Full Fathom Five

Before Micheal Moriarty was on LAW AND ORDER, he was hitting the skids in cheap-jack action fare such as this. A supposed political thriller with renegade Cubans(or was it Panamanians, what the difference), toy subs in a bathtub masquerading as special effects, and a stiff script.

Moriarty must be thanking his lucky stars that he doesn't have to get his paychecks from flicks like this.

And Carl Franklin...What an auspicious beginning for a career that includes the solid ONE FALSE MOVE.

Renting FULL FATHOM FIVE is a false move.

Submarines are supposed to blow ballast in order to surface, but that couldn't save this one from taking the plunge to the bottom. Other commenters have noted the low budget. That is too kind. There is no excuse for this waste of celluloid. The technical advisor (if there really was one!) had to be asleep or high. They were using comic book tactics and terminology that no self-respecting military member would. For heaven's sake, they were using Navy ROTC cadet insignia on the Khaki uniforms (a minor point I agree, but it's highly reflective of the overall low production quality). If you see this one listed in your program guide or on the shelf of your local video rental, do yourself a big favor, SKIP IT. Thank goodness I saw this on cable and didn't waste any money on a rental. If you like submarine movies, look for ANY OTHER one. If I could score this movie a (.5) out of 10 I would. But with IMDB's system I can only give it a 1 out 10.

After 18 years, I still remember being surprised at how bad this movie was. I was in the Navy at the time, and (like several other posters here) could not believe that they couldn't even get the rank insignia correct. OK, so they had NOBODY around that could check this simple fact.

But what I found really amazing was that the American flag wasn't even right! It had to have been more trouble and expense to get a flag custom-made (although incorrectly) than to just pick one up somewhere. Apparently they somehow found enough Botox to freeze Michael Moriarty's entire face; they couldn't find a US flag somewhere?

What a waste of perfectly good filmstock, especially coming out the same year as "The Hunt for Red October".