Octopus

Starts off with a Soviet sub being lost in 1962 while on its way to Cuba. Cut to four decades later.

There's confusing hi-jinks, political intrigue, and traitors aboard an American sub that find the old sub. There's also a giant Octopus wandering around that makes periodic (and oddly timely) attacks, whenever it serves to thicken the plot. A spy is aboard the sub, and endeavors to uhhh, umm, do something bad I guess. The script doesn't make it clear, and the novice acting by the cast doesn't help, either.

Then the sub meets up with a cruise ship (!) What? Oh, and more spies show up too. The script darts around so much you'll get dizzy trying to follow it.

The final scene is about the only part that has anything of interest happen, as the Octopus makes his finest appearance. He's pretty nasty looking, as the director loves to take CGI shots into his mouth, as he attacks. Most of what you see is sloppy CGI, but at least you get to see something happen after waiting through the entire movie.

A goofy, bargain basement movie, good for sporadic moments of chaos and comedy.

7 out of 10

And yes, I realize my one-line summary is damning with faint praise. But seriously, however silly this movie may be, it accomplishes what it sets out to do, and that's to deliver as much wet and slimy action-packed fun as it can in 100 minutes. And no matter what negative things one may say about it, you've got to give it credit for choosing Crimson Tide (and more than a dash of Deep Rising) for inspiration rather than Jaws, which every other movie would have done.

The plot? An inexperienced CIA agent (Jay Harrington) has been assigned to escort a deadly terrorist by submarine. Heading the sub is Captain Shaw (David Beecroft) and along for the ride is a pretty oceanographer (Carolyn Lowery). Anyway, things get bumpy when they encounter a gargantuan octopus (which is actually even larger than the sub) that's been mutated by toxic material from a sunken Cold War Russian submarine.

Straight-to-video creature features are always going to be silly movies; the question is whether or not you can make it into a silly movie that's fun for the right reasons, and Octopus certainly succeeds. In fact, if a few of the submarine sets were cleaned up and made just a tad more elaborate, I could have seen this as a theatrical release (though, don't get me wrong, some of the sub sets, especially the flooded corridors, also look really good). It's about as much fun as Deep Rising, a movie which it borrows liberally from.

Octopus moves at quite a non-stop pace. The opening ten minutes features both a sinking sub AND a present-day chase/shootout sequence that's highlighted by huge explosions and even flipping cars. Director John Eyres continuously mounts the excitement factor once the monster goes on its rampage, concluding things nicely on an oceanliner in a climax that had me grinning. Surprisingly enough, we get competent acting from the likes of Jay Harrington, David Beecroft, and Carolyn Lowery, who make for a likeable and believable trio. Most of the special effects are obviously CGI, but considering the obvious budget limitations, the visuals are really quite good, much like the rest of this silly, but fun flick.

From the studios of Nu Image, the company that will make a movie out of any script, as long as it's completely awful, comes another low-budget flop, "Octopus". Now, with this title you would think that the octopus would get a prominent place in the plot, or at least more screen time than the extras. Not so. You will only see the octopus in its full glory towards the very end of the film (if you can stay awake that long). The rest of the time, you only see a tentacle here and there, and maybe a cast member will mention, "Hey there's an octopus after us". But for the most part, the main characters spend all their time fighting bad guys and a leaky hull. I wasn't expecting much with this movie, but I thought it might be bad enough to laugh at. It wasn't even worth that. I give it a 2 out of 10 only because the effects weren't that bad, and for a budget this low, that's kind of impressive.

Well, I was hoping this was going to be a nice little monster movie... something along the lines of Lake Placid or Komodo, both of which I enjoyed. No such luck. It's burdened down by a tedious "terrorist on board" plot, that places it closer to Turbulence (a movie I loathed) for much of its running time. It also doesn't help that the principle terrorist villain is played by quite the worst actor I've seen in any professional film I can currently recall - his version of passing as an elderly woman to infiltrate a US establishment makes Hulk Hogan look like Laurence Olivier, and his performance as his 'normal' terroristic self consists almost entirely of eye-popping, smirking and grimacing. With many principle scenes depending on this character the whole exercise is pretty much doomed from the word go. It also doesn't help that the director's style seems to be based on the principle "telegraph what's about to occur, then telegraph it again, in case the audience is *really* slow". The special effects are passable... they could have been quite effective given an engaging script, some good acting, and sound direction, but they're hardly enough to carry the movie on their own. Carolyn Lowery as the lone significant female in the cast is consistently good... but she and the creature and the explosions can't save this aquatic turkey.

I'm sorry everyone but when i saw the trailer,i thought the potential was there - even the effects looked good, but to my amusement the movie was another straight to video disaster.The story was bearable,the cast were there for the free parking and the script i think was written by the tea boy on his tea break.On swiftly to the effects which would have given a teenage harryhausen nightmares,judging by the companys cv they have found there market in unintended hilarious monster flicks - but speaking as one chump who bought the dvd before viewing,BEWARE