DEEP RISING 1998
A film review by Timothy Voon
Copyright 1998 Timothy Voon
3 :-( :-( :-( for not having enough monster suck
Cast: Treat Williams, Famke Janssen, Wes Studi, Kevin J. O'Connor, Anthony Heald Director: Stephen Sommers Producers: John Baldecchi, Laurence Mark Screenplay: Stephen Sommers
Whilst sitting through DEEP RISING, I began to wonder why I was feeling so very comfortable on my cinema seat? Shouldn't I be on the edge, feeling terrified or at least thrilled at the notion of a sea monster devouring a ship full of passengers?
Theoretically ….yes, but I wasn't.
Then I realised that everyone in this ‘nobody' cast, was trying to be either too smug or funny for my liking. Even in death, they seemed at ease. Hardly, befitting men about to become monster chomp for members of the squid family! Once this path is travelled, it is hard to recapture the apical beat of growing suspense ie ALIENS, with too many lapses in concentration to be able to sustain this thriller.
The passengers disappear before the terrorists board the ship. The monster then decides to play ‘peek-a-boo' for a while, before conveniently sucking the juices out of the baddies, leaving most of the good guys intact. Full marks for an interesting computer generated tentacle, but rather too reminiscent of the man eating plants from the musical comedy, THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS. After this comparison how can one take these tentacle-like-creatures seriously? So I just waited out the end of this formulaic movie, with a regular pulse rate of sixty, three yawns and a toilet break.
It is likely that the special effects department devoured a large chunk of the budget, so it is not surprising that a relatively unknown cast was hired. Then again, nobody famous would have signed on anyway. So the solution to the problem, was simply to employ a Mel Gibson look-alike, Indiana Jones wannabe hero (Trent Williams), and a Julia Roberts identical (Famke Janssen). Both of whom, are overly cute with their performance, and it is quite evident from their perky behaviour, that they will not end up in the monster's belly.
An overly disappointing effort overall.
Timothy Voon
e-mail: stirling@netlink.com.au
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