One of my all time favorites.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

I saw that this film got some Razzie nominations in the year it came out. I mean it isn't that bad, but it's strictly for the juvenile trade. If you want to believe that we were engaged in atomic research before World War I. We were still trying to electrify our cities then.Anyway some research has shown that some really rare radioactive material was shipped on the Titanic and the stuff went down with it. Now the USA wants it and Admiral Jason Robards has engaged David Selby, Richard Jordan and Anne Archer as a girl Friday to find it. Too deep to dive so we have to locate and raise what was once the pride of the White Star line and the most famous disaster at sea ever.Of course the Russians want it as well, therein lies the plot.This film kind of reminds me of the old television series My Favorite Martian which lost syndication value when our explorer went to Mars and showed us what the planet was all about. We now have located the ship and know for a fact it broke up and is in a few sections in the briny deep. No getting up the way our cast did it though that's the best part of the film.The second best part of the film is Alec Guinness who plays an old survivor of the Titanic who reminisces with Jordan about the American who brought the stuff on board. His scenes were quite moving.Anyway we do find out what happened and the ending is kind of poetic. Still this one's for the juvenile trade.

It's epic and it's exploitation, and it's also reasonably engaging almost in spite of itself. Richard Jordan plays a salvage expert attempting to literally raise the Titanic from her watery grave in order to recover a rare mineral, the plot concerned with his herculean effort to beat the Russians to the plate, in a Cold War twist to the sunken saga.The "special" effects are sometimes regrettable (the parts of the ship being towed back into harbour look more than just a little dubious), but director Jameson has still managed to craft a half-decent drama that contains a surprise or two, not just confined to the plot, but also the casting. Sir Alec Guinness has just a few minutes, but his presence as a survivor re-telling Jordan of his experience is very moving and a moment that almost redeems the entire picture from its plodding excesses.Aside from the durable Jordan, an unorthodox leading man who died well before his time, David Selby and Anne Archer co-star, while the minor roles go to Jameson's B-movie brigade, Michael Pataki, Stewart Moss, Paul Carr, Michael C.Gwynne, Norman Bartold - the list goes on. Not to be confused with, nor compared to, "Beyond the Poseidon Adventure", while unlikely to appeal to the modern audience whose appetite for the Titanic was whet on James Cameron's 1997 epic, it should still suffice for a late afternoon sojourn into fantasy.

There are films that are bad, and there ones that look bad, but hold value to them not everyone sees. Raise the Titanic, was loosely based off a novel by Clive Cussler. It is a race between the Americans and Russians trying to obtain a rare mineral that could decide who becomes the top world power. To do this, they must salvage the mineral from the Titanic. The only way to do this is by raising the Titanic; ergo the main titles. This may turn off people because the whole plot line is given away, but that shouldn't be something to squander over. It should be more of what is looked forward to. This film has a lot of good stuff in it.Starring as the main character of Cussler's stories, is Dirk Pitt, played by Richard Jordan. I can't say Jordan is the best choice but he's definitely not bad either. Jordan at least gives the character of Pitt some attitude that comes with the territory. For the most part, the entire film stays faithful to the paperback material. All the characters are in there, along with the most important scenes. One might say that this movie was thought to perform well because Alec Guinness, best known as Obi-Wan Kenobi, from Star Wars, plays a character as well in the story.On a side note, a particular element that could have been left out of story was the relationship between Gene and Dana Seagram. The same goes for the book but the way the situation was handled here was half-baked. From beginning to the midway point, there were various scenes that show strains on these two characters' marital status and then out of nowhere,...it stops. They get into an argument and Gene temporarily leaves Dana but the issue is never resolved. So why have it? It doesn't make sense to start something and not finish it. Adam Kennedy and Eric Hughes wrote the screenplay; so my question is, who skimmed over this part? Also some people may think the story drags but it all builds up to good ending.Besides this, there are multiple things to find enjoyable in this movie. First, the special effects. Of course it's "1980" special effects but none the less they are a sight to look at. From the submarines, to the Titanic itself, the props look really authentic. It's when the Titanic is brought to the surface that the view is beautiful. Although audiences may be annoyed to find out that the Titanic is in one piece. But what do you expect? The novel and this film where produced years before the Titanic was even discovered. It's fiction anyway, so why be so critical on accuracy when practically this whole film is inaccurate in real life?One of the most wondrous moments that takes place in this film is when Dirk Pitt enters the Titanic when it is above the water. It is truly a sight to behold and all this should do is make each of us just a little hungrier to see the Titanic for ourselves. It's plain epic. Another great aspect to Raise the Titanic is the soundtrack composed and conducted by music veteran John Barry. Barry puts in a lot of good tunes and has a gift for making the Titanic look awesome just for being on screen. His music is that moving and it's almost to the point of being angelic. For those who are skeptical, it's still at least worth a try to view.Except for a few issues dealing with the script, the film adaptation of Raise the Titanic is respectively a suitable tribute to the White Star Line cruise ship. The effects are dated but they are worthy to be seen as is Barry's score heard.

I remember years ago as a child when I heard about this movie when it was about to be released, and I was thrilled - I was obsessed with the Titanic as a child. When it didn't get released in my city, I was pretty annoyed. It did get me to seek out a copy of the novel the movie was based on and read it - I thought the novel was pretty good, and it got me to read additional novels by Clive Cussler (which I think are pretty good adventure yarns.) Years later, I did finally get to see the movie, but I forgot pretty much all of it as additional years progressed. Seeing the movie was now on DVD, I decided to give it another go.It didn't take me long into the movie to discover the most likely reason I had forgotten the movie. This is an incredibly slow and boring movie. There's no sense of awe or excitement. Much of the movie consists of people talking endlessly or underwater footage of mini submarines cruising along at a very slow speed. The filmmakers ignored the various adventures in the book, and simply didn't seem to see the potential of adding new (and thrilling) stuff during the screen adaptation.Is there any good stuff here? Well, the actual ship raising is fairly thrilling (though the majority of the other special effects in the movie are surprisingly crummy.) There is a good score by John Barry (though they keep repeating the same bars of his music over and over.) Alec Guinness adds some life to the movie with his brief appearance. (The rest of the cast, while not really bad, seem to be performing with little enthusiasm.) But this little good stuff is not nearly enough to save the movie.) P.S. - Lions Gate should be embarrassed by the DVD they put out for this movie. Not only is the movie presented in full-screen (except for the opening/closing credits), they used an old master made for one of the movie's VHS releases!