Going Under

Biff Banner (Bill Pullman) was a captain of a submarine who couldn't stand the confined space. He has been in therapy ever since he went nuts and ran his sub onto a California beach. But, there are those who have plans for him. A nefarious Presidential adviser (Robert Vaughn) wants to start a war with Russia and the Navy Admiral Malice (Ned Beatty) is his go-to guy. The Secretary of Defense (Roddy McDowall) is a clueless tool who can be hoodwinked. A Sub Standard Sub is created which will be destroyed just as it makes an attempt to attack a Russian sub. Naturally, these two want Biff to be the captain since they believe he is dispensable. Therefore, they take him out of a therapy session and march him onto the Sub Standard. Joining him there is a pretty lieutenant Jan (Wendy Schaal), who hates Biff's guts, a kid sub expert, various inept crewmen and the Mole (Ernie Sabella), who is there to make sure everything goes wrong. Oh, was it mentioned that this is also a stealth sub which can transform itself into the persona of a whale on command? Off it goes, not knowing its true mission. Sure enough, the Russians get wind that it is coming and are prepared to defend their territory with their own master sub, the Pink Torpedo. Between Japanese fishermen who want to capture the sub when it switches to "whale mode", icebergs in the water, and Biff, who locks himself into the imaging room when the going gets rough, what will be the finale of this expedition? This is a very silly, rather lame spoof movie. It tries to be Airplane under water and it is not even close. Yet, its not unwatchable and there are some inspired scenes. In addition, the cast is terrific. Beatty is always a pleasure, while Vaughn, Pullman, Schaal, McDowall, Sabella, Joe Namath, and Michael Winslow go for broke and keep the flick churning along. All the other actors, whose names are not familiar, are fun as well. The sets and costumes are nice while the mixed-bag script and fairly weak direction are deterrents. In short, if you like spoofs and don't care if they are inanely silly, this movie will probably entertain you some Saturday night in the future.

Unscrupulous Admiral Malice (Ned Beatty) is pressured by defense secretary Neighbor to move up the stealth submarine project the Sub Standard despite it not being read leading malice and military contractor Wedgewood to arranged for the sub to be tested with an ill equipped crew captained by a disgraced submarine captain who has fears of water and tight spaces.

Going Under is a 1991 submarine movie spoof made in the same vein as Warner Bros. Police academy movies down to the fact co-writer Randolph Davis would go on to write Police Academy: Mission to Moscow and Michael Winslow makes a brief supporting performance as an unnamed reporter character. Originally filmed under the title Dive!, the movie supposedly did have a few test engagements in theaters before Warner Bros. Ultimately decided to release the movie directly to video with the film largely having fallen into obscurity since. There's really not all that much to say other than like many of the Police Academy follow-ons Going Under feels very tired and without much punch to the material.

In the opening where we're introduced to some very broad satire about the military industrial complex that somehow gets into a military meeting staged like an episode of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, the movie does get the odd chuckle here and there particularly from Bill Pullman's introduction as Biff Banner whose backstory of disgrace of beaching his submarine is mildly amusing, but as talented an actor as Pullman is even he can't support leaden material. The movie runs into an issue of making its central submarine funny and despite the Sub Standard having a ramshackle nature it doesn't offer all that much for comedic possibilities with the extended cast largely more confusing than legitimately funny and this is despite having funny people like Wendy Schaal of The 'Burbs and American Dad or Chris Demetral of Dream On making up the core cast. The Sub Standard when you compare it to what was done with The Big Bus or the planes in Airplane! Just feels lacking in solidly placed gags and instead just relies on a lot of mugging and noise to make up for the shoddy script.

Going Under goes under with very few laughs to justify itself even at an anemic premise of 80 minutes. I would say that Going Under is the last gasp of that particularly wave of that style of comedies, but Police Academy: Mission to Moscow would come out a mere 3 years later.

I'll admit it, I simply saw this movie because I'm a Bill Pullman fan. However, as a child of the 80's, I found it quite amusing. It's definately a film for 3am.

The movie is in the same vein as Spaceballs, and numerous other 80s satires, though this film seems not have had nearly the mainstream appeal. Basically, its a spoof of "The Hunt for Red October", intermixed with minor spoofs on other action films. A couple of interesting cameos are from Roddy McDowall as Mr. Friendly (a Mr. Rogers sort of character) and Michael Winslow, forever remembered as the sound guy from the "Police Academy" movies.

This movie was entertaining for me, but I fear that a few of the jokes might not translate as well for those from outside of America. However, if you're a fan of Bill Pullman and the Mel Brooks' type of satire (though he was uninvolved in this production), you really need to check this film out!

This must be the most stupid film I've seen for a looong time. It disappoints me that this bulls**t stars Bill Pullman, a great and respected actor but on the other hand: he saves this movie from total flop. Three out of ten because it's a parody without any movie to make fun of, and with the jokes never being funny...then we only have Pullman left, leaving behind a good performance in a s****y production. I've seen worse though, just go see Battlefield Earth, and you'll know what I mean.

This must be one of the worst movies I have ever seen. It didn't make me laugh at all and you know when comedy doesn't do that to you there's something wrong in the film. There are not many other comedies that are this bad, perhaps Police academy:Mission in Moscow and Caddyshack are as terrible as this. Well, there are few funny scenes in Caddyshack. But this... What can i say. There are no sense in the jokes, plot is... beyond anything. Acting makes you cry or laugh, it depends. I watched this when I had hangover, because I hoped that this would be good hangover-film... but it made me feel worse. I'm glad I didn't throw up! Bill Pullman is sometimes good, but he doesn't save this one. Oh no, what more can I say? Do I have to say more? I don't think so. Just don't ever watch this, you may regret it. I surely did.