DEEP RISING
I can't imagine what's wrong with my fellow reviewers. Here' the most entertaining, best put together action film of the last 12 months, and they trash it. It may be that they were expecting to find Sir Lawrence Olivier or that they came in yearning for a transcendental experience. Well, to the gentle readers who go to the movies looking for solid entertainment let it not be said that in this here newsgroup an encouraging word will not be heard.
Deep Rising is everything that a full budget action/adventure/monster/disaster movie should be: an elaborate production, superb cinematography, flawless casting, very good acting and above all, that sensitive element in which even Titanic failed and Speed 2 crashed and sank: pacing. The pace and rhythm of the action is the one critical element that most often makes or breaks a disaster movie. There is in disaster movies a point at which "sustained hectic" starts to yield diminishing benefits quickly followed by negative returns. Titanic transgressed the line, but not to the egregious degree of Speed 2. Deep Rising achieves near perfection in this respect. Hectic situations are resolved before they get boring and the gore is briefly seen but not flaunted. The premise is internally consistent and the monster will satisfy your expectations.
The characters are one dimensional, perhaps as they should be and who cares, if the acting is good? (Not at all a contradiction.) And anyway, Treat Williams does wander into another dimension as you might expect from such a fine actor. Famke Johnson is a Sandra Bullock look-alike with talent to match. Kevin O'Connor fine tunes his character with inconspicuous virtuosity.
That this level of intelligent, thoughtful moviemaking should get trashed by would-be critics is beyond forgivable. So the dialog is deliberately simple and direct; it is not Hamlet. All in all it the most satisfactory flick of its genre to come by in many a month and perhaps in years, the Alien series not excluded. Don't let my praise raise your expectations to the level of a great film; it does not try to be that. It tries to be a satisfying action and adventure film, and it succeeds splendidly. I recommend it highly. 3 ½ stars out of 5.
Jerry Bosch
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