Submerged

This movie was one of the worst I have ever seen (not including anything by or with Pauly Shore). I couldn't believe that a film could actually be THIS bad!

Coolio has to be the single worst actor (again, not including Pauly Shore) to ever "star" in a movie. The temptation to hit the STOP button during this movie was huge (in fact, if there was a THROW IN THE TRASH button on my VCR, I would have been inclined to press that).

Do yourself a favor, and do something more interesting than watch this movie, like watching the grass grow, or watching golf on TV.

This is a terrible movie that only gets worse and seems to never end. The acting was bad, the plot was worse, and the special effects seemed to have been created by a 5th grade science class. Dennis Weaver is such a great actor and should have never taken such a part. My advise, DON'T WATCH THIS MOVIE!

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!

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.

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.