Rating: 
Summary: Love the movie...hate the DVD
Review: Finally got my DVD copy of Down Periscope...my favorite movie starring Kelsey Grammer. I opened it immediately and put it in my DVD player, saying to myself, NOW I will see the whole movie in WIDESCREEN!!Nope. They did not put out the orignal print. This is the pan-and-scan version with the top and bottom of the screen chopped off. Its very apparent in several parts of the movie. I ran my VHS on one TV and the DVD on the home theater...its the same width of screen. I was also not impressed with the 5.1 surround. Not nearly enough seperation and use of the back speakers, or subwoofer!! Buckman's fart should have come booming out of my subfoofer...Nada. At least the colors and quality of print on the pan-and-scan side are better than my VHS copy. Movie is great. DVD is not.
Rating: 
Summary: ...lowbrow humor, just what we need today...
Review: Don't look for the cerebral in this comic farce about a submarine full of Navy misfits led by a true comedic chameleon, Mr. Kelsey Grammar.
Down Periscope is a lighthearted romp full of slapstick comedy, bodily function humor, and revenge, with some really good Naval strategy mixed in. "The Hunt for Red October" this is not...
...but what a great cast! Lauren Holly as the Navy's ONLY female dive officer (there's a lesbian joke somewhere in there, but I'll leave it alone), Grammar as the sub commander, Rob Schneider as his anal and perpetually "stick-up-his-butt" executive officer, not to mention Rip Torn in a much overlooked role as Grammar's Commanding Officer and his only (silent) fan and supporter. Bruce Dern also puts in a strong performance as one of Grammar's foes, the senior officer out to get him.
It's a great, funny, and good-feeling movie that I can't wait to own on DVD. I will watch it again and again...
Rating: 
Summary: Stink Bomb
Review: I saw this in the theater when it came out, and had to leave halfway through. That was the first and only time I have left before a movie concluded... I just could not continue with the film after all of the fart jokes, and the like. Worse still, the jokes were not even funny in my opinion (and yes, you can have funny base-humor). Maybe I am just too old to enjoy such low-level comedy and writing as was used in Down Periscope, but I think this has to be considered one of the worst movies I have ever seen. I apologize to all the other reviewers that enjoyed the film quite a bit... I guess it just wasn't for me. Possible alternatives in the same kind of comedy genre (but in my opinion much better) include Something About Mary, American Pie and Mystery Date. I think all of those will give a much better bang for the buck, while still not taxing your mind too much.
Rating: 
Summary: Two on, two out, Bonds is up again....
Review: This movie was panned by the critics (as I recall it was on Roger Ebert's Worst list that year) and sank without even a bubble at the theaters. Why? I have no idea--I have watched this movie about 10 times now and I just love it! Kelsey Grammar is perfect as a think-outside-the-box Naval officer with "Welcome Aboard" tatooed on his docking probe. Bruce Dern is the by-the-book admiral who doesn't want Grammar's character promoted to sub captain. Admiral Rip Torn has other ideas, wanting to use Grammar in a naval exercise. Dern tries to sabotage Grammar by sending him the worst crew he can find: inexperienced diving officer Lauren Holly, the guy who played the psycho in Something About Mary is the sonar man, and a way-over-the-top Rob Schneider as the Exec. San Francisco's own U.S.S. Pampanito stars as the rust-bucket Fleet Sub they're all assigned to. This is a fun, goofy movie that does not take itself too seriously. There are a number of hilarious scenes (IMHO) that quite frankly depend on sophomoric humor. Who cares! It's not as gross as Animal House, and the plot moves quicker. Give Down Periscope a shot.
Rating:
Summary: IT ***IS*** IN WIDESCREEN!!!!
Review: I really hope the last reviewer comes back to see what else has been said. This is one of my favorite movies and I was a bit dissapointed that I wasn't going to be upgrading my poor, overwatched VHS tape that is hanging on by a thread, for a full Widescreen DVD with all the bells & whistles. I got the DVD anyway and noticed that one side is printed with "Side A Full Screen" while the other side is blank...cusriosity got the best of me and I figured that if it has "Side A" there must be a reason...so I put the DVD in on the other side...and the movie is there...AND IN WIDESCREEN! Apparently they forgot to print the label for side B, but it most certainly exists :)
Rating:
Summary: I Think It's Funny!
Review: I watched Down Periscope when I ordered it from Direct TV on the Satellite and I thought it was a good movie. I'm not really a fan of fart jokes but even I have to admit that the scene when the people on the ship were listening in on the submarine and someone farted and the sound was magnified and the guys on the ship couldn't figure out what the loud noise was was actually funny. Down Periscope is a 3 1/2 star movie that I recommend. I would buy this movie on DVD but I'm concerned about the claims from several reviewers that the widescreen side of this DVD is not really widescreen and is just the full screen pan & Scan version with fake black bars inserted at the tops and bottoms to make it look like it's widescreen and if that is true I hope they put out a new DVD with actual widescreen.
Rating:
Summary: Tollerable DVD, Fun Movie
Review: If you're reading this, you likely already know how much fun this movie is. One of the few I'll watch many times. But the DVD job here is mediocre at best. Like one other said, faked widescreen, ok audio, no specials. But if you don't mind having a fullscreen (and good) copy on DVD with fair audio, that you won't wear out (easily), hear you go! Shame on 20th Century Fox for such a shabby effort, knowing full well they'll use the funds from this to pay for the real enhanced release in a few months no doubt. They know we'll still buy it. But now we know to rent from them first, then wait for the enhanced editions. Me? Couldn't wait....this movies too good.
Rating:
Summary: fun, but it didn't have to be a submarine sitcom
Review: Kelsey Grammer is Tom Dodge, the sit-com producer's idea of nuclear submarine commander. Passed over for promotion repeatedly in the past, he has languished as the executive officer of other-people's subs. When he is passed over again, a sympathetic admiral (Rip Torn) comes up with an idea to save Dodge's career while enhancing his own pet project. Dumbfounded that he is now to get command of his own boat (Dodge's then-superior is a bit dumbfounded himself, and decodes Dodge's promotion papers twice) he is shocked to find that his new command is actually a mothballed and rust-coated WWII relic. The diesel-powered USS Stingray looks like a fossil from the days of the Monitor and the Merrimack, but it's the "perfect" sample target for a nuclear navy in the post-Soviet years. (US submariners had spent much of their career training to find and fight other nuclear subs rather than the non-nuclear boats which actually comprise the majority of the world's submarine fleets; diesel-electric subs lack the extensive pumping systems used in nuclear plants, which makes them inherently quieter and harder to track. They are also cheaper to operate and acquire which, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, makes them possible tools for terrorists). Getting little support from the higher-ups for his end of Rip Torn's wargames, Dodge culls together a rogue-crew: a compulsively angry XO (Rob Schneider), a demented chief engineer (Harry Dean Stanton), a less-than stellar diving officer (Lauren Holly - who also becomes the subject of the misfit crew's many pranks) and various other second-string sailors. As the Stingray takes to the sea, it finds itself the quarry of the modern nuclear navy, barely keeping itself undetected (quick action saves the day). As Stingray succeeds, another admiral (played by Bruce Dern) decides to take command of the entire operation, less obsessed with Dodge's cranky sub than Dodge himself. "Down" is a fun though not hysterical flick. Kelsey Grammer is actually quite good (I've never caught his show) as a sub driver, and watching it you begin to wonder how much better the flick could have been if it wasn't just played for laughs - a sort of advfenture movie that was also funny (the flick is actually light on the laughs as it is). A bunch of ex-sub drivers could have gotten together to craft a story that didn't need to be an extended episode of "McHale's Navy". Though hardly the most realistic submarine movie ever made, the plot dealing with nuts-and-bolts of submarine life were actually more fun than the jokes. It's diverting fun, but like a sub, it slips past you once you've finished it.
Rating:
Summary: The Studio Must Think We're Idiots
Review: I love this movie. I've seen it 20 times on tape at least. So when the DVD arrived this morning I couldn't wait to put it in the player. But wait, as the widescreen version (both are allegedly included on the DVD) played, it didn't look right to me. I started flipping between the widescreen and standard versions, and it confirmed my worst fears: THE STUDIO CARVED THE WIDESCREEN VERSION OUT OF THE STANDARD VERSION! I have never seen this done before on DVD. You will see the tops of everybody's heads cut off in the opening scenes. Later in the movie when captain Kelsey Grammar accuses dive officer Lauren Holly of being "almost out of uniform," the joke is completely ruined by the cropped view of Holly's uniform. This magnifying of the screen lowers the contrast and makes it look grainy. Did the studio think we wouldn't notice? I think this really shows contempt for us, the customers. When I buy a widescreen DVD, I expect to see what I saw in the theater! But here, you'll see more by watching the standard version. This is inexcusable. The audio is presented in 5.1, which adds a great deal to this movie. However, better use could have been made of the surround speakers; the background is not well separated. Now the movie: Kelsey Grammar is a "think outside the box" naval officer given command of the Stingray, a World War II Vallejo class Diesel sub. His assignment is to try to outwit the nuclear navy and run a blockade. To sabotage his efforts, Admiral Bruce Dern gives him the worst crew he can find including diving officer Holly, sonar man Harlan Williams, and an electrician who's taken "a lot of volts." Down Periscope was sunk by the critics when it came out--Roger Ebert put it on his worst of the year list. The humor is sophomoric and silly, and therein lies the charm of this movie. It has a good heart. Grammer is perfect as a goofball captain who is really very, very good at his job. This is kind of movie that will either work on you or it won't. If you like silly movies, give Down Periscope a shot. As for the butchering of the widescreen version of this movie on the DVD, let's hope this doesn't start a trend.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable!
Review: Down Periscope is an underrated movie, I know some people didn't like it because of bathroom type humor and slapstick moments but I actually think that this was an enjoyable movie and that Kelsey Grammer was great and so was the rest of the cast so if you are not uptight about bathroom and slapstick humor then you should enjoy this movie.
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