Crash dans l'océan

I cant believe I was dumb enough to sit through this! This has to be the worst movie Ive ever seen, even beating all of Chris Klein's disasters. It's a shame really, because the plot itself has a lot of potential - submerged aircrafts, navy operations etc - usually end up drawing good crowds but this one was just horrible. This is the first time Ive seen Nicole Eggert since Baywatch, and I cant believe she would take part in such a bad movie. She still looks pretty good but even eye candy could'nt save this one. If anyone's cable operator decides to show this one on a Sunday night - sue 'em!

Submerged (2000)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Low-budget action picture has a plane hijacked so that a group of terrorists can steal a missile launching code. The plane ends up crashing into the ocean and sinking to the bottom so it's up to some Navy Seals to try and save the passengers.

If the plot sounds familiar then you've probably seen AIRPORT '77. That disaster film is one of my favorite pictures so when I heard about this movie I just had to check it out. Director Fred Olen Ray is a master at low-budget movies and he at least made this one look like a professional production but sadly there's really not too much here to enjoy.

THe biggest problem with the film is the fact that there's just no drama, tension or suspense. The film is well-made, like I said, but at the same time one wishes that there was some sort of connection to the characters that made you care about them or that the film really made you fear that some sort of disaster was going to happen. None of that happened so we were left with a rather flat film.

The film does have some familiar actors including Dennis Weaver, Fred Williamson, Nicole Eggert and even Coolio. Of the cast, Weaver comes off the best playing the rich redneck who likes to drink. The film does offer a couple nice action scenes but the scene with the plane being raised from the ocean is actually footage from AIRPORT '77.

Okay, I just had to sound off on this one... Like a tremendous mental-gimp, I've just sat through this film in its entirety.

You'll note that the trivia section of IMDB points out that portions of the raising of the 747 were "borrowed" from Airport 1977. This really doesn't scratch the surface... Virtually all exterior shots of the plane skimming the ocean, landing in, sinking, and even the at-rest shots are borrowed from Airport '77. All of the "raising" shots are pulled from '77, including most of the interior flooding clips, with the exception of Dennis Weaver's drowning. I couldn't help but wonder if Olivia Dehavilland might come floating by at any moment, or maybe a "dead" Tom Sullivan. Another eye-roller: Dennis Weaver's name in this film is Stevens, which is to compensate for the fact that Airport '77's plane is owned by the Stevens Corporation (headed by Jimmie Stewart of course).

This is a veritable calvalcade of actors who don't work much, or at least haven't worked in a while, which might have been the first clue that it was going to be a real stinker.

I've rated this film a 2 - It's quite worthy of a "1", but if this film can't offer any other redeeming quality, at least somebody helped Coolio, Max Caulfield, Nicolle Eggert, and Dennis Weaver make their car payments that month!

I guess Airport 77 wasn't good enough, although this movie has footage from it.

The plot was nearly identical. Terrorism. Wow, what a concept. Get original Hollywood. What a catastrophe. And I'm not talking about the plane.

Was this some cheap attempt to coincide with the problematic issues of the day at hand, or was it an expense issue that merited dubbing footage from Airport 77? Maybe it was an attempt to heighten Coolio's ratings, I'm not sure. It didn't do any justice to him as far as I'm concerned.

I kept waiting for Lloyd Bridges to pop out of the ceiling and say anything. What a joke...

Okay this isn't a great movie, but it is still fun to watch. The effects are bad and the old recycled footage doesn't work. But if you enjoy watching great character actors ham it up on screen, then you can enjoy this movie. Dennis Weaver, Fred Williamson, and the rest of the cast are all fun to watch and turn in good performances. I also enjoyed watching the very weak and predictable plot unfold on screen, because it is clear that no one involved in making this movie was trying to win an Oscar. Relax, turn of your brain and just enjoy it!

If you are like me and enjoy low budget movies then you should enjoy this one.