NateWatchesCoolMovies 2103: The Deadly Wake strives to stand out from the B-movie masses by giving turning it's straightforward sci-fi concept somewhat on its head. It's set in the very distant future, in which earth's oceans have become so contaminated that they have all taken a gaseous form, with corporations sending forth spaceship type vessels that deliver goods and wage warfare. They resemble submarines basically sailing through colored fog, and it's one of the neatest and adorably ambitious futuristic settings I've seen. Malcolm McDowell is damn excellent in a rare hero role as Captain Sean Murdock, a salty old sea dog who lost a ship years before and is somewhat disgraced. Forlorn and fed up, he's in a slump when hired to transport a massive ship across the ocean, with a mysterious cargo that's guarded by a sinister mercenary and security expert (Michael Paré). Usually in this type of thing it's Paré as the hero and Mcdowell as the villain (which has actually happened in Roland Emmerich's Moon 44), but here they pull a Tarantino and switch up the type casting which is wonderful to see and makes for a fresh vibe. Paré works for the sultry, sleazy (Heidi Von Palleske), the company CEO who wants an eye kept on the cargo hold. Paré and Mcdowell bit heads, there's murky conflict and the ship's Artificial Intelligence engine is called B.A.B.Y. and is quite literally a fetus in a big gooey tank with wires attached to its brain. If that isn't worthy of a medal in the ambition department I don't know what is. There's an odd sort of climactic fight scene that plays like a dream and doesn't involve fighting at all really, more like just a laser show with strange dialogue. Despite it being set in the future there's a nifty retro style, with soldier uniforms and the darkly poetic tone almost calling forth the sensibility of the 40's. I was reminded of Titanic in scenes, but that could be my weird cinematic free association. This one's a keeper for fans of off kilter, under the radar oddities.

saxondog2 The Deadly Wake is THE PERFECT MOVIE for film students... to learn how NOT to make a film!Let's see... what did the crew mess up in this flick? Worst music mix Worst editing Worst script WORST ALL-TIME DIRECTING Worst acting Worst choreography Worst cinematography Worst props Worst sets Worst lighting Etc. Let's face it, if this "film" had been in ultra-high contrast black-and-white, AND silent... it still would have been awful. All scenes are dark (lighting people call it "black"), often, the music score drowned out the meandering dialogs, which was OK because nobody ever spoke two whole sentences without long pauses for effect. The "evil" robot was hilarious... what was that? Jazz dancing? Oh... I guess it was supposed to be walking tactically or something. I'm sure it struck fear into the hearts... of the poor editors. And, how do you edit so much footage of garbage? Not possible. Garbage is garbage, no matter how you splice it. How did anyone ever get this thru the dailys???Bottom line is- I couldn't stand to watch more than 15-minute segments, it was so bad... but I did see the whole thing (with lotsa breaks) just to see if it had ANY good parts in it at all. NOPE! NONE!A perfect example of how not to make a flick... a must see for EVERY serious film student!!!

unbrokenmetal Dark Ocean is an overlooked little gem in the realm of SF low budget movies. It tells the story of a captain with a drinking problem (Malcolm `Clockwork Orange' McDowell) who gets a new ship. His employer, the world's largest producer of chemicals, has to get rid of certain forbidden substances, so they hired him and a crew of rogues to sail into the open sea near Africa – and sink the ship. The captain isn't too happy when he finds out about that – because he and the whole crew are supposed to stay on board (dead men tell no tales). `Dark Ocean' certainly is inspired by various dark SF movies about prisoner (space) ships. It starts like one of those typical thrillers (`I drink too much, because I failed on my last mission, my wife has left, the world is bad…'), but then it gets more and more original. McDowell's presence is enormous and helps to make the movie more memorable. At IMDB, they don't want me to give away the ending. In this case, it's very simple to obey the rule, because: I watched the ending, but didn't understand it. It's unexpected, weird and mystical – open to interpretation. Let me know when you found the meaning of it. Meanwhile, I vote 8/10.

mxb2001 This is not a bad movie. It might superficially appear to be so but it does have its heart in the right place. The wanted to make a good movie but I presume the budget and other distractions likely caused things not to go according to plan entirely. The plot is nothing new, but it is somewhat idealistic which does make it worth watching. The cast is typical B-grade Sci-Fi (Mike Pare!) and is passable. There were unusual touches such as the virtual fantasy scene with Cora and the Cyberkillingmachine (tm) not to mention that the Cyberkiller was played by a trained dancer which gave it a rather odd feel. All in all it was 2 hours well spent.