learns that the cruise ship Corona Queen, which vanished in 1979 with his father & new stepmother--inspiring him to become a ghosthunter--has reappeared in the Triangle. She's in the middle of a growing tropical storm, of course, which may sink her at any time. Though proclaiming his reluctance, he inevitably brings his ectospotting-gear (once again, Man bites God with Gear) on a salvage mission. They're led by veteran, no-nonsense seascrounger Shaw (Henriksen) & backed by a TV station that sends both washed-up anchor Dana (Janet Gunn) & catty star reporter Julie (Chorvat), with nervous cameraman Randall (Richard Gunn) caught between the rivals. Hard-edged, good-hearted sea mechanics Dazinger (Kober) & Fields (Sheppard) round out the fateful team with occasional but much-needed comic relief. Of course the Corona Queen is just as she was before but passengers & crew are gone--or are they? Will the team find its answers, prevail or escape before the intense storm overcomes the drifting liner? Or will their own personal demons & rivalries tear them apart? The carelessness & cheapness that plague most SciFi Channel originals are largely absent from "Lost Voyage," which features a story of unusual depth (the characters must each face personal demons as well as supernatural foes & their own rivalries) even if it is predictable. A competent cast helps, too. Nelson's Aaron is a driven, fearless nerd, not unlike Richard Dreyfuss's Hooper in "Jaws," but more suitably somber here. Henriksen, the greatest sci-fi/action character actor since Harry Dean Stanton, is as solid as ever, bringing both believability & color to the tale. Stuntwoman Gunn is capable enough as the alternately bitter & optimistic TV reporter whose devotion to her craft usually overcomes her selfish ambition. The effects are pretty good, not spectacular enough to overwhelm the story & actors, used sparingly enough to enhance rather than distract. If you've never, ever heard of the Flying Dutchman, the Marie Celeste or the Bermuda Triangle, you'll find this movie enjoyable enough as a ghost thriller. Otherwise it's crushingly predictable, offering absolutely nothing that hasn't been done many, many times before in literature & film. "Lost Voyage" teases us early on with parapsychological mumbo-jumbo but that part of the story trails off into nothing. Even the great spooky-spoof "Ghostbusters" helped us out with that ("That's a BIG Twinkie"). There's an inherent pathos to ships, especially big ones, a sense that they're irrevocably tied to the times in which they sailed. They are machines yet somehow alive, servants yet grandly awesome. "Titanic" made so much money because it captured that theme & used it well. A pity that no nautical ghost story has yet been able to do the same.

If you don't go into it with overly high expectations, nor expect there to be a particularly rigorous logic to what unfolds, this reasonably entertaining five or six star flick is worth a look, especially for fans of the Bermuda Triangle sub-genre of supernatural thrillers.

I am surprised. I caught this on a recent trip to London, and was half asleep one night and turned the TV on. My heart sank when the only movie on was this, however, because I saw the UFO logo up front and am familiar with their brand of crap. Imagine my surprise when I began watching it anyway and found that it was actually a GOOD movie.

Judd Nelson plays Aaron, whose parent were lost on a cruise ship back in the 1970's, somewhere in the Bermuda Triangle. He has weird dreams about it, apparently, and seems to be involved in researching the paranormal (this was a bit unclear). The ship (SURPRISE!) returns, and a spunky reporter (Janet Gunn) named Dana, who works for a trashy paranormal TV show, decides to go out to the ship and get an exclusive story. She tries to get Judd to go along, but he's (understandably) upset about his missing parents, and her desire to make it all into a sideshow.

Now, it begins to get interesting. Dana has hired a sort of motley crew of salvage operators, led by the wonderful Lance Henriksen as Shaw. He's crabby, craggy, and so are his two helpers. They are about to fly out to the ship, and (of course) Judd shows up in the nick of time. CGI shots of the helicopter and the ship follow (looks good, overall). Once onboard the ship, nasty things start to happen. The interesting thing about this movie is that much of what happens is psychological, instead of overtly "spooky". The director, (Christian McIntire, who also co-wrote this), sets up a tension and weird atmosphere, although some gags don't pay off. One by one, the members of the team are bumped off, but the characters respond in a somewhat realistic fashion to the weirdness and the deaths. There is a wonderful scene showing what panic and tension can do to two people when Lance and another salvage operator (Jeff Kober) get into an argument.

So, the film builds toward the inevitible conclusion, but it is an entertaining ride getting there. Scarlett Chorvat is stunning, as is Janet Gunn, and ALL of the acting is very good. The script seems a little rushed, but it seems that this is a director to watch for in the future. In conclusion, then, a low budget thriller that is well shot, well paced, well directed and acted and a pleasantly spooky diversion.

Still surprised it's from UFO...

From the way Lost Voyage sound and looks, it looks like two movies fused together, and the two movies are The Triangle and Ghost Ship. Lost Voyage is not bad, not bad, at all. Lost Voyage stars a great cast, featuring Lance Henriksen and Judd Nelson. The movie involved a cruise ship called the "Corona Queen.", which disappeared in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle. After 25 years, the ship returns. But, the ship did not returns..... alone. On board, seven people will encountered evil forces and spirits on the Corona Queen. Lost Voyage plays it out like a ordinary haunted house movie. This movie is a scary, yet creepy version of Ghost Ship, As for UFO Pictures, this is a modern good, well-directed horror movie that dares you to venture onto the haunted cruise ship alone. The movie is not jam-packed with clichés, but also developed a intense atmosphere and that atmosphere is stays in it's own place as the picture ventures into the heart of darkness on the ship. Lost Voyage has some good performances from Lance Henrikson and Judd Nelson. As haunted ship movies goes, Lost Voyage is a good one. ★★★ 3 stars.