arikson415
The diologue proves this movie doesn't take itself too seriously...I hope. It's slightly better than a SYFY Channel movie and that's partly because you can recognize some of the poor actors. The special effects are, well special and the creature is very reminiscent of everything including Aliens. Five Stars because this may have been the birth of Famke Janssen's action career.
sfisher71
I *adore* terrible movies, even without Crowe, Servo, and Joel dishing out the quips. There's a list of movies I simply adore at least in part BECAUSE they're so terrible -- "Reptilicus" is one such, a film so bad that apparently merely to MENTION it in Denmark requires the one who Speaks Its Name to buy a case of beer for everyone in earshot.However, the ne plus ultra, the sine qua non, the crème de la crème, the (insert pretentious foreign phrase of choice here) of terrible movies for me is "Deep Rising." While it could have used, in my humble opinion, more scenes of Famke Janssen changing clothes ("She's naked during the entire picture!" "She is NUDE in once scene!" "Depends how you watch it" --"Coupling"), the premise is choice: world's largest luxury liner is scheduled for paramilitary attack, but the attackers soon discover the liner has been taken over by Giant Vampire Squid From The Bottom Of The Sea. Treat Williams, as the Harry Morgan (the one from Hemingsay, not the one from M*A*S*H) wannabe whose boat is first hired, then hijacked (hirejacked?) by said paramilitarians, skirts on the edge of tongue in cheek, but his supporting cast play it almost completely deadpan. Anthony Heald, an actor I've seen in person more than once (he was stunning in "Equivocation," at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival), is simply far too good to be in a picture this crappy, but as he told a friend of mine in Ashland once, he has children to put through college. Kevin O'Conner (the annoying guy who gets eaten by scarabs at the end of the first "Mummy" pic) plays the annoying sidekick but one with heart, and he's brilliant. The head villain, played by Wes Studi (The Sphinx in "Mystery Men"), is as hard-bitten and stone-faced as they come, and his gang of hired mercenaries are evil enough to deserve their come-uppance at the hands, er, tentacles of the aforementioned vampire squid, one by one.It's a film I've probably seen half a dozen times, on late-night cable, and would watch again right now, preferably with a platter of calamari and a bottle of Beaujolais -- violating the white-wine- with-seafood rule because Beaujolais goes with everything, and you need a lot of red with your tentacles just to achieve parity with this picture.
Wizard-8
Although "Deep Rising" was a big budget movie made by a major Hollywood studio, there were times (make that MANY times) I thought I was watching a slightly glossier B movie made for the SyFy network. Some parts of the movie do look slick and expensive, but many times the movie has a cramped cardboard feel. This includes the monster of the movie, which is rendered by CGI effects that look somewhat cut-rate. (I must add that the effects of the ship at sea also look pretty bad.) But a better look to the movie wouldn't solve all its problems; the movie takes quite a while to get going, for one thing. Also, the movie's characters are pretty familiar stereotypes, which may be why most of the cast doesn't give very enthusiastic performances. However, Kevin J. O'Connor does get his comic relief character to give some badly needed spark to the movie. Is there anything else of merit? Well, some of the gore effects are quite pleasing. And I will admit I was never BORED by the movie, though as I said, the movie does take a while to start taking off. But at the same time, I was telling myself that I could be watching a much better movie. I would only recommend this movie on an especially slow night when you can't find anything better to watch.
