A slick, state-of-the-art monster movie with a cool cast but hack dialogue, providing plenty of laughs to go with the mayhem, Hollywood Pictures' "Deep Rising" could be the new year's first sizable hit if audiences jump aboard for another spectacle set on an ill-fated luxury liner.
"Die Hard"-meets-"Alien"-meets-"Titanic" in writer-director Stephen Sommers' wide-screen chiller starring the rugged Treat Williams and an eclectic lineup of supporting players including Anthony Heald, Wes Studi, Djimon Hounsou, Famke Janssen and Kevin J. O'Connor.
With Jerry Goldsmith's robust score setting the tone, "Deep Rising" teases one with information about the 40,000-foot-deep trenches in the South China Sea and the many reported disappearances in the area throughout history. Could it be there's a fearsome sea monster to blame?
Speeding along in his small, fast boat, mercenary smuggler and good-guy Finnegan (Williams) and his long-suffering crew and surly passengers are destined to find out just how deadly and untidy the creature can be. Finnegan's party, a gang of gun-happy bad-asses led by Hanover (Studi), intends to loot the huge cruise ship Argonautica after its computer programs are deliberately erased by an on-board collaborator (Heald).
Along with the tension brought on by all the macho men in a confined space, erupting briefly into violence against Finnegan's whiny but likable mechanic (O'Connor), the group is unknowingly headed toward a ghost ship. In a terrific sequence, the Argonautica is struck by something big causing destruction and death like a major earthquake.
What happens next to one panicked passenger sitting on a toilet is a bit gratuitous and sophomoric, but there's much more to come. What do you expect from a movie with a nasty tentacle that "drinks" its victims? Horribly gross is one way to describe the truly ghoulish bits, but they can be howlingly entertaining.
Providing some relief from the steady elimination of Studi's men (Trevor Goddard, Clifton Powell, Hounsou, Jason Flemyng) in inventively gory ways is the subplot involving a professional thief (Janssen), who is spared when most passengers are gobbled up and joins Finnegan in trying to escape.
With elaborate production design by Holger Gross ("Stargate") and inspired cinematography by Howard Atherton, "Deep Rising" is an expensive-looking production, but more effort could have been put into the script. Williams, Janssen and O'Connor come off looking good, but Studi and Heald are too easily upstaged.
The special effects are solid throughout, with kudos to the crack team of special makeup and creature designer Rob Bottin, visual effects supervisor Mike Shea and mechanical effects coordinator Darrell Pritchett. Credit also goes to all the imaginative folks at Dream Quest Images, Industrial Light & Magic and Banned From the Ranch.
DEEP RISING
Buena Vista Pictures
Hollywood Pictures presents
A Laurence Mark production
A Stephen Sommers film
Writer-director: Stephen Sommers
Producers: Laurence Mark, John Baldecchi
Executive producer: Barry Bernardi
Director of photography: Howard Atherton
Production designer: Holger Gross
Editors: Bob Ducsay, John Wright
Music: Jerry Goldsmith
Casting: Mary Goldberg
Color/stereo
Cast:
Finnegan: Treat Williams
Trillian: Famke Janssen
Canton: Anthony Heald
Pantucci: Kevin J. O'Connor
Hanover: Wes Studi
Running time -- 106 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
"Die Hard"-meets-"Alien"-meets-"Titanic" in writer-director Stephen Sommers' wide-screen chiller starring the rugged Treat Williams and an eclectic lineup of supporting players including Anthony Heald, Wes Studi, Djimon Hounsou, Famke Janssen and Kevin J. O'Connor.
With Jerry Goldsmith's robust score setting the tone, "Deep Rising" teases one with information about the 40,000-foot-deep trenches in the South China Sea and the many reported disappearances in the area throughout history. Could it be there's a fearsome sea monster to blame?
Speeding along in his small, fast boat, mercenary smuggler and good-guy Finnegan (Williams) and his long-suffering crew and surly passengers are destined to find out just how deadly and untidy the creature can be. Finnegan's party, a gang of gun-happy bad-asses led by Hanover (Studi), intends to loot the huge cruise ship Argonautica after its computer programs are deliberately erased by an on-board collaborator (Heald).
Along with the tension brought on by all the macho men in a confined space, erupting briefly into violence against Finnegan's whiny but likable mechanic (O'Connor), the group is unknowingly headed toward a ghost ship. In a terrific sequence, the Argonautica is struck by something big causing destruction and death like a major earthquake.
What happens next to one panicked passenger sitting on a toilet is a bit gratuitous and sophomoric, but there's much more to come. What do you expect from a movie with a nasty tentacle that "drinks" its victims? Horribly gross is one way to describe the truly ghoulish bits, but they can be howlingly entertaining.
Providing some relief from the steady elimination of Studi's men (Trevor Goddard, Clifton Powell, Hounsou, Jason Flemyng) in inventively gory ways is the subplot involving a professional thief (Janssen), who is spared when most passengers are gobbled up and joins Finnegan in trying to escape.
With elaborate production design by Holger Gross ("Stargate") and inspired cinematography by Howard Atherton, "Deep Rising" is an expensive-looking production, but more effort could have been put into the script. Williams, Janssen and O'Connor come off looking good, but Studi and Heald are too easily upstaged.
The special effects are solid throughout, with kudos to the crack team of special makeup and creature designer Rob Bottin, visual effects supervisor Mike Shea and mechanical effects coordinator Darrell Pritchett. Credit also goes to all the imaginative folks at Dream Quest Images, Industrial Light & Magic and Banned From the Ranch.
DEEP RISING
Buena Vista Pictures
Hollywood Pictures presents
A Laurence Mark production
A Stephen Sommers film
Writer-director: Stephen Sommers
Producers: Laurence Mark, John Baldecchi
Executive producer: Barry Bernardi
Director of photography: Howard Atherton
Production designer: Holger Gross
Editors: Bob Ducsay, John Wright
Music: Jerry Goldsmith
Casting: Mary Goldberg
Color/stereo
Cast:
Finnegan: Treat Williams
Trillian: Famke Janssen
Canton: Anthony Heald
Pantucci: Kevin J. O'Connor
Hanover: Wes Studi
Running time -- 106 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 1/29/1998
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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