Deep Rising - Presenze dal profondo

In the South China Sea, the Argonautica, a luxury cruise ship, is enjoying its maiden voyage, with owner Simon (Anthony Heald) welcoming the rich and powerful to a major party in the middle of the ocean. Racing to the ship is John (Treat Williams), a captain-for-hire who's unsure about the pack of mercenaries he's working with, led by Hanover (Wes Studi), who are planning something nefarious for the Argonautica, unsettling crew member Joey (Kevin J. O'Connor). Approaching the ship, it becomes clear the mercenaries are intending to rob the passengers and blow up the Argonautica, putting John in a difficult position of compliance without proper weaponry. However, the mission is disrupted by the arrival of a tentacled creature from the depths of ocean, and one that feeds on humans, using its pliable body and sea-based instinct to find victims, devouring everything it can find. Joined by pickpocket Trillian (Famke Janssen), John and Joey search for a way off the ship, trying to return to their damaged boat and get away from an unstoppable creature.

1998's "Deep Rising" didn't have an easy time finding an audience during its initial theatrical release. It came out a year after "The Relic" (which delivered a similar monster-in-a-contained-area premise), a month after "Titanic" (which satiated audiences hungry to see a massive ship endure a slow destruction), and two weeks after "Hard Rain" (which also enjoyed some Jet Ski action in tight hallways). The planets didn't align for writer/director Stephen Sommers, but this noisy ode to B-movies of the past eventually found something of a following on home video and basic cable, and it's not hard to see why, with the helmer arranging plenty of mayhem, quips, and gore to delight those in the mood for something violent but cheeky. Though the true comedic value of "Deep Rising" is up for debate.

If you are looking for meaning, creativity, originality, or some sort of cosmic significance, look elsewhere.

This is a fun movie for that brainless Saturday evening in which you just want to relax. A fast paced ride with lots of guns, explosions, bright-red fake blood, and a big monster.

This film is for those who wish only to be entertained. Perfect after a long hard week and you need to relax.

Recommended.

7/10

Unlike a lot of monster and sci-fi movies we see these days, where apologizes are constantly made and everything is politically-correct, Deep Rising is an unapolagetic rollar-coaster which only asks us to suspend our higher thinking for an hour and a half. Intelligent by no means, Stephen Sommers' movie however definately succeeds in it's intention, which is to be a straight fun adventure.

Like the rest of the movie, we've seen the plot a dozen times before in different or similar forms. A square-jawed man of the sea and his wise-cracking sidekick give a group of mercenaries a ride in their PT boat to an undisclosed location somewhere out over the murky ocean. Little does the boatman know that the soldiers-for-hire are planning to knock off a massive luxury cruise liner with an assortment of assault rifles and deadly torpedo warheads. When they reach the ship though, they find it derelict, and encounter a nightmarish tentacle beast.

This movie is stupid as hell, but it knows it, and just wants to take us along on its stupid ride. As mentioned before, the movie makes no apologizes. We don't get any little kids who know more than the adults running around and saving the day; instead we get piles of horrid, blood-covered skeletons and disgustingly neat scenes of half-dead victims being regurgitated by our monster villain. Speaking of the monster, its a fairly decent CGI creation, which is surprising considering how little effort can be put into putting CG creatures onto the screen in movies with anything less of a budget than Jurassic Park or The Phantom Menace.

The flick is plenty fun, but where it truly lacks is the character development area. In Deep Rising, and most movies like it, a fair amount of the characters are regulated to quick two or three word descriptions which dictate everything that they do. There's "The Womanizer", "The Coward", "The Guy Who's Scared", etc. And man, if a guys got an Austrailian or English accent..forget about it, that's his whole character right there. The two most interesting characters are Treat Williams, a third rate Bruce Willis-Mel Gibson, who nevertheless puts a likeable effort into the main hero, and the mind-numbingly beautiful Famke Jannkson as a thief the crew finds alive aboard the cruise liner.

Deep Rising is a movie that knows what it wants to do, and does it well, adding some originality and excitement to a genre overflowing with badly-executed ideas and ameatuerish directing.

I give Deep Rising a 6 out of 10, and I'd reccomend it to any fan of grade-B horror movies or anyone who enjoyed the 1999 remake of The Mummy.

This is one fun, intense monster movie. They blew it with the title (what the hell does Deep Rising actually mean? - Things From the Deep would have at least meant what it was), but the execution was admirable. This came out the same time as "Phantoms," which depicted a lot of people disappearing on land; in this one, a lot of 'em disappear at sea, on The Argonautica, the latest fancy cruise ship. As in Phantoms, the monster is tough to kill and human beings are easy prey. Like Phantoms, this was ignored at the box office, unlike the director's later hits, "The Mummy" movies. But it has the same level of entertainment. The band of mercs, along with a few other reluctant tag-alongs, make for a darkly funny ensemble as they make their way through the new ship of horrors. O'Connor provides a lot of the humor with wry line delivery, but lead actor Williams is also amusing. As the corrupt ship owner, Heald also steals a scene or two, and turns out to be the only one knowledgeable (for some odd reason) on these monsters infesting the ship. The creature or creatures really are horrible to see in their work - there's some gross mass death scene stuff going on, at odds with the humor; it's almost as if the characters need that humor to keep from going crazy, though some of them do anyway. Janssen, as the main femme fatale among the macho men, does some of her best work here. There's a good, chilling atmosphere in the constant rain and the dark, in the middle of the ocean somewhere. There are no real slow spots and many viewers will probably want to check this out again someday soon. You can do much worse than kick back with this pic on a dark night.

Deep Rising is a guilty pleasure of mine. It's one of those films I rented on a whim and and simply fell in love with.

Is it a great film? No.

Does it have a great script? Not really, and it's downright silly in parts.

Does it have great acting? Eh, there's been better...

But the effects are good, the characters are likable, the creature is neat, and somehow it all comes comes together to make an enjoyable B schlock horror/comedy that, in my case anyway, leaves me with a big smile on my face.

Oh and as an added bonus, Famke Janssen is simply lovely in this film. Rent it on a rainy day and you won't be disappointed.