Home :: DVD :: Mystery & Suspense  

Blackmail, Murder & Mayhem
British Mystery Theater
Classics
Crime
Detectives
Film Noir
General
Mystery
Mystery & Suspense Masters
Neo-Noir
Series & Sequels
Suspense
Thrillers
Deep Rising

Deep Rising

List Price: $14.99
Your Price: $13.49
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 2 3 4 .. 11 >>

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A little bit of humour goes a long way!
Review: The more I watch this film, the more I like it. I recently re-watched it after seeing DEEP BLUE SEA. DEEP RISING is aimed at a lower level, really, and I think it's better off for it. A B-movie at heart, DEEP RISING conquers DEEP BLUE SEA because it never once takes itself seriously, and the blend of light comedy and horror works well (director Sommers proved it a successful formula later with THE MUMMY).

It's not just the gags that I like, either. There's something about the beginning of the film that I find curiously evocative - this high tech speedboat racing racing racing with single-minded, straight-line purpose toward an unknown destination in complete darkness. The fact that the audience knows what the crew will find when they arrive makes it more tantalizing.

Still, with a B-movie one must have B-movie expectations. The CG effects are only average and often unconvincing. The plot motivations are ridiculous. The acting ranges from extremely engaging (Treat Williams) to labored (Anthony Heald).

The DVD presentation is sparse (typical for a Hollywood Pictures release). The transfer is great, but non-anamorphic. There is a trailer, but nothing else of note. The sound quality is exceptionally good.

Sorry to go back to this comparison, but here I go anyway. Where DEEP BLUE SEA is lofty, DEEP RISING is lowbrow. Both are decent films, and each has its strengths over the other, but since this one is a heckuvalot of fun (and the other just plain isn't), I'd rather watch DEEP RISING again.

I hope you found this review informative! Thanks for reading.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Oceanic Sci-Fi With A Riveting Twist
Review: "Deep Rising" was a wonderfully-made genre-film harkening back to the 50's drive-in monster movies. Director Stephen Sommers ("The Jungle Book" and the upcoming re-imagining of "The Mummy") knew his material well and keeps well within it's bounderies. The plot involves Treat Williams as John Finnegan, a mercernary, lending his old WWII PT Boat to a group of well armed mercenaries ("If The Cash Is There, We Do Not Care" is his motto) lead by the ex-commando Hanover (Wes Studi) . Their destination is the Argonautica, "the largest, most luxurious cruise ship ever built". When they arrive, they discover that most of the passengers were eaten by an unseen sea creature. The survivors include the ship's captain (Derrick O'Connor), it's owner, Canton (Anthony Heald) and a sexy theif (Famke Janssen). The hijacking becomes a fight for survival, as the creature is still hungry and begins to pick them off one-by-one. The special effects are credible, spectacular and realistic (if not gory), and the humor (often provided by Finnegan's mechanic/sidekick Pantucci, played by Kevin J. O'Connor) is very funny and dead-pan, often provided in the most dire of moments. A very fun film to watch to fans of the "monster" genre.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Saw better special effects in Godzilla 2000.
Review: Well it is a B-monster movie all right. The sea creature is really just some bad CGI effects thrown in for bad measure. There is little to be said about this movie other then the fact that Steven Sommers made it, and he is turning out to be a pretty bad movie maker. At least after this movie, some of the cast did go on to appear in much better movies, but Sommers still makes crappy movies. This movie was not Jaws or Aliens, it was more like Plan 9 from Outer Space. I think I will go and watch Godzilla 2000 now.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Deep Rising is fun and entertaining
Review: While not trying to answer the meaning of life, Deep Rising does what it's trying to do, and that's entertain. Director Stephen Sommers (who went on to better things after the relentlessly entertaining The Mummy) injects enough action, humor, and cheap thrills to keep the average viewer from being bored. This is the sort of movie to watch by yourself or a friend or two on a late Friday night.

The plot is cliched enough as it borrows unashamedly from the Alien films, Die Hard, Titanic, Tremors, and The Poseidon Adventure. It's basically about these terrorists led by Wes Studi who are trying to hi-jack a cruise ship called the Argonautica. Along for the ride are Finnegan (Treat Williams) and Pantucci (Kevin J. O'Connor) who quickly discover that the Argonautica is empty. Discovering a few more survivors including a jewel thief (Famke Janssen), they find out there is a creature on board that is feeding off of them and the survivors must do what they can to get off alive.

Deep Rising is not meant to be taken the least bit seriously unlike other creature features like the Alien films and Pitch Black (which I very much highly recommend you watch). Instead, Stephen Sommers keeps his tongue firmly tucked in his cheek, leading to a campy cruise most reminiscent of Tremors. If there's at least one thing to credit Deep Rising for, it has the look of a summer blockbuster. The 50 million dollar budget is large (especially for a campy action/horror film) and all the special effects are put to good use. The creature effects are well done and makes for a fun encounter between the survivors and the creature's main body. Rob Bottin, noted for the gory effects in The Thing, succeeds again though the creation in this film may not be as well remembered as some of his other works.

Deep Rising is an action film so expect plenty of that. While it's not terribly original action, they're full of enough tension to keep anybody from dozing off.

As for acting, this isn't exactly a first-rate cast. Wes Studi is an underrated actor and he probably deserves betteer work. The same goes for Djimon Honsou in a short appearance. Treat Williams looks like he's having a lot of fun and he is a charismatic hero. Kevin J. O'Connor, no matter how annoying, is still good comic relief, though Famke Janssen delivers a rather poor performance, even in a movie of this sort.

So long as you watch this film with the realization that it isn't meant to be taken seriously, you'll have fun with it. It's no classic by any means but you could do a lot worse.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: survive this
Review: some good moments in a film directed by Stephen Sommers(directed the dreadful Mummy movies). this one is his best one so far with Treat Williams and Wes Studi and Studi's shipmates and Williams crew go and highjack a luxury cruiseliner but find something different on board thats eatting alive all the crew. so they race against time and try to stop it and survive. Kevin J. O'Connor sparks some laughs alongside Williams. dont get to caught up in the moment, the beast at the end is stupid but the ship exploding is great and Anthony Heald is way funky in this pic.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: What's eating you? Go and gulp down this bloody thriller!
Review: Boy, I do love the combination of ships and blood-fests. I thoroughly enjoyed both Virus and Ghost Ship, and now another favorite arises from the depths.

Despite no big name stars, get ready for some truly great performances from the cast; Treat Williams as Captain Finnegan, Kevin O'Conner (The Mummy) as Pantucci, Una Damon as Leila, and Jason Flemyng as Mulligan, just to name a few.

A group of would be robbers armed with torpedoes set out to terrorize and rob a luxury cruise ship, hiring Captain Finnigan and his ship and crew, who hire out to anyone with the cash, no questions asked. The cruise ship is sabotaged by an insider on board, but before the pack of robbers can make it onboard, something else takes control of the ship: the big squid thing.

Already on board is Trillian, played by Famke Janssen, a fairly incompetent female thief who manages to get herself locked in the vault before being able to steal a necklace she was after.

With Finnegan's ship disabled from running into a stray lifeboat, they all board the cruise liner, meet up with Trillian, and one by one fall victim Mr. Squid. Very action packed, rapidly moving, gorily fascinating splatter fest that is a five star must see. Especially when Mr. Squid vomits out the half digested guy who is still alive, one of my all time favorite horror movie scenes.

There are crunching skulls, folding metal, bursting pipes, rapid gunfire, and some pretty funny dialogue that manages to not sound out of place like so many flat one liners in horror films. All of the messy, gory, bloody lower levels of the ship, bending and peeling metal, various and sundry body parts, combine to announce the arrival of the squid-like monster with immense strength and an appetite to match. All in all, a wonderful journey with a surprise, funny ending. Enjoy!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Brings a whole new meaning to "Getting Axed"
Review: I absolutely love Action God Stephen Sommers' wild little beast of a movie "Deep Rising" with all my heart, because 1) it entertains me monstrously and never fails to get me out of a black depressed funk and 2) it reminds me of all those gorily juicy, full-blooded, red meat horror films they used to make back in the eighties---except this bloody little romp was cranked out in 1998!

That said, get your sea legs, load the double-barrel shotgun, and let's venture into the hold of this derelict. Is "Deep Rising" worth a look? Well let me ask you a few questions:

Do you like the idea of lots of bloodshed, wanton carnage, and wholesale slaughter?

Do you like the prospect of watching the gorgeous (and water-logged) Famke Janssen clamber around a derelict ocean-liner for nearly two hours?

Do you like movies about voracious, wicked sea-beasties that eat first and ask questions later?

Do you like seeing movies in which Evil Cowardly Villains get their just desserts in exactly the fashion they deserve, screaming and mewling in pain and horror?

Have you ever wondered what it's like to buzz around a luxury ocean liner on a ski-doo?

If you answered "yes" to even one of the questions above, then "Deep Rising" is for you. Sommers is the Leonardo da Vinci of the Action Film, and he keeps the pace taut, the dialogue crisp, the blood flowing like cheap Merlot, and the bodycount rising into the double digits! Best of all, you get the sadly underrated Treat Williams as the gruff and mercenary boat-captain-with-a-heart-of-gold (he'd be wearing a fedora and wielding a whip if Sommers thought he could get away with it)
unwittingly transporting a gaggle of terrorists to a cruise-liner for pillage and plunder.

Plot? You want plot? Fine. The terrorists are after loot hidden away on a luxury cruise liner on its maiden voyage, a liner owned by a greedy shipping tycoon played by Anthony Heald. Fun stuff!

A downside to this Pleasure Ship of Death? The CGI graphics, which nearly undo the movie's creepy, ghoulish, uber-gory vibe: the creature itself looks atrocious and has far too much freedom of movement to be truly scary. Sommers should have recognized that with a film of this type, less is more, and stuck with prosthetics.

But I'm quibbling. "Deep Rising" is a perfect little horror flick and just what the doctor ordered if you're in the mood for hungry undersea beasties, gore galore, amoral and greedy villains, and a healthy selection of panicked victims-to-be, to say nothing of the best axe-killing scene this side of "The Shining." Make sure you get a cabin with a picture window and sea-view---Tickets, please.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A fun derivative action/sci-fi yarn
Review: Jeff Shannon can't say it any better about writer/director Stephen Sommers than he does in his review, but you've got to admit that the director of The Mummy and The Mummy Returns sure does know how to entertain. Deep Rising doesn't aspire to be anything special, and it certainly isn't, but thanks to the solid (if underachieving) cast and gruesome special effects, Deep Rising manages to be better than most of the slew of derivative Aliens knock offs that it is associated to. Treat Williams plays the typical hero role as he and his group of mercenaries arrive on an ocean liner to find most of the crew slaughtered by a huge leviathan like creature with a taste for blood and guts. The special effects are nicely done for the most part, but the film's biggest flaw is that it is entirely too predictable. The rest of the cast includes the gorgeous Famke Janssen (X-Men), Kevin J. O'Conner (The Mummy), Anthony Heald (Silence of the Lambs), Cliff Curtis (Training Day), Djimon Hounsou (Amistad), and the late Trevor Goddard (Pirates of the Caribbean). All in all, if your looking for a half decent way to kill an hour or two, this isn't such a bad choice.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Monster Movie That's Fun, But Slightly Too Goofy
Review: I found "Deep Rising" to be a fun sea monster movie that is sort of a cross between "Beyond The Poseidon Adventure" (the sequel to "The Poseidon Adventure") and "Aliens" only a little more goofy than either of those two films.

The three stars, Treat Williams as the captain of a fast moving boat hired by mercenaries on a secret mission, Famke Janssen as the beautiful pickpocket on-board a cruise ship, Kevin J. O'Connor as the panicky friend of Treat Williams and mechanic of Williams' boat, are all great, but the rest of the cast whom mostly make-up the team of stereotypically macho and obnoxious mercenaries are unlikable.

As for the story and action, I thought it was great until the last five or ten minutes which seems to be the point when the inevitable physics-defying action scenarios begin occurring, but the scenes before that are logical.

Also, I found the sea-monster to be excellent. It reminded me a lot of H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu monster that shows-up as drawings on the covers of his books and I'm sure that's what must have inspired its creation.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Deep Rising
Review: This movie has a ton of action. While it's not exactly intellectually stimulating it is a fun check your brain and grab some popcorn sci-fi action flick. The fictional Chinese assault rifle they carry is very cool and the movie doesn't have slow boring spots, it's fast paced till the end. Check it out for an alternative to shark movies.


<< 1 2 3 4 .. 11 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates