Let's be honest: this 1995 epic isn't nearly as bad as its negative publicity led us to expect. At the time it was the most expensive Hollywood production in history (it had a Titanic-sized $200 million budget), and the film arrived in theaters with so much controversy and negative gossip that it was an easy target for ridicule. The movie itself, a flawed but enjoyable post-apocalypse thriller, deserves better. Waterworld stars Kevin Costner as the Mariner, a lone maverick with gills and webbed feet who navigates the endless seas of Earth after the complete melting of the polar ice caps. The Mariner has been caged like a criminal when he's freed by Helen (Jeanne Tripplehorn) and enlisted to help her and a young girl (Tina Majorino) escape from the Smokers, a group of renegade terrorists led by Dennis Hopper in yet another memorably villainous role. It is too bad the predictable script isn't more intelligent, but as a companion piece to The Road Warrior, this seafaring stunt-fest is adequately impressive. --Jeff Shannon

The product description for this dvd is hugely misleading. Not only is the running time just the extended cut and theatrical cut combined, but the extended cut is the TV version broadcast on ABC without the nudity, excessive violence and profanity. So unless you want the real director's cut which doesn't exist, this is definitely NOT it.

most people don't like this movie, but i love it. i've been waiting so long to get the extended edition DVD, little did i know that they would just spit out the TV version. i'm am livid about this!!!! I WANT THE WHOLE MOVIE!!!!! why can't we have the original? waste of money.

I know people lend their tastes toward disliking this movie, but I don't; in fact, I say that it's a phenomenal feat in movie making. The sets are amazing. The imagination that contrived this story to a visual delight marks celebration. The extended version, in my opinion, though edited for Tv, is well worth spending the money on. Not only do you get the extended version, you get the theatrical version as well. I, personally, hate edits, they go against my grain like fingernails across a chalkboard, however in this case, Waterworld's extended version didn't bother me at all. I loved it. Two thumbs up!

A few years after Waterworld was released on video ABC aired an extended cut on public television. I have been waiting for a long time for the extended edition to be released and now it finally has been. While watching it I relied something that shocked me that is the ABC version, the cussing is gone, the violence is soften and some scenes have been cut out, and no Helen bare back shot. Even some of the sound effects and music has been changed. After doing more research I found this to be true. Instead of revising a 'true' extended edition Universal just put the ABC version on here (without commercials of course) and just added a 5.1 soundtrack to it. What a waste of money this was/is. I guess that's why it is only 15 bucks, I would have gladly spent 50 bucks for an unedited extended cut.

DVDtalk.com has reviewed this disc, and they claim the extended version is the ABC Broadcast version, which dubs over all the profanity. Brief nudity has also been removed. The extended version also aired on Encore networks without this censoring, so it doesn't make sense that Universal would choose to release an edited version of the extended cut instead of the Encore version. Buyer beware.