What Lies Beneath-$80-90 Million What? You Mean Dollars?
I will tell you What Lies Beneath-a serious waste of money. Now, this is not to say that What Lies Beneath is a bad film, because its not, its actually a pretty good supernatural thriller, but it has a secret, a ridiculous secret. What Lies Beneath cost around $80 to $90 million dollars. It is always fun to see how some people spend other people's money, especially in Hollywood. Look I know that Harrison Ford must be given a massive honorarium for any movie he graces with his presence but seriously, $80-$90 million dollars? It is a bit difficult to get pass this fact and discuss the particulars of the film. Where did all that money go? Its as if the federal government made the film, seriously, because what ends up being projected onto the screen does not, in any way, reflect that budget and director Robert Zemeckis should be a bit ashamed to be honest.
Claire, played by Michelle Pfeiffer, begins seeing ghost and ultimately believes that her husband played by Ford, might somehow have something to do with the fact that she is seeing ghost. The story will not knock your socks off, but the film is well shot and the pacing is excellent. The acting performances by Pfeiffer and Ford do bring the mediocre script along, but they can only do so much. There is a element of befuddlement as to how and why the film was so very successful, pulling in over $250 million dollars. Think about that when watching the film, $250 million dollars is a quarter of a billion dollars. In 2000, when the film was released Ford was still something of a box-office draw and the average movie fan likely felt that Ford chose solid scripts, remember this is before Hollywood Homicide and Firewall, and that is likely a partial explanation of the film's success. The film, due to its topic, also had a broad appeal to women and does work well as a mystery/supernatural thriller and thus sucked in the crowd that likes psychological horror, but truthfully they got lucky.
The $80-$90 million dollar budget is absurd when contrasted against other releases. $80-$90 million is almost enough for an episode of Star Wars or Shrek and more than the budget of Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow and countless other movies that took massive effort. If the figures on the budget are accurate, they are hard to understand as this film could have and should have been produced for far, far less.
Story C+
Acting B
Visuals B+
Originality/Innovation C
Enjoyability Grade C+
Home Theater/HD Factor B+
Overall Grade C+ (Not bad, just uninspired.)
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