User reviews

In Rio de Janeiro, Gloria (Dominique Swain) is an ambitious young woman, whose father (José WIlker) is bankrupted. When the son of his business partner, Marcos (Sebastian DeVicente), arrives in Rio, her father asks Gloria to have a trip with him in their boat Boa Vida. Gloria, her boyfriend Danny (Scott Bairstow) and their common friend Jeff (Henry Thomas) get Marcos in his hotel and they go to Angra dos Reis. While in the sea, they drink Caipirinha and beer, and Gloria flirts with the wealthy Marcos. The jealous Danny sees they kissing each other, throws Marcos in the water with a lifebuoy and drives the boat to a distant island to scare Marcos. However, they have a problem with the propellers and when they return to the spot, they do not find Marcos anymore. Afraid of the consequences of his possible drowning, they discuss alibis and how to resolve the situation, shattering their relationship in an environment of high-tension and selfishness.

"Dead in the Water" is an amoral tale of ambition, selfishness and greed based on three shallow characters: Gloria is an ambitious and amoral young woman, having the behavior of a slut and capable of teasing three young men looking for the best one to support her; Danny is a loser posing of executive but incapable of taking reasonable attitudes or decisions; and Jeff, who stays close to Gloria and Danny not for friendship or loyalty, but because he wants to stay with Gloria. The final twist is very ironical and suitable for this reasonable film. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Tensão em Alto-Mar" ("Tension on the High Seas")

A lot of movies based in 1 particular place, can sometimes lose it's path and get boring like Open Water, but this movie with it's talented young cast of Henry Thomas, and the gorgeous looks of Dominique Swain kinda carried it off! the film once or twice needed something to pick it up abit more from feeling too quiet & , un-atmospheric, for a thriller! but with some better direction, this could've been a hit, more intensity, more of a cutting edge, it could've been a nail-biter, but in the end, it's predictable, BUT! with a sweet touch at the end which makes you feel like, it was all for nothing, if only if people were more honest, and youngsters didn't act quite so dull. maybe worth renting first before buying, but if you find it cheap, give it a go.

Dead in the Water is a very auspicious debut by first time director/writer Gustavo Lipsztein, a Brazilian born film-maker with a Hollywood sensibility. While the film works well as a thoroughly entertaining thriller, it also plays as a morality tale. The three American protagonists ultimately care only about one thing -- themselves. When confronted with a situation for which they are not prepared, they come unglued because they have no value system to fall back on. They are eaten alive by their own narcissism. Well-paced, well-acted, beautifully shot, this is new movie you definitely want to see and new director you definitely want to take note of.

This movie didn't look to bad on the cover so I decided to rent it. Oh my god, it's one of the dumbest movies ever made. What were the people thinking when they made this pile of crap? I kept hoping this movie would get better but it got worse by the minute. I was dissapointed with dominique swain. She's a good actress but this movie is her worst.The actors were so annoying, i would shoot them if I was on the boat with them. THat forgein mexican guy or whatever the hell he is, was so freaking ugly and annoying , i would have thrown him in the water myself and left him there, bad movie 0/10

I must confess that I was anxious to see this movie since I had read an article in a local paper while the movie was being shot. When I had the first chance to go to the movie premiere I take it. It was really disappointing. The plot is good but not the screenplay. In the beginning it has the audience laughing where it shouldn't. Gloria (Dominique Swain) is talking with her father (José Wilker) and while she is speaking in english, he is in portuguese. Ok I understand that both speaks portuguese and english but when her father starts speak english, she starts portuguese. It is hard not to laugh. At least, Dominique speaks portuguese really well for an american. The cinematography is good and deserve its credit. The first hour is is good, whith the tension growing and actor Sebastian being a revelation but when it is time to conclude, it is a disaster. I guess director Gustavo Lipztein got caught by his first time experience. The end should be a lot of better.

1 out of ten is not low enough for how terrible this movie is. To quote Marilyn Manson, "I wasn't born with enough middle fingers" comes to mind. This movie is absolutely, completely, and pathetically terrible.

The only thing that could have made it worse would have been that Maggie Grace had been cast as the annoying female. There is nothing good about this movie, whatsoever.

Any vote higher than 1/10 I guarantee came from someone that was involved in making this movie, at least a free trip to the location was worth maybe at most 2/10 stars.

TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, and VAPID. If someone I knew said they wanted to fund this movie I would ask them to just give me their money to burn without even enjoying the heat from it in a life threatening situation in the arctic.

At no point did I care about anything that was happening, any of the characters or plot. The only moment of enjoyment was when it was over.

I hated this movie so much I cared enough to write a warning to anyone looking for a movie to watch tonight. Don't make it this one.

This is one of the worst films I have ever seen. The script is the first thing that "died." It appeared that the cast was improvising the dialogue as they went along. Add to that, the award for worst sound editing. What a great combo: bad dialogue that you have to work at to understand!

All the characters muddled through the simplistic plot. The real mystery comes when you try to figure out how garbage like this ever got the green light.

Have you ever been to the dentist? If you answered yes to this question and I hope everybody does answer yes, than you have a sneak peek into this movie. The movie drills into the bad acting of very annoying actors and actresses. The director must have had a lot of money to waste on film because this movie is an endless drowl of boring arguments and centers around a tease of a girl. The movie involves four characters who are out at sea-----------------------------the punctuation is because the movie wastes almost every minute out at sea. I have seen great ocean adventures in the big screen this is not one of them. I sound very cynical but I wanted to see this movie like another reviewer mentioned but this movie sucks(lousy) and should be missed at all costs.

This film takes place in Rio, Brazil. Four young people are having fun on a boat outside the city. Something happens and one of the members is thrown off. The others race away just to have their little revenge. But the unexpected happens, the boat brakes down and when they finally reach back to pick up the fourth member he is nowhere to be found. This results in a feud between the other three with a shocking ending!

A terrific tale which almost everyone can relate to one way or the other. Good cast and good performance by the actors.

This movie has really intense parts that i have never seen before in a U.s flick and that's all good but then it becomes stupid like the ending...then it starts flopping.The dork wins at the end,whatever...i like when they become mad and they start doing serious things to each other...they should have think a lot better before acting...whatever,the movie is not that much a bad flick or a en excellent thing..if you don't have anything else to do...just watch it,as i did,maybe you'll enjoy that parts that i enjoyed...watching 3 desperate U.s kids going mad until they eliminate themselves,something that maybe is happening in real life,sad.

Beautiful Cinematography and great Brazilian music. This is what this movie seems to be about for the first 20 minutes. But it's not, it's about good actors and a good plot... It may seem to go a bit slow at times but it's only 90 min or less... And the end will certainly get you thinking about it for days... 6/10

The first part of this film was terrible to watch but it got better. The acting, music, and most of all the look of the film was very unappealing to start with.

It seemed to me that one quarter of the way through this show they must have fired the first director of photography and hired a new one that did much better. This is the first movie that I have seen that made me truely understand the importance of a DP. I say this because in the first part of the movie the camera angles and lighting and framing make it hard to watch and enjoy. This definately improves before the half way mark and the show gets more exciting.

Dominique Swain is cute but she was disappointing in this show. I give most of the credit for me being able to finish this show to Henry Thomas. He is always good.

As a whole I would not recomend this show but I do think the writer/director took some cool risks(the plot and ending) so I will look for his future films.

"Dead in the Water" is a lousy film. The list of faults is too long to go into here. Suffice it to say it's a low budget dog with a lame story and subpar in almost all respects from screenplay to direction to cinematography to...etc. Don't waste your time with this loser.

(2001) Dead In The Water THRILLER

Written and directed by Gustavo Lipsztein has a story of a floating dead body seen floating on the water, we don't know who this person is except that it's a teenage girl then it shows another teenage female girl who appears to be a yuppie, she's looking out the window and seeing the crowd surrounding this drowned body and conversing with her dad about taking the son of a wealthy magnate on to a sail while on a yacht. Two of her friends also comes along and one of them happens to be her boyfriend and his name is Danny (Scott Bairstow) who also has a friend bringing named Jeff played by Henry Thomas. If watched enough of these, sometimes one can see the end coming a mile away and if their is any reason to watch this it would to see Dominique Swain's swimsuit poses.

I discovered this on a VHS tape recently, and I while it looked relatively nondescript, in the title, the cover image, etc. But it had Henry Thomas, an actor I was familiar with, so I thought, "Let's see what he was doing at the start of the century."

The writer/director hasn't made many films before or since. It's potentially a shame, there is potential here. It's a low budget movie clearly, but shooting on the water must add a plethora of challenges (and costs). And this is part of the problem.

Let's focus on the positive for a moment: First, this was probably a neat little Noir-inspired script. On paper I am sure it was pretty good! It has the requisite twists at the end for this genre, and while they don't really work, the idea is not a bad one. The performances of the three leads are good, too. There are some moments where they are showing what's going through the minds on their faces. They are doing the best they can with the material they have been given. The cinematography is very well done - especially keeping in mind almost the whole movie is shot on boats. And the score is very good as well, great at setting a mood and a feel.

So if there's all this good stuff. What's wrong? It's just not well executed. Out on the boat, I think there's just not enough for the cast to do. As a result, the dialogue seems all over the place, with these strange, stilted conversations. They are changing moods for no good reason. They are drinking, and alternately move from tipsy and drunk to sober with no clear passage of time. I feel like this needed actual SCENES to add some development and flow to the progression of the story, and give the characters something of a journey (or just a motivation), but they weren't able to do this. Maybe they had to modify what was in the script to fit what they could actually shot when they got out on the water? I don't know. But while it looks good, it just doesn't flow in a way that makes sense.

Unfortunately I couldn't find the charm in this one, so this VHS won't be staying on my shelf, it will go back to the thrift store - hopefully someone will find it who will enjoy it more than I did.

This was a film that I sought out due to be a remake of Knife in the Water by Roman Polanski. What we're getting here is an updated version. I picked this up on DVD years ago and just now getting around to watching it. Ahead of coming in to watch this, I knew that Dominique Swain starred. The opening credits reminded me that Henry Thomas also starred. It wasn't until settling in that it also had Scott Bairstow. I didn't know him by name but recognized his face.

What we get here is Gloria (Swain) is asked by her father to take his business partners' son out on the yacht. This is Marcos (Sebastian DeVicente). He has never seen the ocean. She doesn't want to do this, but her father explains their financial situation and reluctantly agrees. I don't believe she told him that she isn't using the captain. She will drive the boat. Her boyfriend, Danny (Bairstow), and friend of Jeff (Thomas) are joining.

They go out and have a good time, until things take a turn. Danny is a jerk. Gloria is attracted to Marcos and they make out when the guys are gone. They come back though in the middle, where she blames him for coming on to her. Danny knocks him overboard and tosses out a lifesaver. He then drives off, leaving Marcos in the water. This is troubling due to him not being a strong swimmer.

The group takes the boat around the island and that's when panic sets in. They can't seem to find where they left him. They continue the search but as time goes on, it looks bleaker. Decisions are then made as to what to do.

Now that should recap what this version of the story gives. Something interesting here is that instead of a couple with a stranger on a boat. We have a larger sea vessel and adding the wrinkle that Jeff is in love with Gloria, who has friend zoned him. Jeff is friends with Danny and something I'll say here, I've been the former in a situation like this. Jeff is in an interesting position that he wants to help his friend, but also will steal his girl at the first chance that he gets. I did like this aspect.

What then makes this an interesting story as well is that we're seeing the worst of humanity come out when it comes to self-preservation. We learn things here as we go on about the characters. Gloria and her plight are introduced from the opening sequence. She doesn't rely on the others until Marcos disappears. Through conversations between Danny and Jeff, the former messed up at his previous job in Hong Kong and struggled to find another business to give him a chance. Jeff put his neck out for him, but it is a step down in what he'd be doing. Jeff also uses this against him as tensions rise. They are trying to find a way where they can wash their hands of what happened without punishment. This then becomes an 'out of the frying pan, into the fire' situation as the longer they go, the worse the situation becomes.

The execution though isn't necessarily there unfortunately. Swain looks good and she's in a bikini so that is tempting. Thomas is a good actor, but he's limited here to just being brooding. Bairstow has a good look about him. The same for DeVicente. The acting is serviceable, I'll say that. I also think they do well with filmmaking. They don't do anything that necessarily stands out. I did like seeing this group descend into madness trying to figure out what to do. It does help with the atmosphere. This shoots for the fences and does come up short. Not horrible by any stretch though.

My Rating: 5 out of 10.

I saw this movie several years ago and I have been trying to find the name of it since. I love movies about seas, oceans, islands and boats. I found this movie very entertaining so much that I wish to buy it. As far as I'm concerned, it is a little like "The Beach", only different circumstances of course. If you like ironic thrillers containing oceans, and boats, I highly recommend this movie. Something like this has happened and will continue. I would also compare it to deep water of recent release. I'll admit that it has been some years since I've seen it but obviously it made an impact on me. I cannot comment on cinematography other than I remember the beautiful water where it was filmed and of course the beautiful girl. As far as the ending, I think it makes the whole movie worth watching. Hope you enjoy, I certainly did.

I cannot understand all the negative comments posted here. Its not an excellent film but certainly gripping enough to make you want to see how it ends. Probably whats most challenging is sitting through the first half. I caught the film on satellite and lost its very beginning. The film had the right doses of suspense to make you wonder what's going to happen. Is it a shark in the sea or something else? Once you get through half of it its very gripping. I think the director managed to bring out the paranoia and madness which the youngsters would have instilled within themselves in a real life situation. Whether it is a feature film or MOW is somewhat questionable in my mind. I think its a damn good movie of the week (ie: for TV).

A hit. This could have been a hit if the right people where hired to do it. I agree with the beginning being very foolish with the 2nd scene making no sense. But when you watch the whole thing you find.... a good movie. Everything about the story said good, but the writer just didnt execute. The filming was bad to start off, but got much better. The acting was good, With Bairstow(Tuck Everlasting, Lonesome Dove) and Henry Thomas(E.T.) shining the most. All and all I give this movie a 7/10. A movie that makes it worth it to watch the whole thing.