Ilha dos Malucos

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.

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.

Michael Caine is a notoriously prolific actor, the downside of that being that for all his acclaim he has a reputation for being in as many bad films as good. One that many critics are quick to cite as one of the worst is "Water". That's not entirely fair, for while it is certainly not one of the high points of Caine's career or a resounding success it has an odd sort of charm which makes it somewhat endearing. The concept alone is a large part of the film's appeal; rarely have we seen a big screen satire with the bravado to take on colonialism. The script is by legendary Britcom writers Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, and while it is not up to the standard of the best of their television work, it contains many amusing moments. The main problem with the film is that it has no real momentum. The plot often moves at a sluggish pace, and some scenes feel like they add nothing to the film and could have easily been dropped. What ultimately saves the film is the performance of Leonard Rossiter, in his last film role before his untimely death. Whilst the character of Sir Malcolm Leveridge offers little challenge to Rigsby or Reginald Perrin, Rossiter still provides a great number of laughs and is the best reason to see the film.

The film's soundtrack is also very enjoyable, in particular a great title track from Eddy Grant.

This is one of the most entertaining "lost movies" ever made. The wit, humor, sarcasm, dialogue are what entertainment is all about. The plot lines in the film are well interrelated ... there is the Politics within the United Kingdom, the "then" threat of communism and Cuba, the motivated French mercenaries ... there is the greedy business theme with the evil Spenco (headed by none other than Herman Munster (Fred Gwyne) ... and the religious theme with the questionable behavior of the spiritual leader of the island.

My favorite line is the description of how England must view Cascara as the dot above the "i" in the word "sh*t". With the exception to some very direct references to smoking marijuana and some sexual inuendo ... this is a great movie for almost everyone. It is a little history lesson for everyone who can't remember the Falklands - and its a reminder of the early/mid 1980's for the rest of us.

A mildly amusing comedy from the double act of Clement/La Frenais, that has pretensions to some kind of political satire, but isn't nearly clever enough, despite allusions to the Falklands War, and plenty of topical material ripe for parody. It is, however, occasionally very funny, with a cast wringing every laugh from a script that doesn't deserve them, and all manner of stereotypes, including some hilarious observations of the Brits themselves. You can't really go wrong with a supporting cast like this, although Caine seems out of his depth, mugging his way through, ill at ease with his unnatural comic timing. It is certainly worth a look, if only because it's the only place you're likely to see Maureen Lipman's impersonation of Margaret Thatcher, and Billy Connolly singing, with George, Ringo, and Eric Clapton as the backing band.