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Below

Below

List Price: $19.99
Your Price: $17.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: BELOW: A Film of Images Not of Fear
Review: It is not often that Hollywood combines horror with war since the result is often to confuse the audience into blanching at the horrors of war or the horrors of the supernatural. Each is horrible in its own right. But in BELOW, director David Twohy creates a tale based on incremental images of fear. During the second world war, an American submarine picks up three survivors of a U-boat sinking of a hospital ship. One of the three is a woman who acts as a catalyst for the crew to re-examine the events that led to the recent death of the submarine's captain. As the woman discovers the truth behind his death, so does the audience, and it is at this point that spooky things begin to occur. However, these spooky things are not all that spooky. One of them, at least is laughably derivative. Fans of I LOVE LUCY will remember the scene in which she dresses as Harpo Marx with the real Harpo staring at her as if from a mirror. Lucy mugs and bounces with Harpo trying to keep up, but always a milli movement off. In BELOW, there is a similar scene in which a crewman peers into a smoky mirror with his reflection taking on a life of its own. For a film that is clearly meant to be bordering on the paranormal, this mirror scene is as spooky as it gets. Yet, director Twohy manages to keep suspense flowing by virtue of the calamities that often beset submarines in war films. There is an abundance of noises, explosions, burst pipes, flooded compartments, and sailors cracking under pressure. The ghost-like elements in BELOW could easily have been eliminated without sacrificing any attendant suspense. What emerges at the end is a confused ending to a military mission that on film at least is not nearly as spooky as both cast and crew had so clearly striven for.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Intense!!!
Review: Not a whole lot in this world could out-do the terror of being trapped in a vessel 100s of feet below the ocean surface with depth-charges bouncing of your bow (unbelievably portrayed in this movie!!!)... but add in a supernatural force working against you and you are really in for the thril ride of your life!!! Good acting, cinemetography, sound, music, & special effects coupled with this previous revelation, and you get "Below", a truely entertaining and suspenseful thriller! Not cheesy and very realistic it will entertain me over and over again!!!!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Solid suspenseful offering from director David Twohy
Review: David Twohy is king of the b-movie thriller. He's directed a number of strong genre films on tight budgets that have been both visually innovative and startlingly powerful. The Arrival and Pitch Black are his two best known films and Below fits somewhere between the two of them. Visually, this haunted submarine story is about has sharp as they come. He's managed to inspire inspired performances from his under rated casts (everyone from Charlie Sheen and Vin Diesel have benefited from his solid direction).

In this quick to video age, the art of B-movie making and low budget genre films had been lost until recently. The last director capable of creating anything worthwhile before Twohy was Sam Raimi. His Evil Dead films had a crackling energy and sense of humor most mainstream films would have benefited from in the 80's and 90's. Likewise, Twohy's films have all the visual splendor and energy missing from mainstream genre films over the last ten years. Minority Report and AI, for example, would have benefited from Twohy's action direction and lack of pretense. He tells a solid story and tells it well.

It's a pity that Below was buried in the theaters before it got a chance to surface. The acting is top-notch and, while the script is certainly flawed, it's attempt at merging a variety of different genres is admirable.

The DVD transfer is handsome and the extras extensive given the small audience the DVD was intended for. The sound is equally detailed and, while not presented in the DTS format, sounds great. I'd like to add that the technical information mentions the film is presented in standard format (i.e., a television aspect ratio)when, in fact, it's in a widescreen format.

Below is definitely worth a rental and, if you like it, worth purchasing.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: wake me up
Review: This was slow paced for me. The horror was too subtle and delicate to leave an impression on me. I do not find "submarine" movies boring, ever, I never even thought of them as in that category.
The eeriness was washed over by the lenght of the movie.
The end was interesting, because of the way that one perticular person changed ( I don't wanna give anything away) but other than that it wasn't anything scary or special.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: VERY INTENSE and VERY INTERESTING...
Review: It wasn't as scary as I'd hoped, but it was a great movie nontheless. I loved the effort that was put into making the sub look authentic. It had some comic relief that made the movie fun, but I could have done without it. I thought 'GhostShip: Sea Evil' was scarier. They're just two different types of movies. I love both of them though. I recommend both of them the same. A MUST HAVE!!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Creepy Thriller
Review: This film has a creepy otherworldliness about it not seen since The Sixth Sense. Almost from the beginning of the film, you know there is something not quite right on board the submarine.

I counted four true jolts for the viewer, one involving a coat closet that had me literally flying out of my chair. But this film is not really about scaring people out of their shoes. It's more of slow-building mystery that leads to a whole slew of questions about character, revenge, death, and "the other side."

This film is destined to be a long-lasting favorite for fans of intelligent ghost story films.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: good, but........
Review: Below is a good action packed thriller, but.....it takes a while to get going. Once you get the point it turns more solid. One thing I enjoyed were the action scenes similar to sub flicks like Hunt for Red October and U-571. In the deleted scenes on the DVD extras are two more action scenes that should have been in the movie. But the director, David Twohy, thought there were too much action and deterred from the scary genre. But therein lies the problem......this should have been tagged as an action film first, with scary undertones. If you are looking for a true horror flick this is not it though.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: pretty good, a nice surprise from the other new horror
Review: This movie was a spooky surprise. I have been very disapointed with most of the recent horror films and this one made me happier. The footage of the submarine is excellent and convincing, the spookiness is well built upon, at times it did get a little confusing but that is explained at the end, the female rescued passenger was very anoying but there always has to be a know it all, I guess. This movie was overlooked when compared to the Ring(disapointing and left me with many, amny unanswered questions.), and other recents.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Nifty Thriller
Review: I went into this movie with rather low expectations, having failed to realize its obvious connection with Pitch Black (which I loved). Frankly, I rented Below from the library and it was due back today, so I began watching it last night at midnight, giving myself the option to turn it off if I was bored. I never was.
What impressed me most was the emphasis on suggestion rather than gratuitous violence - a refreshing change from the usual movie fare these days. Several other reviewers have mentioned mood. In fact, mood plays such a big part here that it almost upstages the actors. This is actually okay because what is required of these actors is tough to pull off - "authentic" human response to weird and unexplainable stuff.
I keep returning to the notion of "nifty." I was consistently pleased during the entire film - also a tough thing to pull off. Because of Pitch Black + Below, I have added another director to my list of favorites.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: The tagline "Beneath the surface no one can hear you scream"
Review: is pretty funny. Beneath the surface of this movie, you'll find nothing. It also points to some of the more derivative elements in the movie. "In space, no one can hear you scream" was the tagline from Alien. This one can't be compared to that. Both were pretty, but Alien had ALOT more going for it.

Everything about this movie is pretty, its fascinating in parts but the sum and conclusion really are terrible. By the time I finished the movie, I was pretty steamed. I kept waiting to see what it all added up to and the conclusion was simply, not very much.

I really liked Pitch Black and wanted to like this one. Take a pass when you have a chance to see it...keep your hour and a half and use it to watch something else.


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