Post by Quorthon on Mar 27, 2006 12:03:07 GMT -5
***NOTE: THIS CONTAINS A SPOILER, WHICH HAS BEEN SECTIONED OFF FOR YOUR SAFETY!!!***
Deep Rising
Action-Horror
1998
Color
MPAA Rating: R
Directed by: Stephen Sommers
USA
Hollywood is sorely lacking in a lot of ways these days. Not enough originality, too many remakes, for instance. But no genre suffers more than poor old horror. And, since I've done this rant countless times already all over the internet, I'll not subject you to it with this review. But I will say, monster movies are one of those wonderful genres that Hollywood has pretty much killed.
And this.... is a monster movie.
We've got a gigantic cruise ship being hunted by an international team of mercenaries. Each one so different from the last that it's damn near impossible to actually imagine such a diverse team actually working together. At any rate, they get to the cruise ship and lo and behold, everybody's dead. A sea monster done et 'em all up. And then, of course, the fun begins.
Here’s the breakdown:
The Good:
--There's a decent amount of gore in this film, which in itself is rare in a mainstream Hollywood horror film. The fact that the gore actually looks pretty good, generally, also sets it apart.
--Relatively fun.
--Pretty good music.
--Some likable characters.
--Tons of action. Some actual decent suspense, albiet, briefly. Plenty of violence.
--Famke Janssen!! Whoo!!
Didn’t Hurt It, Didn’t Help:
--Fairly interesting story, but not terribly original. Attacked by sea monsters? Never seen that before! Group of mercenaries hunted by some creature/force? How new!! *coughleviathan*cough*predatorcough*
--Some mediocre characters.
--The mish-mash cliche collection of mercenaries is pretty cheesy. We've got the Mexican guy, the Middle-Eastern guy, the African black guy, the American Black Guy, the British guy, the Australian guy, and the American guy. In fact, this whole movie is a hands-across-the-world kinda flick complete with female co-hero and Asian female. It's like the UN stuffed itself into a horror flick! Feels a little forced, though. It doesn't feel as ridiculous as the mish-mash "group of friends" from Return of the Living Dead (part 1), but it's close.
--Yet another action film masquerading as horror.
--Average acting.
--Decent cinematography. About average for a film of this nature. Nothing special, but it gets the job done.
The Bad:
--The monsters look pretty awful and are made entirely of CG effects and animation. And it's painfully obvious. The killer tentacle's mouths are mind-numbingly, and needlessly, elaborate.
--The creature movement is pretty ridiculous and unbelievably fast and weird. It's an over-blown way of trying to make the creature seem scary by making it faster and faster, but it comes off as wildly unrealistic.
--Creature inconsistency ***SPOILER HERE*** The tentacles are initially set up as being their own creature, when it's later revealed that they're all part of one gigantic animal, yet, the tentacles behave as if they are individuals, rather than part of something. ***END SPOILER***
--Wildly cliche moments through and through.
--Some truly awful dialog.
--Cheesiness abundant.
--Almost no horror atmosphere. It plays along more like an action film, so the scares aren't quite as cerebral.
The Ugly:
--The comic relief guy. I hate these characters. They ruin movies. Especially horror movies.
Memorable Scene:
--The room o' corpses.
Acting: 6/10
Story: 6/10
Atmosphere: 6/10
Cinematography: 6/10
Character Development: 4/10
Special Effects/Make-up: 4/10
Nudity/Sexuality: 1/10 (No nudity, just brief dialog)
Violence: 7/10
Gore: 7/10 (Quite a bit for a mainstream Hollywood release)
Dialog: 5/10
Music: 7/10
Direction: 5/10
Cheesiness: 6/10
Crappiness: 1/10
Overall: 6/10
This film is watchable and passable, but really offers nothing new and the creature effects are pretty bad. Sci-Fi original feature bad. Relatively enjoyable shlock. Not the best horror film of this nature, but clearly not the worst. Recommended to horror fans looking for monster movie filler.
Deep Rising
Action-Horror
1998
Color
MPAA Rating: R
Directed by: Stephen Sommers
USA
Hollywood is sorely lacking in a lot of ways these days. Not enough originality, too many remakes, for instance. But no genre suffers more than poor old horror. And, since I've done this rant countless times already all over the internet, I'll not subject you to it with this review. But I will say, monster movies are one of those wonderful genres that Hollywood has pretty much killed.
And this.... is a monster movie.
We've got a gigantic cruise ship being hunted by an international team of mercenaries. Each one so different from the last that it's damn near impossible to actually imagine such a diverse team actually working together. At any rate, they get to the cruise ship and lo and behold, everybody's dead. A sea monster done et 'em all up. And then, of course, the fun begins.
Here’s the breakdown:
The Good:
--There's a decent amount of gore in this film, which in itself is rare in a mainstream Hollywood horror film. The fact that the gore actually looks pretty good, generally, also sets it apart.
--Relatively fun.
--Pretty good music.
--Some likable characters.
--Tons of action. Some actual decent suspense, albiet, briefly. Plenty of violence.
--Famke Janssen!! Whoo!!
Didn’t Hurt It, Didn’t Help:
--Fairly interesting story, but not terribly original. Attacked by sea monsters? Never seen that before! Group of mercenaries hunted by some creature/force? How new!! *coughleviathan*cough*predatorcough*
--Some mediocre characters.
--The mish-mash cliche collection of mercenaries is pretty cheesy. We've got the Mexican guy, the Middle-Eastern guy, the African black guy, the American Black Guy, the British guy, the Australian guy, and the American guy. In fact, this whole movie is a hands-across-the-world kinda flick complete with female co-hero and Asian female. It's like the UN stuffed itself into a horror flick! Feels a little forced, though. It doesn't feel as ridiculous as the mish-mash "group of friends" from Return of the Living Dead (part 1), but it's close.
--Yet another action film masquerading as horror.
--Average acting.
--Decent cinematography. About average for a film of this nature. Nothing special, but it gets the job done.
The Bad:
--The monsters look pretty awful and are made entirely of CG effects and animation. And it's painfully obvious. The killer tentacle's mouths are mind-numbingly, and needlessly, elaborate.
--The creature movement is pretty ridiculous and unbelievably fast and weird. It's an over-blown way of trying to make the creature seem scary by making it faster and faster, but it comes off as wildly unrealistic.
--Creature inconsistency ***SPOILER HERE*** The tentacles are initially set up as being their own creature, when it's later revealed that they're all part of one gigantic animal, yet, the tentacles behave as if they are individuals, rather than part of something. ***END SPOILER***
--Wildly cliche moments through and through.
--Some truly awful dialog.
--Cheesiness abundant.
--Almost no horror atmosphere. It plays along more like an action film, so the scares aren't quite as cerebral.
The Ugly:
--The comic relief guy. I hate these characters. They ruin movies. Especially horror movies.
Memorable Scene:
--The room o' corpses.
Acting: 6/10
Story: 6/10
Atmosphere: 6/10
Cinematography: 6/10
Character Development: 4/10
Special Effects/Make-up: 4/10
Nudity/Sexuality: 1/10 (No nudity, just brief dialog)
Violence: 7/10
Gore: 7/10 (Quite a bit for a mainstream Hollywood release)
Dialog: 5/10
Music: 7/10
Direction: 5/10
Cheesiness: 6/10
Crappiness: 1/10
Overall: 6/10
This film is watchable and passable, but really offers nothing new and the creature effects are pretty bad. Sci-Fi original feature bad. Relatively enjoyable shlock. Not the best horror film of this nature, but clearly not the worst. Recommended to horror fans looking for monster movie filler.
