User reviews

Quite a lot of CGI in this piece of ITV telly, but not to the extent that it takes away from the acting or the story. In this age where people want more and more 'instant classics', this will probably not impress some people who will see it as a predictable story with an equally predictable ending. I didn't, honestly think it was a bad effort at all. David Jason can easily take-on a role such as this and make is watchable. It lends itself to the subtle chills that the stories of M.R. James deliver, and although it may not be groundbreaking it is certainly a change from the usual stock of 'Drama' that ITV dish up (i.e. detective shows, or pseudo-reality TV.) All-in-all, it was easy viewing and has a satisfying ending. Worth a look.

A derivative but nonetheless intriguing set up; a ship (in this case a submarine) is found many years after it sank, with no sign of the crew, or what happened to them. This has been done many times, it is essentially the story of the Marie Celeste. Despite that the set up hooked me, I love these kind of vaguely supernatural / time travel plot lines, however familiar they are.

To be honest I was disappointed by what was delivered. David Jason is a fine actor but his character in this came over as terse, sullen and not especially interesting. As he is the lead, and therefore your focal point throughout the story, this was a big failing. He just wasn't interesting or unusual enough, you learned almost nothing about his character despite him being on screen for most of the 180 minutes.

The plot itself seemed to peter out rather than deliver a climax, for a thriller (or at least a war time drama) I felt there was too little tension. The actual operation of the submarine and the technical side all felt very authentic but this did not compensate for the lack of plot, or genuinely interesting characters. The officers were all a little stiff, the crew were similarly generic, all of them have been seen many times before.

Towards the end I felt the plot simply ran out of ideas and some of what happened bordered on silly. The story seemed to flirt with the premise it had created, rather than really go into it. I never felt this story got going, I appreciate it was television but there was far too much chatter. It was slow in places where it needed pace, or another twist and this was, for me at least, the other major failing; ultimately the story lacked imagination. What Ghostboat delivered was almost exactly what you expected, no more. There was no moment when I thought 'now that is interesting, I never saw that coming'.

Despite these misgivings I thought it was not bad for a TV two parter. It was ambitious and though it failed to hit the target it was at the very least something different.

It's funny how you can romanticise about a film, or piece of TV that you saw years ago, I haven't seen Ghostboat since it was first transmitted. I was all set to give it ten stars, and write a glowing review, but maybe time hasn't been so kind to this show, or maybe I watched with rose tinted spectacles.

I think the early stages of it are fantastic, it's creepy, it's eerie, it's certainly sinister, as it develops from its midpoint to the ending, it totally loses it for me, I don't think I knew what was going on.

Imagine Ghostship meets a A Touch of Frost, it doesn't really know where it sits, is it trying to be a horror, or a psychological drama thriller, it really does fall apart as the mania sets in.

The acting is first rate, David Jason is awesome, as is Ian Pulston Davies. It was great to see Sir David Jason appear in something like this, so well known for OFAH and Frost, I'm not sure he had done anything like this, ITV certainly have him some varied parts.

Great production values, it looks super smart, nice equipment and sets, I thought the scenes of the sub moving through the mines looked amazing.

Worth watching, just expect two hours of surreal goings on.

Watchable if a bit muddled, 6/10.

I don't tend to watch a lot of television (preferring to stick to DVDs) so something has really got to interest me to get me to firstly remember the programme's on and secondly to actually watch.

The thing that immediately attracted me to the programme was, of course, fabulous actor David Jason. And yet again he excels himself in this wonderful thriller.

The story is based on a book also called 'Ghostboat' and is about a submarine called the Scorpion that surfaces in 1981-but which hasn't been seen since the second world war where it was presumed to have sunk. When it sank only one survivor was found, Jack Hardy (David Jason) who can't remember anything due to amnesia) When the sub resurfaces, Hardy is invited to go on a journey on the sub, with another crew and retrace the path the Scorpion took to find out what happened to it.

When they first go onto the sub to check out the damage and pull out the bodies of the dead, they find something astonishing. There are no bodies, everything is as the crew left it 40 years ago, nothing has changed.

And so the journey begins. Hardy can hear voices, things are happening in the same way they did 40 years ago-and the crew are beginning to change. As Hardy says 'The past is breaking through' The CGI effects in the film are very, very good, although not perfect, the storyline is gripping, the acting and cast are stellar.

The perfect thing for the family to gather in front of the telly to watch-10/10!

Very average, and predictable.

Some good moments though, but was let down by cheap and nasty CGI FX.

This was, however a decent TV short drama which can was good to watch once. Doesn't quite have the longevity to persuade me to purchase the DVD to build my collection.

This certainly won't be one of David Jason's more memorable roles as it doesn't have the charm and complexity of shows such as Open All Hours and Only Fools and Horses.

As usual with ITV Dramas, the constant interruption of commercial breaks added to my disappointment of this programme. Although at some points my attention was drawn to the show, the frequent commercials were very off-putting and the temptation to switch over to an alternative channel was high.

David Jason is brilliant. Sadly a good actor cannot salvage an obvious story line (which owes a lot to other works, such as the similarly named Ghostship) which meant it all became a little predictable, and towards the end just plain silly.

Characters behave inconsistently and illogically as the story lurches towards the less than surprising end.

The special effects themselves were also erratic - obviously a lot of money was spent on the set of the sub, but the cgi shots ranged from the okay to dreadful.

Okay if you are bored, but not the great work I was expecting.

A story like this will not appeal to everyone but I thought it was very original and well put together overall. A good change from the usual period dramas that come from British productions. There were some bits that could have been better with regards to acting and script but it was still entertaining. Some story points are a bit too subtle and easy to miss so might need a second viewing to fully appreciate how it all fits together. The ending was quite bold and strong which I didn't expect. The visual effects were good for a relatively low budget production and there was quite a lot of computer graphics that looked as good as from a feature film.

I just finished watching this ITV production, and all I can say is that I liked what I saw, but will note that there was room for much improvement.

How so? Well, for one, the main vessel around which the movie focuses was a World War 2 British diesel submarine. Big deal, you say, ah, but one of the major story points is that the sub seems to operate like a modern nuclear sub, or one of the modern Nordic or Germanic subs which are quieter than either the US, UK or Soviet subs. Simply put WW2 subs stayed on the surface, and only went underwater when needed, but you'd never know that by watching this movie.

The other thing is that there's a little bit of creep factor in this film, but it's not accentuated enough. We understand what's happening to the crew, but the made for TV production values seem to limit both SFX and other production values to really ram home the message to the audience.

I imagine the biggest mis step taken in this film is that even though the boat as a "life of its own" so to speak, a late 20th century crew, a crew that is not trained in diesel sub operations some how manages to bring this vessel out into open ocean, and operate her like a modern nuclear powered SSN.

Huh.

You know, if you can get by that, and the cinematography which is a little uninspired, then you can probably enjoy watching this film, but the story of a haunted ship and her affect on the crew takes precedence over operational details and plot points.

It's not a great film, but it is a mild diversion for a couple of hours. Give it a shot.

Sometimes, watching standard and not particularly famous movie, you stumble on a real gem. Ghostboat tells a story used in many films. A ship/submarine falls into a time tunnel... but in this movie things are much better done. The story captivates the viewer, although the plot is predictable, it is not boring. The directing and acting is perfect. Worth every minute of watching. I didn't know David Jason as an actor, but half the fun of the movie is his performance.

Of course the effects are not the best quality and there are many scenes which look as from cheap b-movie but this is not multydolar production.

David Jason was magnificent in this movie. forget the press comments ( the one I read was written by an egotistical maniac - unfortunately , most critics are of the same mold). This was a very watchable movie , being in two parts , I made a point of watching the second part ( what further proof do you need , none for me - my wife watched all of it as well!) . Well chosen David , for a dramatic role , out of the tried and tested. You convinced me. I didn't want to laugh at any stage ( now that's a challenge). You will have to ditch the cockney accent though . I look forward to your next role - surprise us all , with a complete change of diction! Any way , well done. I love you. Jerome

I thought the first episode was brilliant and I can't wait for the concluding part showing tonight, 10 April 2006. Nothing so far is as it seems. I think that anything that was 'incorrect' (as pointed out by the previous poster from Blacpool) during the first episode will be cleared up tonight and anything that isn't shouldn't really draw it away from being a brilliant programme. Sir David Jason's acting is, as always, absolutely amazing and the other cast members also do this TV programme much justice. It may contain the 'odd mistake' but what it is, is a brilliant story surrounded by mystery and an intensity not yet known.

David Jason as an ex-submarine lieutenant with an extremely wobbly accent who becomes a professor of something. He just happens to be the sole survivor of the sinking of HM Submarine "Scorpion", in 1943.

A demented Royal Navy Commander enlists him as navigation 'advisor' on a mission to recreate the last voyage of the 'Scorpion' in order to discover the solution to a time-space-anomaly that could be used as a secret weapon in the Cold War.

Look, do I have to go on? No. This movie is UTTER RUBBISH. How anyone has the cheek to present it as grown-up entertainment I fail to fathom (geddit?).

But it's STILL not as bad as Jude Law's 'Black Sea'.