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Titanic Reviews

1997 Certificate 12
  • Rated:
  • 60
  • from 41,381 members

TITANIC, James Cameron's blockbuster, stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet as young lovers aboard the ill-fated voyage. A mysterious nude sketch found in the wreckage of the Titanic leads to the tale of its subject, the now-elderly Rose DeWitt Bukater (Winslet). As her story begins, Rose is 17 and vacationing aboard the ".. Read more

Starring Kate Winslet, Leonardo DiCaprio, Billy Zane, Kathy Bates
Director James Cameron
Genres Drama, Romance

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  • Critics' reviews (3) of Titanic

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  • 5 stars out of 5

    There are two love stories here: one is between James Cameron and a ship; the other is between society girl Kate Winslet and third-class passenger Leonardo DiCaprio. Cameron's script wouldn't have sustained Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh for 80 minutes, but, somehow, he and his magical cast revive that old-style studio gloss for three riveting hours. Titanic is a sumptuous assault on the emotions, with a final hour that fully captures the horror and the freezing, paralysing fear of the moment. And there are single shots, such as an awesome albatross-like swoop past the steaming ship, when you sense Cameron hugging himself with the fun of it all. At a cost of over $200 million, it's one of the most expensive movies ever made; it grossed more than two billion dollars at the box office — a record. Winning 11 Oscars, it also shares — with Ben-Hur and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King — the record haul of Academy Awards.

    • Radio Times
  • 2 stars out of 4

    Said Cameron, on accepting one of the many Golden Globe awards for the film: 'So does this prove, once and for all, that size does matter?' To which there are two answers: one supplied by dialogue from the film ('Do you know of Dr Freud? His ideas about t

    • Halliwell's Film Guide
  • Cost: well over $200m. Disregarding the ethics of such expenditure on a film, this unprecedented extravagance has not... read more on Time Out

    • Time Out
  • Most helpful members' reviews (3) of Titanic

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  • 49 out of 72 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 1 star

    Soggy mess

    This is a truly horrible movie, designed to jerk the tear ducts into action and give the odious Leonardo di Caprio dangerous career oxygen.

    People get on a big boat. Someone forgets to navigate. Boat hits iceberg. Gradually sinks, killing most on board. That’s the historical truth that the movie is based on – obviously a tragedy. The greater disaster though, is that Cameron decided to make a sloppy ‘love conquers all’ movie about it, AND spend over $200 million in the process.

    Only Kathy Bates, as the ‘unsinkable’ (i.e. cake-scoffing) Molly Brown and Bernard Hill as Captain Birdseye escape with performances they could justifiably call adequate. Leonardo wails and gnashes and is completely ineffective; in fact the only thing less effective is Billy Zane’s shooting – didn’t we all desperately want him to get Leo between the eyes a couple of times? Kate Winslet, whose career has only recovered this year with the incredible Eternal Sunshine, wobbles around the embarrassingly fake set looking like she’s about to breastfeed Leo and then selfishly lets him freeze to death so she can keep the big blue rock, and doesn’t have to pawn it to spend on baby formula.

    This is about as unpleasant as movies get, and Cameron hasn’t made one since. Lets all make sure he doesn’t get near a linen-back chair ever again.

      • CityBoy from Manchester
  • 16 out of 22 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 1 star [Highly rated reviewer]

    Watch it for the SFX

    The first two hours are junk - cod oirish accents, poor but noble cliches abound, an upper class young woman running about the ship chasing men and having extra marital sex. Really, this would have been as unacceptable in those days as walking naked down the street is today (women were still sent to mental asylums for getting pregnant outside marriage until the 50s) The film gets interesting when the ship starts to sink. But I wouldn't watch it twice.

  • 13 out of 15 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 5 stars

    OK, not the same experience as the cinema but still a fantastic movie to watch on your wide-screen TV. A nice story with plenty of action and romance makes this one of the best modern movies ever made in my opinion.

      • A customer from CLEETHORPES
  • Most recent members' reviews (2) of Titanic

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  • 3 out of 3 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 5 stars

    Best film ever

    Firstly you only need to look at the number of people reviewing that 'loved it' compared to those that 'hated it' - those who hated it often due to them not having both dvds in the set. This review is based on the film, not the dvd packaging or layout.

    This is my favourite film ever. Knowing it is based on a true story and that there was so much research that went into making this film, you are as good as watching the real thing unfold in 1912...

    OK, so people say its another crappy love story - its not, it is a part of the film and is necessary to bond us into the movie of this tragedy... otherwise where would the movie come from? cctv watching passers by on deck? hell no!

    Gripping from the beginning, brilliant detail, the rooms built were based on real photos and the real visits down to the ship - as also built into the movie. If you want to see exactly what happened that night in 1912 [or maybe not] but if you want to truly appreciate what happened - watch this movie. It lasts about 3.5 hours but worth every bit.

    The set eg. ship was built to half the scale of the real thing, built in the middle of a dessert. It is one of the most expensive films ever made and was the biggest seller of the year and so you know it was a quality movie.

    Get the tissues ready! I was a hardcore 15 year old when this was out at the cinema, so couldnt cry! now I dont care!

    ...plus Im a bloke! hahahaha

      • A customer from Lincoln
  • 4 out of 5 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 1 star

    Don't be fooled into thinking it will improve

    For one thing we all know what's going to happen to the ship. So the rest of the plot revolves around the two main protagonists... and there are no great surprises to come there.

    I found the pair of them to be annoying. You know when you look at a film that is supposedly good, and do not find it good for the first half. You can count the number of times that a film picks up in the second half on one hand. This film manages to get worse.

    You may have a morbid interest in seeing such a big ship go down, or how great the $200m of effects will work. Don't bother. Or alternatively skip forward (aren't DVD's great) to see that the CGI effects look - well CGI. I think a lot of people must have gone to see it at the time out of curiosity as to what you could spend so much money on. The answer is elusive. You see better effects in TV adverts nowadays. The film has no other merit to speak of either.

      • Cinegmatic from Norfolk
  • 49 out of 72 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 1 star

    Soggy mess

    This is a truly horrible movie, designed to jerk the tear ducts into action and give the odious Leonardo di Caprio dangerous career oxygen.

    People get on a big boat. Someone forgets to navigate. Boat hits iceberg. Gradually sinks, killing most on board. That’s the historical truth that the movie is based on – obviously a tragedy. The greater disaster though, is that Cameron decided to make a sloppy ‘love conquers all’ movie about it, AND spend over $200 million in the process.

    Only Kathy Bates, as the ‘unsinkable’ (i.e. cake-scoffing) Molly Brown and Bernard Hill as Captain Birdseye escape with performances they could justifiably call adequate. Leonardo wails and gnashes and is completely ineffective; in fact the only thing less effective is Billy Zane’s shooting – didn’t we all desperately want him to get Leo between the eyes a couple of times? Kate Winslet, whose career has only recovered this year with the incredible Eternal Sunshine, wobbles around the embarrassingly fake set looking like she’s about to breastfeed Leo and then selfishly lets him freeze to death so she can keep the big blue rock, and doesn’t have to pawn it to spend on baby formula.

    This is about as unpleasant as movies get, and Cameron hasn’t made one since. Lets all make sure he doesn’t get near a linen-back chair ever again.

      • CityBoy from Manchester
  • 16 out of 22 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 1 star [Highly rated reviewer]

    Watch it for the SFX

    The first two hours are junk - cod oirish accents, poor but noble cliches abound, an upper class young woman running about the ship chasing men and having extra marital sex. Really, this would have been as unacceptable in those days as walking naked down the street is today (women were still sent to mental asylums for getting pregnant outside marriage until the 50s) The film gets interesting when the ship starts to sink. But I wouldn't watch it twice.

  • 13 out of 15 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 5 stars

    OK, not the same experience as the cinema but still a fantastic movie to watch on your wide-screen TV. A nice story with plenty of action and romance makes this one of the best modern movies ever made in my opinion.

      • A customer from CLEETHORPES
  • 13 out of 16 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 1 star

    We're going down...

    Oh lord... where do you start with this? The intensely annoying cod-Oirish score; the idea that hey, it?s actually great to be a poverty-stricken ethnic minority because they?re all quaint and colourful; Billy Zane?s comic-book bad-man villainy; the godawful script...

    No no no. Great special effects when the boat does its stuff, but otherwise dismally, comically awful.

      • Ed Ricketts from Bath, England
  • 7 out of 8 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 1 star [Highly rated reviewer]

    Most overrated film ever

    This film won 11 oscars. Why?

    Dreary, cliche ridden dross. The effects are fine when the boat goes down, but what do you expect when a squillion dollars have been thrown at such a half baked piece of rubbish.

    Synopsis: some upper class bint (Winslet) goes for a bit of rough (Caprio), they meander around tediously for two hours and the boat sinks.

    I heard that some people were devestated when they found out the ship sinks before they saw the film. These people are idiots.

    Also, Celine Dion doing some of the music.

    Mindless sentimenal dross. If that's what you want to see in films, sure watch it.

    On the other hand, if you like decent cinema, avoid like Jehoha's witnesses.

    Shame on you, Cameron, Aliens and T2 were great films

      • 1010111 from Loughborough
  • 7 out of 9 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 1 star

    Rose...Jack...Rose...Jack....Rose...Rose....Jack....Die already!

    And to think that James Cameron risked his career over this one! Having sat through this, I am actually glad that Cameron's become so obsessed with the Titanic that he's given up on making films. He also very nearly sunk Di Caprio's career, or at least his credibility as an actor.

      • Tyrone Slothrop from Newcastle
  • 6 out of 6 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 5 stars

    Simply The BEST!

    The BEST film in the history of the world. Love, drama, excitement, adventure, betryal, longing and hope! All things we have experienced and that is why we all empathise with Jack and Rose and that is why this is the BIGGEST grossing film of all time!

      • Conor Sullivan from Bournemouth
  • 6 out of 6 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 5 stars [Highly rated reviewer]

    superb......................

    this film is superb. On April 14th, 1912 one of western civilization's most tragic events occurred when a ship thought to be unsinkable did exactly that, struck an iceberg and sank killing hundreds of passengers in the process, as the ships builders seemed to have made one mistake after another in the construction of this 'magnificent' vessel.

    Film Director and screen writer James Cameron (who brought us Arnie in The Terminator), concocts a glorious love story around this true life tragedy, and quite poignantly portrays the disparity of classes aboard the vessel, as the first class passengers live in the lap of luxury, even during the 'abandonment' of the vessel: while the poor are treated with palpable disdain, to include being locked below decks after the ship begins to sink.

    While the true story of this movie is the sinking of the ship, told through Cameron's brilliant writing and direction, there is whole myriad of other things going on, that are not noticeable, but would have been, had they been done incorrectly, chiefly among these - are the costumes and the sets of the Titanic.

    The truly fictitious portion of this tragedy is told through Rose Dawson Calvert (played by Gloria Stuart), as she regales present day treasure hunters of her time on the Titanic, and the gloriously passionate, but brief love affair between her and Jack Dawson, who was a free spirited artist ,who taught her how to live despite his own destiny...

    What happens in the film, to Rose and Jack?..... Watch the film to find out, it really is well worth watching....

  • 6 out of 9 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 5 stars

    Fairy tale land

    This is a proper girly film. I love every thing about this film. The story, romance, the fashion, the actors and actresses.

    I watched it over and over again when i first bought it and even now when there's nothing on, on a Sunday, my daughter and i buy some choccy and curl up on the sofa to watch it. Must admit though we always fast forward the first half an hour when there going on about the history stuff and how they go about discovering the story.

    A must watch if never seen before.

      • scruffette from Cheshire
  • 5 out of 6 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 4 stars

    Titanic .. ship might have sunk but not the film .

    Big boat , big budget , big stars.. but most of all big entertainment . At the end of the day it is an epic film which will one day deserve to become a classic in its own right.

      • A customer from Uxbridge , England
  • Critics' reviews (3)

  • 5 stars out of 5

    There are two love stories here: one is between James Cameron and a ship; the other is between society girl Kate Winslet and third-class passenger Leonardo DiCaprio. Cameron's script wouldn't have sustained Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh for 80 minutes, but, somehow, he and his magical cast revive that old-style studio gloss for three riveting hours. Titanic is a sumptuous assault on the emotions, with a final hour that fully captures the horror and the freezing, paralysing fear of the moment. And there are single shots, such as an awesome albatross-like swoop past the steaming ship, when you sense Cameron hugging himself with the fun of it all. At a cost of over $200 million, it's one of the most expensive movies ever made; it grossed more than two billion dollars at the box office — a record. Winning 11 Oscars, it also shares — with Ben-Hur and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King — the record haul of Academy Awards.

    • Radio Times
  • 2 stars out of 4

    Said Cameron, on accepting one of the many Golden Globe awards for the film: 'So does this prove, once and for all, that size does matter?' To which there are two answers: one supplied by dialogue from the film ('Do you know of Dr Freud? His ideas about t

    • Halliwell's Film Guide
  • Cost: well over $200m. Disregarding the ethics of such expenditure on a film, this unprecedented extravagance has not... read more on Time Out

    • Time Out

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    • Titanic
      TITANIC, James Cameron's blockbuster, stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet as young lovers aboard the ill-fated voyage. A mysterious nude sketch found in the wreckage of the Titanic leads to the tale of its subject, the now-elderly Rose DeWitt Bukater (Winslet). As her story begins, Rose is 17 ...

Rating breakdown

41,381 Member ratings
  • 100
4,688
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3,241
  • 80
6,065
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5,784
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6,604
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4,161
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3,423
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2,785
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2,982
  • 10
1,648

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