Octopus

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.

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

In this movie, Miss Lowery plays an expert in cephalopods. Her performance is funny, clever, fresh and full of energy. She delivers a highly watchable and enjoyable performance that transcends what probably started out as a very stock character. Her skills are noteworthy and she comes across as an actress with a solid grasp on both drama and comedy. Overall, Carolyn Lowery steals the

Okay, this is just as bad as it gets. Let me hit the high points:

1) The main character. This guy has all the courage and charisma of Pee Wee Herman (no offense to Pee Wee). He's a CIA agent, and after seeing a terrorist blow up the embassy he works at, killing all his co-workers, and then killing his best friend, this guy still can't bring himself to shoot the terrorist. He does stand there pointing his gun forever though. Finally he saves the terrorist.

2) The first scene on the submarine. This is a nuclear attack submarine, yet we find the crew, on the bridge, playing strip poker while rap music blares in the background. The captain walks in and - this is what will leave a person speechless - doesn't seem to find this to be out of the ordinary. This also serves to introduce us to the main female character, and makes her seem like a bar whore. Someone addresses her as "Doctor", while at the same time her panties are on a guy's head. A Hooters Girl doing a beer bong would be more convincing as a Ph.D. than this woman. And a lot classier too. I mean, is there actually anyone out there who thinks that nuclear attack subs are run like college frat houses? And is it possible that this same person is allowed to write screenplays? And let's not even get into the fact that the captain of this boat previously had captained another sub, which he ran aground. To penalize him for this, the military gives him the job of...captaining a nuclear attack sub.

3) The idea that terrorists could hijack a cruise ship and then somehow use it to chase a submarine. Are the film makers aware that submarines travel UNDER the water, and can't be detected by any equipment available on a cruise ship? I mean, it's just impossible to fathom the level of stupidity these people have put into this movie.

Overall, I love cheesy B movies, and a few major plot holes don't bother me much. But this thing...what can one even say? You've got an unbelievably, unwatchably horrible male lead, a scummy whore female lead, a bunch of action sequences that are so incomprehensible in their stupidity that it makes a person become nauseous and disoriented, and finally a giant octopus that does all the work of killing the terrorists that the CIA agent was too much of a cowardly putz to accomplish. Hooray for the octopus. Pity the audience.

How in the world do screenplays like this actually get made into movies? I would think this stuff would be passed around from studio to studio and laughed at until the writers left the state in shame, or maybe even left the country. I mean, there are movies made for $100, 000 in Bulgaria that put this thing utterly to shame.

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.