When myself and Mrs BMAF go on holiday, we tend to choose holidays on a cruise ship, great to relax and switch off from work with Wi-Fi not the easiest thing to get a hold of in the middle of the ocean.
To get me in the mood for the holiday, I tend to watch a cruise ship based film before I go. The trouble is Cruise ships do not tend to do well on film.
Just this year, a cruise ship was crushed under a big wave in The Rock’s disaster movie San Andreas, but without further ado, here’s our list of favourite cruise ship films:
- Carry on Cruising – Possibly one of the weaker carry on films, but a light hearted romp none the less as you would imagine with Sid James as captain and Kenneth Williams also part of the crew.
- Ghost Ship – Horror on the high seas as a salvage crew led by The Usual Suspects’ Gabriel Byrne & best known as being TV’s The Good Wife, Julianna Margulies and also Involved are Karl Urban way before he shot to fame for the Lord of the Rings franchise, Desmond Harrington (possibly best known at Det. Quinn from TV’s Dexter) and an early role for Emily Browning who is currently wowing audiences in Legend opposite Tom Hardy. It is a shame with this cast that it is not a better film, but it has one of the goriest openings to a film I have ever seen. The crew slowly find the boat is possessed when crew members start to die in horrific circumstances. This should be noted, is not a remake of the 1952 film of the same name.
- Poseidon/Poseidon Adventure – The remake and the original. Both involve a luxury liner hit by a giant wave and the surviving crew and passengers attempt to get off the boat safety by getting to the top of the capsized boat. The original was fantastic and you could argue didn’t need the remake, but a great cast and special effects make it worth a watch. The original is of course less CGI heavy and in part was filmed on the RMS Queen Mary. My wife and I have been on its newer sibling RMS Queen Mary 2 but luckily we didn’t come across and significant waves.
- Deep Rising – We’ve blogged about this film before, in that we would really love to see a sequel, Treat Williams leads a crew of criminals ready to take over a cruise ship and steal its valuables from the wealthy passengers aboard. Upon getting to the ship they find it empty, only to discover that the boat now houses a sea monster from the depths that has eaten all onboard. With the help of Goldeneye Bond Girl, Famke Janssen the hijackers face a race against time to get off the ship alive
Before we get to number 1, some of our honourable mentions include Beyond the Poseidon Adventure sees Michael Caine return to the overturned ship, looking for salvage! Cinematic attempts to Raise the Titanic in the film of the same name; budget thrills from The Asylum mockbuster Titanic 2; if only for a great performance from Willem Dafoe, the awful sequel that was Speed 2: Cruise Control!
But at 1. James Cameron’s big budget telling of the maiden voyage of Titanic, set around the impending disaster was a love story of 2 different classes, played so well by Leonardo DiCaprio & Kate Winslet, what some had predicted would be a massive flop turned out to be an 11 time Oscar Winner.
We have recently been recommended the 1974 Juggernaught (also known as Terror on the Britannic) starring Richard Harris; Omar Sharif & Anthony Hopkins.
Do you have a favourite film set on a cruise ship? Have we missed any? We at the BMAF would love to hear from you!
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