Customer Reviews

Deep Rising [VHS]

5 star:		(47)
4 star:		(42)
3 star:		(29)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

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.

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.

Don't be afraid to admit that you like this movie. Deep Rising is a terrific monster flick that delivers all that can be expected of a film of this type. You get thrills, chills, kills and more than a few laughs. The computer generated creature from the depths, is an ugly and vicious man-eater, that manifests itself in several different forms throughout the film. A twisting shiny gray mass, with numerous slimy looking tentacles, capable of great speed. This terror from the deep devours its victims with zest. All in all, a very cool looking monster, and a formidable opponent.

The human cast is not bad either. Treat Williams as "Finnegan" is a steady, likeable leading man, delivering some incredibly silly lines with an engaging smirk on his face. Pickpocket Famke Janssen, is dynamite in a red dress, and handles a gun like a pro. Comic relief is provided by Kevin J. O'Connor as "Joey", a character you will either love or hate. Anthony Heald as "Canton" the pompous ships owner, provides the "weasel factor". The hard-boiled mercenary group, led by "Hanover"(Wes Studi), ably performs their most critical function, that of being bloody fodder for the monster.

The plot enfolds in time tested fashion. Finnegan is hired to take a group of mercenaries to an unknown location at sea. They rendezvous with the "Argonautica" a disabled cruise ship, expecting to find it filled with passengers, only to discover just a handful of survivors. A mysterious creature is apparently loose on board. As the survivors continue to investigate the crippled ship, the monster makes its presence felt, and the fun begins. The body count continues to rise, and blood flows freely, up until the film's climax, where the monster pursues a jet ski through the ship's corridors. Wild mindless fun.

Writer and director Steven Sommers took the experiences gained from his first "creature feature", and put them to good use in his next films, the more commercially successful "The Mummy", "The Mummy Returns" and the yet to be released "Scorpion King".

Deep Rising is a great choice for pure escapist enjoyment. Jerry Goldsmith's soundtrack also adds considerably to the atmosphere and excitement. The DVD features just the movie and the trailer, and is perhaps a good candidate for the "Special Edition" treatment common these days, especially as this film has been overshadowed by Sommers latter efforts.

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.

I like Treat Williams. I like Famke Janssen. I like movies about ships lost at sea, and the toothy creatures that lurk in its depths and look on people as savory entrees. Oh, and I definitely like the Alien series.

All that explains why I sort of enjoyed Deep Rising, a rollercoaster of a movie that tosses all pretense of originality out the window from the get-go and focuses on doing the same old thing in a fun and flashy way.

Although the special effects seem a little on the cheap side this movie is one of the best b-movies I have ever seen. A lot of stuff was stolen from other movies, but that did not bother me for a second. It's been proven again that fine actors can truly add extra value to a movie as well. This movie offers you horror and laughter at the same time, which is a very unique combination these days. (SARR)

Everybody dies you know. Especially in this hilarious movie about a cruise ship that is eaten by a giant squid. Who can stop this squid? Treat Williams, YES! He was incredible in "The Phantom" another masterpiece and he proves himself in this movie. Axes to the face, ladies getting sucked into toilets and crazy guys puking into buckets are some of the funny highlights in this Stephen Sommers epic. Just when you think this movie can't get any better, they throw in Famke Janssen, the most beautiful lordess ever and you have the ultimate movie. I was enlightened after watching this movie.

"Deep Rising" seems too much like a conglomeration of TITANIC + TREMORS + ALIENS + THE ABYSS, but that seems to = TOO MUCH OF TOO MANY GOOD THINGS for one movie.

Yes, without a doubt, "Deep Rising" has action and eye-candy, action and gore, action and a huge scary monster, and action and a huge scary monster destroying a huge cruise ship. However, "Deep Rising" is somewhat short of plot and character development. In fact, most of the characters vanish before the movie proper really begins. Lacking these two ingredients, "Deep Rising" has characters without plausible motivation and their possible deaths lack much significance because we aren't given the opportunity to care.

It has always been a useful trick to take a story line and, via the editing and rewriting of it, begin the story as near the climax and conclusion as possible. This way, presumably, a lot of boring, repetitious and unnecessary details can be discarded which otherwise might slow things down too much. In the case of "Deep Rising", the consequence is a feeling of disgust rather than an edge-of-your-seat thrill ride. I just don't care about the characters. I don't buy their reasons for doing what they are doing or being how they are and where they are.

ABOUT THE THRILL RIDE:

The fliming is all depicted at night and the camera angles and close-ups that dominate the film give it a very dark and dismal look. Worse yet, the creature really looks like it's CGI and so does the ship. By the time the thrill ride starts, we have a ghost ship which appears like a beautiful portrait of scenery without any people.

ABOUT THE THRILL RIDERS:

Famke Janssen [Dr. Jean Grey from X-Men] who plays a pickpocket named "Trillian" is the one bright spot, but she is not given much to work with beyond her present incarceration on-board for an attempted theft and her fast-study approach to automatic weapons. Her interest in Treat Williams' "Finnegan" seems a bit quick and contrived even for so fast a study.

Treat Williams plays the wise-cracking, cliched, anti-hero, boat jockey, "John Finnegan". Having been nominated for acting awards on five separate productions, we expected much more from him. Instead, his character does the predictable stuff at the expected times in the ways that you will expect if you see this film.

Anthony Heald who plays "Simon Canton", the owner of the Argonautica, is the slick, double-dealing, sleazy, rich villain. He is cowardly, back-stabbing, and without any virtues other than his complete lack of admirable traits. Yuck! He does not even do an adequate job of making us believe or comprehend why all this [the story line] has to happen which is his whole purpose in this film. Heald is well-remembered for his role as the nervous and self-promoting chief psychiatrist "Dr. Frederick Chilton" from "The Silence of the Lambs", so we know he could have done better. In fact, it seems like everyone could have done better, but that has to start with a better script.

ABOUT THE DVD & FEATURES:

Widescreen 2.35:1, French Language Track available, Theatrical Trailer, Dolby Digital 5.1 Audio, Chapter Search. Or in plain English -- NOTHING SPECIAL!

FEW LAST WORDS:

Some horror fans will love this film, but it is not the type of film that Science Fiction fans will find interesting, or enjoyable unlike "The Abyss" or "Aliens" or "Tremors" or "Jaws" or even "The Crawling Eye". It just misses the mark of Horrific Science Fiction and lands somewhere in the depths of the deep blue sea. The sad part is it looks like it really could have been an excellent film if only it had a little more story and characterizations and just tried to be itself instead of imitating so many other excellent and successful films.

This movie proves that there is a region between big budget science fiction thrillers like "Starship Troopers" and "Independence Day" and low budget stuff that is barely tolerable (or intolerable in many cases) such as "Blood Surf." We once called these movies B-science fiction movies, though that terminology is somewhat out of style. Regardless, this movie is an excellent B-movie that is a lot of fun to watch.

This movie does not take the easy way out by having a nice simple plot. The plot starts simple enough, but then gets very complicated. Fortunately, the giant carnivorous priapulid worms that the actors encounter manage to solve much of the complexity.

The movie begins with a nice simple attack on a cruise ship. The ship's owner is having a little money problems and decides the easy way out is to have the ship sunk, which then allows him to get the insurance money. However, when the hired mercenaries board the ship they are unable to find anyone, and they keep hearing strange noises. Then mercenaries start disappearing into the water pouring into the ship's bowels.

Interlude time: While we are waiting to get a clear view of whatever is running around making people disappear we meet a burglar, Trillian St. James (Famke Janssen) and we learn more about the captain of the ship carrying the mercenaries, John Finnegan (who was clueless about why he was hired), well played by Treat Williams. We also meet a number of mercenaries, albeit briefly in many cases, and finally encounter the captain of the cruise ship and the owner. Of course, they are all blathering about something wandering about the ship and eating people, but we know better. Right?

Okay, after finding that there are people on the ship after all, just not as many as the mercenaries initially thought, they finally meet their first priapulid worm. Of course, the meeting does not go well for the worm (the mercenaries are well armed) or the mercenaries (the worms are well-teethed), and things begin to spiral out of control from there. Everyone finally gets the bright idea that they should forget about stealing and robbing and sinking the ship and just getting off the ship and away from the ship. Unfortunately for the people on the ship, the worms have other ideas that involve pulling people into their gut and digesting them alive.

The remainder of the movie is a cat and mouse, or worm and man, game. You must not think that these worms are your typical earth-type worms. These worms move like extremely fast, flexible and slimy snakes. These worms have nasty mouths and can suck you into their gut quicker than you can say "Look out!" or "AAHHH!" The worm then slowly digests the victim. In once scene the mercenaries and sundry others manage to remove a victim from a worm. It turns out that was not such a good idea (I will not attempt to describe that particular scene).

I was afraid that this movie was going to turn into a cheese fest. However, it turned out to be surprisingly good. The worms were clearly CGI, but they still looked very good. There are scenes where the worms interact with their surroundings, and those scenes are uniformly excellent. The scenes may not be believable, but they are well done. The mercenaries and the worms are well-matched, and I thought there was never a certainty in the outcome.

If you can believe that worms that are usually no more than six inches or so in length can somehow be many feet long, and can move about as fast as a running man, and if you like Treat Williams or Famke Janssen, this movie is a popcorn munching treat. However, you may want to put away the popcorn when that guy pops out of the worm; that scene is really gross.

This is a good movie...entertaining and scary.
Its Night and raining...
1. The ocean liner (ARGONAUTICA) created for the pleasurable pursuits, primarily gambling is the target of a South China Sea heist.
2. The "hero" Treat Williams (John Finnegan) charters his boat (an old WWII PT boat) and crew of two (his sidekick mechanic Kevin J. O'Connor as Joey and his sidekick's co-pilot girlfriend Leila), to a group of mercenaries with "no questions asked".
3. The Ocean liner is attacked (losing a small speed boat with the impact) by something that has forcibly stopped and penetrated the vessel. "It" remains unseen as it wreaks havoc and panic...and blood.
4. The charter plan (to rob the ocean liner) is revealed to Treat and his crew as the Mercs bring the PT boat up to war specs with the installation of new torpedo tubes secretly brought aboard in crates.
5. Confrontation between Treat and the Mercs in defense of his crew reveals the cool comic hero status of Treat and his sidekick mechanic.
6. State-of-the-art weaponry (newly designed Chinese-made high-powered mini-gatling guns with 100 round magazines) is distributed among the mercs. (Oh boy! This is gonna be good).
7. Treat's crew is disarmed and intimidated into complicity.
8. The PT Boat runs over the speed boat that fell off the ocean liner and is damaged. Repair is mandated as the adrift ocean liner is spotted.
9. Treat's mechanic can repair the damaged parts of his boat in the ocean liner's machine shop, hence their reason to board the ship with the mercs (unarmed of course!).
10. Hands-up, this is a robbery...hey, where is everyone? What happened here?
11. Let the body count begin...
12. Is anyone here? Are you behind...this hatch!...or this hatch!...or this...arrrggghhh...slurp! Slurp again.

This DVD is a must have. Picture quality is phenomenal. This is surely a candidate for the superbit treatment. You need every "bit" to view the slimy, bloody "it", which is scary and creepy as hell. Those who read this as "B" horror movie should remember that "B" movies are a genre and not a rating. This DVD is an "A".

The character Treat Williams plays (John Finnegan) is colorful, cool and badass enough as to make any plot secondary (just bring on the action and tongue-in-cheek remarks). His mechanic sidekick Kevin J. O'Connor (Joey) plays-off his sardonic remarks with an almost psychotic but sensitive and fearful whine (read - same as his character in The Mummy). Famke Janssen (Trillian) could...well...just stand there, roll her eyes and suck in those dimples and be effective at just about anything. The characters are what remain at the end of the story, a funtioning team that can survive the unsurvivable with controlled fear, coolness and humor. And, before end-credits, they are obviously stranded on a large unchartered island in the midst of another horrific story-arc, so where's the sequel???..."Oh hell, what now!"