Fluke_Skywalker
Plot; The captain and crew of a boat for hire and a group of mercenaries find themselves locked in a battle for survival against tentacled monsters aboard a doomed luxury liner. The ironic thing about B-movies not aspiring to be more than that is that as a result they often end up being more than that. Deep Rising is one such movie. Directed by Stephen Sommers (who would perfect that craft with his next movie, The Mummy) it plays like an amalgam of The Poseidon Adventure and Aliens. Never pausing long enough for its seams to show, the quips and clips are each emptied and reloaded with an almost gleeful vigor by its top notch cast. Headlined by the immensely underrated and underappreciated Treat Williams, they know exactly what kind of movie they're in, and the movie is all the better for it.Deep Rising ain't high art, but it is good fun, and there's nothing wrong with that.
Smoreni Zmaj
I don't remember where did I find list of Lovecraft adaptations that I copied and started to follow chronologically, and it's mystery to me how did this movie end up on it, but I'm glad I saw it. Also, I would not say it's horror either. More of an action with deep sea monsters. If you seek depth, layers and morals... skip it. But if you just want good monster entertainment this you don't wanna miss. Predictable, full of clichés and totally unoriginal, but a lots of fun. Jean from X-Men in leading female role is just additional treat. I enjoyed it.7/10
NathantheSnakeGuy
Deep Rising begins with a text informing us that many ships have mysteriously disappeared over the South China Sea. The million dollar question is "How did they sink?" The suggested answer is that undiscovered sea monsters swim up to the surface and sink them. After exploiting the mystery of what undiscovered life lurks within the depths of the ocean, the film introduces us to some of the characters: John Finnegan (Treat Williams), Joey Pantucci (Kevin J. O'Connor), Leila (Una Damon), Hanover (Wes Studi), Mulligan (Jason Flemyng), Mamooli (Cliff Curtis), Mason (Clifton Powell), T. Ray (Trevor Goddard), and Vivo (Djimon Hounsou). The first three are doing business with the other six by transporting them to an unknown location by boat. Little does Finnegan (the owner of the boat and leader of the business) know that, for insurance money, someone is paying Hanover, Mulligan, Mamooli, Mason, T. Ray, and Vivo to sink a cruise ship with hundreds of people on it. As the mercenaries' client sabotages the ocean liner's motor functions, something from deep beneath the ocean's surface slams into the hull. When Finnegan and the others arrive and board the ship, nobody is on board, but there is blood everywhere. Soon after, the characters find themselves fighting for their lives against enormous, man-eating sea creatures with tentacles.Deep Rising is a shoddy, ludicrous, and utterly incompetent disaster. Its putrid directing and writing leave it completely devoid of anything a real action-packed horror movie should have: Elegance, chills, convincing visual effects, plot, authentic characters, originality, and excitement.The directing is unbelievably garish. Director Stephen Sommers has always felt the need to make his movies humorous, and that's fine, but none of the humor in Deep Rising is actually funny. Most of it is just annoying, like when, before the monsters show up, some of the mercenaries maniacally shoot their automatic weapons at a sudden noise and don't stop until told to. In addition, there are plenty of horrific things that happen in the film, but none of it is horrifying or chilling at all. To name just one example, a half digested but still living man is shot out of a monster's stomach. This scene is intended to be disturbing, but instead it's silly and superfluous, and will only make the viewer roll his or her eyes.Since we see so much of the monsters in Deep Rising, one would think the filmmakers would have made them look better than they do. Instead, they look remarkably cheesy for 1998. The fact that the creatures are computer generated images is so obvious, and their movement is choppy. This, along with the endless but poorly shot action sequences, makes the movie very non-thrilling.The atrocious story and screenplay are the worst thing about Deep Rising. The premise is a mishmash of other movies: Some people are trapped onboard a sinking ship (The Poseidon Adventure) with monsters that prey upon human beings (Alien, only with more than one monster). The plot is riddled with errors in logic, such as the monsters' tentacles breaking vault doors off their hinges and warping metal walls, or people handing others loaded guns to kill themselves with instead of just shooting them themselves. The dialogue consists mostly of characters sniping at each other and saying boring rhetorical questions like "where the h*** is everybody?" or "what the h*** are those things?", leaving little room for actual content. Since none of what happens is compelling at all, the viewer will have trouble paying attention and will forget things before the movie is over. And the characters are so shallow and under-acted that even Finnegan, the main character, matters about as much as an extra in any movie of any decency. There is no concern about their fates or the general outcome of the plot. This, along with a host of already mentioned problems, spells a project high on inanity and devoid of excitement. Guns are fired, soulless people die, stuff blows up, and that's about it. Will the heroes survive? Will the villains die horribly? Not only does no one care, but the answers are never in doubt, due to how predictably derivative Deep Rising is. For emptiness, cheesiness, inappropriate tone, and sheer lack of power, Deep Rising cannot be beaten - nor for wretchedness. It's too awful for adults and too violent for children, and I encourage you to avoid it.
