Fluke_Skywalker Plot; The captain and crew of a boat for hire and a group of mercenaries find themselves locked in a battle for survival against tentacled monsters aboard a doomed luxury liner. The ironic thing about B-movies not aspiring to be more than that is that as a result they often end up being more than that. Deep Rising is one such movie. Directed by Stephen Sommers (who would perfect that craft with his next movie, The Mummy) it plays like an amalgam of The Poseidon Adventure and Aliens. Never pausing long enough for its seams to show, the quips and clips are each emptied and reloaded with an almost gleeful vigor by its top notch cast. Headlined by the immensely underrated and underappreciated Treat Williams, they know exactly what kind of movie they're in, and the movie is all the better for it.Deep Rising ain't high art, but it is good fun, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Leofwine_draca DEEP RISING is a generic, clichéd, roller-coaster ride of a monster, mish-mashing such films as DIE HARD, SPEED 2, and of course (for this genre) the inevitable ALIENS. It's got a wafer-thin plot, and the characters are given little to do except interact with the special effects of the monsters. When the monsters aren't around, the film gets pretty boring. But despite all of this, I still found DEEP RISING to be a greatly entertaining film. While it's a little sad to see the apparent dumbing-down of cinema values, the fact remains that big tentacled monster creatures will generate audiences, so that's why films like this come out every couple of years or so. They don't break any new ground, they're not even original, but they're fun. Popcorn movies, if you like.I like the straightforwardness of the film in that you know what you're going to get in terms of special effects. That's right, a big CGI tentacled, scaly, slimy monster. There are no shocks there. But what is shocking is that the effects are actually good. That's right, they're good. Most of the effects in recent films look far too fluid and unrealistic because of their computer origins, but DEEP RISING mainly bypasses these flaws (hopefully a sign of things to come) and gives us something special.While the scenes of tentacles chasing down corridors do look pretty fake, I would say 60% of the special effects on offer are realistic (if you're a generous viewer like me). The highlight of the film is an encounter with the big brain creature, a huge octopus-like thing with white eyes and lots and lots of teeth. Very exciting and nice to look at. However, there are lots of other good effects scenes, from tentacles crushing helpless victims to a surprisingly gory moment when a half-digested man pleads for help.The rest of the film is taken up with people shooting, things exploding and survivors running around flooded corridors. It doesn't take much to please me, so I was happy. The acting is all pretty much average, from Treat Williams as the unlikely hero to Famke Janssen as the heroine, and it's definitely nothing to write home about. It's not really the acting that's important, though, it's the monster and for a change it's excellent. If you're looking for good, light-hearted scenes of excitement, horror, and action, then you can't go wrong with DEEP RISING.

NateWatchesCoolMovies Stephen Sommers's Deep Rising is some of the most fun you'll have watching an overblown action horror spectacle, if that's your type of thing. It plays the slimy underwater alien formula to the hilt, an epic and very funny gory swashbuckler that is sadly very underrated and not too talked about these days. It's ridiculously watchable, insanely gory and punctuated by one liners and quips that work so well in the flippant context of the script. The story concerns a band of nasty sea pirates who plan to hijack the world's largest ocean liner cruise ship, and all the riches on board. They arrive to find the vessel empty of any passengers, and full of something they'll wish they never came across. A massive and very icky underwater predator has eaten everyone on board and now has turned its attention to the newcomers. They are picked off one by one in deliciously grotesque kills that show director Sommers in his little seen R rated mode. Treat Williams is a hoot as John Finnegan, a sort of cross between Indiana Jones and Bruce Campbell, a soldier of fortune and adventurer with a vernacular chock full of wiseass quotes and idioms that tickle the funny bone no end. He's got a sidekick named Joey Pantucci (Kevin J. O Connor slays it) and a girlfriend named Trillian St. James (isn't that the best name ever?) played by Famke Janssen in a fierce, sexy and capable turn as the chick with the gun that everyone loves. The trio make the film dizzyingly entertaining and you find yourself wishing you could hang out with them longer once it's over. There's a snivelling villain played by the always smarmy Anthony Heald, and the ragtag group of pirates are brought to life by distinct personalities such as Jason Flemyng, Cliff Curtis, Clifton Powell, Djimon Hounsou and the great Wes Studi. Sommers is a seriously underrated director. He spins loving odes to the adventure films of Old Hollywood with passion, wonder and the spark of imagination in spades. And what does he get? Critically and commercially spat on, time and time again, with some of his films not even getting a proper release (don't get me started on the masterpiece that is Odd Thomas). Hollywood and the masses don't deserve him and his toiling, thankless work, and yet he soldiers on. What a guy, and what a stellar filmmaker. This ones a testament, a rollicking, bloody piece of creature feature bliss that never fails to knock my socks right the hell off.Now What?!

jokerswild1 The worst thing about Stephen Sommers' films is the poor CGI (and the amount of it they include). The effects in this are probably the best overall from any of his films, although certain shots are definitely still clunky. Sommers should've just written the story and let someone handle the screenplay, as it's really not all that good, filled with generic dialogue from "I've got a really bad feeling about this" to "There's something you don't see every day". Kevin J. O'Connor is pretty funny in this, as he was in The Mummy, and the scene where he gives Wes Studi a pistol while he's being eaten by the creature is gold. Treat Williams does a pretty good job with the material he's given, as does Famke Jannsen (who also looks very lovely). The action sequences are all fun, and the film takes advantage of the cruise ship setting.