Lack of good storyline.

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Gregory Peck returned to Moby Dick, this time in the one scene role as Father Mapple to give a farewell performance in the same work he did 42 years earlier as Captain Ahab. It was a great part to cap his career with and he received much acclaim.Taking over the Ahab part is Patrick Stewart as the demon obsessed whaling ship captain who sees a giant albino sperm whale as the root of all evil. And why not since on a previous voyage trying to capture him it cost Stewart a leg. But the point of the whole story is how the charismatic Ahab infects the crew of his ship the Pequod with his own madness.First mate Starbuck is played by Ted Levine best known as Captain Stottlemyre on Monk. And the novel's teller of this tale is played by Henry Thomas all grown up now and best remembered as the young lad from E.T. Ishmael calls and the story has not slackened a bit.Some wonderful cinematography of the Tasmanian Sea where this story was filmed. Most of the cast in the supporting roles are Australian.In the recent biography of Gregory Peck author Lynn Hamey describes the screen legend's failing health. A chronic back ailment which made him a 4F during World War II and he was suffering emphysema and his memory was failing. Still he summoned up enough reserves to be unforgettable as Father Mapple delivering that sermon for the outbound sailors about Jonah and the whale. In Peck's own Moby Dick the part had been similarly unforgettably done by Orson Welles.A lot of the subtleties in Herman Melville's great novel had to be glossed over for the big screen. But in this fine TV mini-series they're all there. The cast is well up to the challenge in this epic done for the Hallmark Channel.

SPOILERS!!!!!!I've never been sufficiently stirred to comment on a film on the IMDB before, but after watching this I was compelled to. Having recently finished reading the book for the first time (I'm 23 and British. I imagine it's a standard text at school in the US) I was impressed with the scale and sweep of the story, and eagerly hunted down the DVD to relieve my enjoyment of Moby Dick.Having just this second finished watching it, I'm stunned. This film embodies just about everything bad about made for TV films.So what went wrong? Well, the special effects aren't up to much - but it seems unfair to pillory a film for such things, the whale itself is fairly impressive...but the main problem is with the liberties taken with the story. It has been spliced up and messed about with in ways too numerous to mention here, and no-one else seems to have noticed this in the website reviews! Some examples : Moby dick appears half way through the film, where he occupies the last three chapters of the book. Ahab dies the death that Pharsee suffers in the book. Ezekiel at the beginning tells you exactly what will happen, rather than just giving vague warnings. Starbucks' role has been modified too, instead of thinking of shooting Ahab in his sleep he now nearly stabs him (why change that?) Moby Dick gets chased to the arctic....the list goes on... Patrick Stewart was obviously brought in as a name to lend the film some credibility, but is not an obvious choice for the role, and doesn't look particularly convincing, although at least he tries.If you haven't read the book, there is probably an interesting enough 3hrs for you here, if you have - save yourself the frustration and keep well away!

I was never a fan of John Huston's version of "Moby Dick," but it's a veritable masterpiece compared with this dreary TV movie. Everyone speaks in a booming falsetto, including poor Patrick Stewart, who needn't have. The CGI effects are supposedly an important part of the film, what with a computer-generated White Whale, among other things. But nothing meshes - a lesson to would-be CGI wannabes. And reducing Melville's novel to a mere yarn is sacrilege.

I didn't even know that this film even existed until one day I was at the check-out counter at my local Wal-Mart store and the had a shelf/table full of discounted videos(you know-the ones thay couldn't sell at full price,so they move them to the front of the store and mark the price way down) And being a lover of films, I took the liberty to sift through these to see if there was anything there that might peek my interest. ....and that is when I found Moby Dick. So,I purchased the film for only $3.99I remember reading Moby Dick in my 8th grade Jr.High class and I also remeber that I didn't like it, and I remeber wondering why this story had been so popular for so many years, and I remeber wondering why it had became such a timeless classic. Dispite the fact that I didn't like Moby Dick as a novel, for some reason I though I might Enjoy this film. Seeing how I only had $4 bucks invested in it - it seemed that I couldn't go wrong.I ended up liking everything about this film but the story.The Music is first rate, the costumes are great,The acting is very well done. In fact this is one of the best quality Made for TV films of the 1990's (exclunding epic mini-series which are always done much better than single Made for TV films like this one). My problem with Moby Dick was that the source material for this film(the Moby Dick novel itself)isn't good to start with. Once again just like when I was 14 and in the 8th grade (only now I'm 32) I must admit that my yunger 14 year old self was right. this story is pointless. Captain Ahab chases a Albino(White) whale all over the world because he is own a revenge quest to kill the great white whale nick-named Moby Dick. only to get him self and his entire crew killed in the process. leaving only the stories main charactor as the sole survivor.Once again at age 32(just like when I was 14)I found myself wondering why this story has managed to stand up to the test and time and still remain one of the worlds great literary classics. The story has always been pointless to me. However this movie did absoletly the best they could with the source material that had. I guess the best way to make a movie thats not very good is to base it on a classic novel that not very good to start with.I gave this film 6 out of 10 stars- only because the production,Music, cast and crew did a very fine job. it the story Moby Dick that stinks