11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
fish men want our women!, September 30, 2003
Beware all ye expecting the 1980 version of this movie starring Doug McClure! This is a 1996 remake for cable (Showtime), its' real title being Roger Corman Presents 'Humanoids From the Deep'.
This drecky mess stars Emma Samms and David Caradine, along with a number of less noticeable actors who currently reside in the 'where are they now' file. The plot involves a big business/government cover up (gee, how very original), toxic chemicals in the ecosystem, and a small, coastal town under siege by hungry, mutated fish men.
Apparently the government contracted a private company to splice the genetic material of fish with that of convicted felons in an effort to create a race of amphibian soldiers. Sounds like a reasonable idea, right? Anyway, the government isn't happy with the results, so they terminate the project, but some of the fish men escape.
Cut to a small, coastal fishing village. Canco, the major fish catching and canning company in the area, is responsible for dumping a biohazardous growth hormone into the waters to embiggen the fish. Actually, it's one particularly dislikable guy named Bill who is responsible. David Caradine, who plays Wade Parker, also works for the company (seems like he and the evil Bill run the company), finds out what's going on and demands that the dumping stop. Bill agrees, but only to placate Wade as there's good money to be made in those big fish.
Enter a nameless eco-group, whose leader, Matt, is played by Justin Walker. This group knows chemicals are being dumped into the waters, and are protesting Canco. Later they videotape Bill and his cronies at work, pollutin' the waters. No real attempt was made by Bill or his evil lackeys to cover up what they were doing, as they did it in broad daylight, with huge, yellow drums with biohazardous markings clearly visible, so it's no big surprise they got caught on tape. Also, it seems this growth hormone is attracting the mutated fish men, as they need the chemical to survive.
After the death of a little boy, completely ripped off from a much better movie, the fish men start to make their presence known. Their attacks become more brazen, and we soon find out that they are kidnapping, not killing, local females for mating purposes. Yuck....Damn those amorous fish men, stealin' our wimmen!
Man this movie had a lot of problems...worst being the inept direction. The actors, most being fairly capable, seemed totally mismanaged. An extremely poor script and plot certainly didn't help matters any. The thing that really annoyed me was how so many technical aspects were glossed over, like the DNA splicing, effects of toxic chemicals on the environment, the military involvement, etc. No real thought was given to any of these aspects, instead skimming the surface of theses many themes to aid (hinder) the plot along. Mutations, DNA splicing, and conspiracies being the crux of the movie, it's painfully obvious that the writer threw this stuff in the story, without having any real knowledge to support it. And the sets...the interiors were so obviously fake, making parts of the movie seem like a high school production. The characters' motivations are all over the place, causing the actors to appear indifferent to events that should mean more to them than they do. A specific example is when Wade's teenage daughter is taken by the fish men, and presumed dead. Wade doesn't seem all that broken up about it. At some points he does seemed upset, but given that your offspring may have been eaten by a mutated fish man, I'd figured you'd be pretty horrified and suitably despondent, but not so here.
On a positive note, the creatures did look kinda cool, but it was obvious that the suits (no CGI here) allowed for very little mobility, hindering the action in their limited screen time. The suits were fairly detailed, but I think if they were simplified, allowing more mobility, they would have been much more effective. The gore was needless, and the blood looked painfully fake.
In the cheap thrills department, there are a couple of brief nudity shots, if that's your thing, but they were unnecessary, and only served to further exemplified the total lameness of the movie. "Hey, we know this movie stinks, but here's some breasts!" Emma Samms, never got au natural, retaining some of her dignity, but not much.
There are some extras, including a director's commentary (!?) which I was interested in hearing, but was unable to sit through this movie again so soon. Also, there are some trailers for other movies, including one for a movie called Watchers 3. In watching this, I was amazed at how blatantly this feature ripped off the movie Predator. I don't mind producers copping ideas off better movies, but at least try to make it seem not so glaringly obvious. Geez...
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
A Remake Which Should Never Have Been Made, November 9, 2001
This review is from: Humanoids from the Deep [VHS] (VHS Tape)
Purely by accident, I ended up with this movie. I was after the original.
Anyway, the movie shamelessly pulls scenes from the original 1980's version. The original was scary, this one is . . . stupid. It follows the same storyline, but without the grainly graphics and bad lighting, it just doesn't cut it.
Take my advice, buy the original, NOT the remake. (...)
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Why Roger...why?, May 31, 2005
I don't see why Roger Corman would allow one of his best, if not best of his works to get butchered like this, even when he was producing. The entire scare factor that the original had is gone, the great music is gone, the characters you could give a damn about are gone, the awesome monsters are gone, leaving this movie a VERY pale imitation of a classic 1980 monster movie.
I can understand that this was a low budget, but so was the original, and it still came out better. The original Humanoids looked much better then these here new ones, the older ones had character and a feeling of terror, these here new ones are horrid, they still have the basic design...but the feeling just is not there. The monsters awesome shreeks are gone, replaced by crappy sounding "ape" grunts.
You couldn't give a care about the characters anymore, that is the best I can say about them. The acting, even by my standards is dreaded, I guess Corman felt that the only way to possibly keep a viewer's attention is throw blood everywhere and womens' chests.
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