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The Movie G @RT51924612 06/19/2024 Really interesting doc on the Six Flags that closed because of Hurricane Katrina and never reopened now it's a ghost town amusement park. See more Jeff M @jeffmarshallmovieblogger 01/21/2024 As soon as this uninspired, dull as dishwater documentary ended, I thought to myself that this felt like one of those cheap YouTube documentaries with stock footage and computer-generated narration. Lo and behold, I find out that director Jake Williams is listed as "YouTube creator" on Google, so my immediate reaction was spot on. I obviously feel horrible for those affected by Hurricane Katrina and the employees of the amusement park who lost their livelihoods, but sympathy doesn't necessarily equate to compelling filmmaking. There is nothing here that warrants anything more than a 20/20 or Dateline segment. The interviews are generic, much of the Hurricane Katrina coverage feels like stock footage and, with the exception of the hurricane itself, there is nothing extraordinary or dramatic about this story. The park opened, Six Flags bought it, the hurricane hit and Six Flags opted not to re-open. That's it. No scandals, no juicy behind the scenes details, nothing. There's nothing much more to say. There's not even many thrilling scenes of roller coaster rides. I love a good documentary, but this is definitely not one of them. See more Arthur L @RT07455365 08/11/2023 No point and so boring See more Kurt J @RT31631086 03/05/2023 Is there a point to this movie? I'm 2/3 of the way in, and it's a park that closed due to Katrina. Nothing controversial or dramatic about it. See more 03/01/2022 Wonder surrounding the pending fate of the notoriously abandoned amusement park will find clear answers and sympathetically further devastation, including unknown consequential insight towards the community and affected land, successfully poised in gaining support for a proper revival and push for the still unspoken truth. (B+) See more the s @The_Stranger 02/08/2022 I love a good documentary. Unfortunately, this isn't one. The trailer made it seem interesting but the film itself is an incongruent mishmash of random pieces thrown together that doesn't really tell much of a story and doesn't know what it wants to say. It's starts off well enough, telling the history of the Ill-fated ‘Jazzland,' a New Orleans themed amusement park which was the result of over a decade of planning and work with the greatest of intentions. From there, the story moves to where the park was bought out by Six Flags and revamped to be more successful (and more appealing) from a business standpoint. See where this is going? By August of 2005, the park was successful but was (with the rest of New Orleans) in the path of Hurricane Katrina. From there we see some stock footage of the damage from the hurricane, some news clips of the storm and interviews about the aftermath. Here's where it falls apart. The film takes a very cavaliere approach to the park in contrast to the massive amount of damage and the toll of human lives. It feels weird to even be watching the story lamenting a closed park (where the employees and owners managed very well financially afterward) juxtaposed against a backdrop of a story with such a massive loss of life and health and livliehood. Nearly 2,000 people died and the story is focusing on how an amusement park shut down and lamenting the loss of rides and entertainment at a time when people literally had no place to lay their heads at night and lost all of their belongings. From there, the story dissolves into a lot of boring interviews about bureaucracy and local government and chapter 11 bankruptcy and theories about the parent company not doing the right thing for the wrong reasons. And then it feels very much like a promotional video for NEw Orleans tourism and the need for a replacement for the park. The interviews are boring and don't provide any real interest to the story, boring anecdotes from one guy who operated rides and another who worked in some unknown capacity at the park. I'm the middle there is some very You-Tubish explorer footage of someone exploring the park and showing the flood damage. Viewers would honestly do better to watch the videos on YouTube about the park and the damage afterward. Ultimately it just feels very tone dead against a background of a city that became a cemetery for the lives lost during Katrina and a handful of people lamenting the loss of an amusement park amid all of that. Very strange to me. See more Read all reviews

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