Leviathan

How can you go wrong with a Robocop, a Ghostbuster, a burglar from Home Alone, Pretty Woman and Axel Foley's personal assistants, and Richard Crenna????

Does it rip off Aliens? YES. Does it rip off The Thing? YES...but who really gives a rip?!?! It's just fun. Give me Stan Winston's practical effects any day too!

I remember going to the theatres when it came out, but I think I enjoyed it even more watching it 35 years later in retrospect. The stars and dialogue from the 80's was delightfully nostalgic. Grab the popcorn and go to town.

The kids might not get it, but if you were a product of the times, give it a rewatch!

Leviathan is one of those films that has "rip-off" written all over it.

Alot of it you've seen before in better films. The most obvious comparisons being Alien ( several isolated crew members, the dubious doctor, the suits etc.) and of course The Thing (a gooey monster spawned from human beings, it getting to the blood supply). I've viewed this one a few times and although it is an inferior movie it does have some pretty neat special effects, a recognizable cast and a decent music score by Jerry Goldsmith.

Not a total wet squib - it certainly has its moments. I'd give it 7/10.

An interesting case for sci-fi fans and a missed opportunity for the director, having a generally decent cast, a sufficient budget and a story, let's say 'not overused enough for that time'. The totally obvious Alien rip-off is technically surprisingly well executed and pleases with almost top notch set designs and very good creature effects. Now that all this didn't make an absolutely satisfying, or actually even really good sci-fi movie can be blamed on the lack of tight pacing in the script, occasionally bad editing or I guess generally the rather inconsistent lead of George P. Cosmatos, resulting uncalled-for moments of amateur filmmaking entering into a movie otherwise to be taken serious. These then start accumulating and gradually getting out of control as the movie gains speed (among others resulting conversations on the subjects of popcorn and puzzles) and then ultimately explode into a 5 minute orgy of total C-Movie crap, actually even added after the anyways forgettable climax of the movie (how the hell did that happen by the way?). Otherwise, we can say, that the first 2/3rd of the movie is pretty okay, not counting a few minor downers and then gradually messes up in the finale. In the end you decide weather it was worth watching or not. Though for genre fans I guess this is absolutely obligatory.

This movie is always going to be compared to Deep Star Six and The Abyss, because all three films came out at the same time. It is an underwater "Alien" movie, but it doesn't rip off The Abyss, which came out third of the three and none of them did any real business.

Anyway, this movie was one of those films that is engrossing in the theater and transfers very poorly to television and video. I would venture a guess that a wide-screen DVD version may be able to pick-up most of the considerable detail that was placed into this film. The acting is not awful and the story is well-paced, which is a step ahead of the other two 1989 underwater movies. This isn't Shakespere folks, so don't expect it. A little more polish to the script would have helped this movie greatly, but it is a fairly B horror flick so it was expected.

The cast is Weller, Hudson, Crenna, and Pays doing their things. They don't exactly phone it in, but they aren't expected to deliver that many lines convincingly anyway. Whatever happened to Amanada Pays? After seeing this I thought she had a chance to break through, but instead she disappeared.

The setting and special effects are the keys to this one, though. Visually, it is as tough as they come. Like I wrote before, stick to the DVD version, because I already know the VHS version stinks because it is so cloudy and out of focus. Watch the DVD and I can almost guarantee that you will find this movie to be better than you have been lead to believe by others.

Leviathan is directed by George P. Cosmatos and then screenplay is written by David Webb Peoples & Jeb Stuart from Peoples' own story. It stars Peter Weller, Richard Crenna, Amanda Pays, Daniel Stern, Ernie Hudson, Michael Carmine, Lisa Eilbacher, Hector Elizondo & Meg Foster.

Let me start off by saying that the rating I have given is purely for personal reasons, I love daft creature features and rate them accordingly. Artistically the film scores about the average mark of 5/10, the acting, story and effects really don't demand much better unless you have got a soft spot for the genre. Tagged as Alien underwater, the film was always going to struggle to live up to that particular tag for sure, but yes, in structure that is what we get. A group of deep-sea miners come across a wrecked soviet ship and after plundering what they can they end up with more than they bargained for. Enter the plot of deep-sea miners under attack from a very bad and creepy monster. Will they survive? How did it happen? And on it goes to a joyously (unintentionally) funny finale. The film crams as many creature feature clichés in as it can get away with, and sure enough the boo jump scare moments are not in short supply.

The cast are all in on the joke (I'm pretty sure they are), so all in all you get a flipping great genre entry that isn't demanding much of the viewer, that is if you are so inclined to check the brain at the door first. So enjoy a B lister that has no pretensions other than to homage and entertain those of a certain persuasion. Quite a cast of pro actors assembled as well. 7/10