DEEP RISING (1998)
Starring: Treat Williams (John Finnegan), Famke Janssen (Trillian), Kevin J. O'Connor (Joey Pantucci), Wes Studi (Hanover), Anthony Heald (Nigel Carlton)
Directed by: Stephen Sommers, Written by: Stephen Sommers
Reviewed by Doug Skiles
"NOW What?!"
This becomes the catch-phrase for John Finnegan in DEEP RISING, a movie that starts off like kinda like SPEED 2, turns into a poor rip-off of ALIENS/ALIEN RESURRECTION, and in the last 15 minutes, actually becomes semi-original, leading up to a final ten seconds (yes, SECONDS) of film before the credits roll that I think are gonna be pretty memorable for me.
Okay. There's a cruise ship that's attacked by a big beast thing. And there's this group of bandits on their way to do... something (but we're not supposed to know what) to said cruise ship. Of course, when they get there, they find the place mostly devoid of people, and why? Some kind of big squid thing, of course. Add to that the fact that their own boat is too damaged to be seaworthy, and you've got yourself an ALIEN movie ripoff.
And what a ripoff it is! I mean, they seem to try to take the underwater scene from ALIEN RESURRECTION, make it as devoid of momentum as possible, and slap the remainder of the copy into this movie. There's even a scene where exact dialogue from ALIENS is slapped into the show just for kicks. Yes, exact lines. It's annoying on some level, but wait a second...
...is this a spoof? With such intentional ripoff signs, and the fact that this movie sure as hell isn't scary at all, floating around in the mist, I'd be inclined to say... maybe. If so, and if viewed as such, this is a funny flick. Only bout **1/2 to *** star level, though, because it doesn't quite take it far enough. But it's still a good satire. But if viewed as another one of these traditional monster-in-enclosed-space flicks, then, it ain't that hot. *1/2 star kinda movie.
Either way, the acting is alright (Treat Williams is always a likable guy, and O'Connor is loads of fun, too), the evil CGI tentacles look cool (but the big head thing didn't quite measure up), and the final chase scene is actually worthy of... well, a better movie.
For me, the final moment of the film was just hilarious. The rest of the audience didn't seem to think so. But for me, those final seconds add about another 1/2 star to this baby. I won't forget those ten seconds anytime soon.
Overall, what do I give this, this exercise in what-kind-of-movie-am-I-watching? Well, I'm going to go ahead and give it a medium rating of **1/2. You'll have the most fun if your view as a spoof of the ALIEN movies and their numerous ripoffs rather than a serious monster flick. But you'd certainly still be better off heading down to the dollar theater to check out ALIEN RESURRECTION again, or shelling out the bucks for another three glorious hours of TITANIC. Still, if you're in the mood for something else, sit back and... well, just look at those darn cool tentacles. Wait, there's a mouth inside of another mouth on that thing there... uh... where have I seen that before?
RATING: **1/2
"NOW what?!"
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