Miss Vicky's Loyal and Willing Slave
+8
This could be the review that finally kills off the last shred of credibility that myself and my reviews had. But who cares?! I've always felt that respect was very over-rated.
Year of release
1998
Directed by
Stephen Sommers
Written by
Stephen Sommers
Starring
Treat Williams
Famke Janssen
Kevin J. O'Connor
Anthony Heald
Wes Studi
Deep Rising
Plot - "Far below the South China Sea lies an underwater mountain range with canyons deep enough to hide the Himalayas, deeper than any man or machine has ever explored. Throughout the centuries, countless vessels have vanished into these waters without a trace. Their disappearance has remained a mystery." Until now that is. A group of mercenaries have hired the boat and services of John Finnegan (Williams) to lead them out to an undisclosed location in the middle of the ocean. Unbeknownst to Finnegan and his crew the mercenaries are carrying a couple of missiles on board. It turns out that the intended location is the Argonautica, a new luxury cruise ship on its maiden voyage. When they board the ship however they are shocked to discover that the ship is almost completely empty, its hundreds of passengers have vanished. Amongst the few surviving individuals are the ship's owner Simon Canton (Heald) and a female passenger, Trillian (Janssen) who was caught attempting to steal from the ship's vault. Before long they begin to realise that humans are not the only species present on board; there is a deadly force onboard which has emerged from the unexplored depths of the ocean and looks set to take the lives of everyone in its path.
I'm not going to try and present a strong argument about this being a great film, because I don't necessarily think it is. However I did find it to be just a whole heap of fun, one of the more entertaining viewings I've had in quite a while. And that is what my score is reflecting as opposed to any level of quality. It's wonderfully trashy and knows it, not attempting to be anything more than what it is; a highly entertaining slice of action, horror and one-liners. I guess that for some people the nearest comparison may be to call this a rip-off/homage of Alien, but with its B-movie mentality and consistently tongue in cheek nature I found it to be more along the likes of Tremors set at sea. Or with its story of mercenaries taking over a ship it's like Steven Seagal's Under Siege if half-way through it Tommy Lee Jones, Gary Busey and Colm Meaney had been attacked by huge sea creatures!
The film is directed by Stephen Sommers, and while I certainly wouldn't say he's a particularly good director he certainly knows his way around this kind of fare. Similar to his work on The Mummy he makes sure to keep the pace flying along at a frenetic rate, has a strong grasp on how to handle the scenes that are heavy on CGI, delivers a lot of fun if familiar action set-pieces and balances all of the film's various tones (comedy, horror, action adventure, monster flick) nicely. He also makes decent use of the film's setting, finding the spooky and claustrophobic nature inherent within the dark and deserted ship. As well as taking his seat in the directors chair Stephen Sommers also wrote the screenplay for Deep Rising. And while he may not be the second coming of Shakespeare I think he does a nice job on scripting duties. While the film may be stupid and bursting with clichéd characters and corny one-liners, in its own way it is actually quite a well crafted little script. It's aware of its limitations and unoriginality but concentrates on what is important. It tells a very simple, straightforward story that has the limited ambition but also the sizeable charm of an episode of Scooby-Doo. It's a well established and clichéd formula that sets a group of one-dimensional, stereotypical characters out as monster bait and has them picked off one by one. And the mercenaries appear to be plucked straight out action flicks of the 80s such as Predator. They are testosterone-fuelled macho guys who are all about bravado and talking tough. And while I think it can always be beneficial to have a single mind bringing their own creation from page to screen here I think it is especially helpful because right from the first words he wrote on the script he knew the tone he was going for. Had another director taken it over they may have tried to go for a more serious, straight approach.
Film Trivia Snippets - Originally Deep Rising was set to have a substantially larger budget but when Harrison Ford turned the role of Finnegan down the production's budget was downsized as a result. /// Famke Janssen's character was given the name of Trillian as an homage to the Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy character of the same name. In Hitch-Hiker's it is short for Tricia McMillian whereas here Trillian is the character's actual name. /// Janssen was not the first person cast as Trillian St. James however. Originally Claire Forlani (Mallrats, Meet Joe Black) had been hired and had even started shooting, but she walked out after just three days due to creative differences with Stephen Sommers. Janssen was then brought in as a replacement. Although she was almost not cast as the producers felt that she was too recognizable as being the girl from Goldeneye. /// Stephen Sommers began writing the script back in the mid-1990s when he was working at Hollywood Pictures. It was initially titled Tentacle.
Deep Rising was released back in 1998. Now in 'human years' that may only be a mere 15 years, but in terms of technology and CGI that's a lifetime. So it's very pleasing to find that the film's special effects still hold up as being really quite impressive and entertaining. The Lovecraftian style creature that terrorises those onboard the ship is a very cool creation and is well conceived by the effects. The film also features some great make-up work when it comes to creating numerous decomposed and mutilated bodies. There's one particular moment which is deliciously gory. After being confronted by the creature the group unleash a barrage of bullets into it, rupturing its digestive sack and allowing a half eaten guy to drop out, still alive, and starts staggering towards the horrified group. In fact for a studio picture with a fairly hefty budget ($45-50 million) the film really is surprisingly gory, both in terms of the creature attacks and its violence; at one point a character takes an axe straight through the centre of his forehead.
Deep Rising has a host of fun characters and really likeable performances. The whole cast seem to really understand the kind of movie they're making and throw themselves into it with gusto, chewing the scenery and the colourful dialogue for all they're worth. In the lead role Treat Williams is really quite excellent, apparently having an absolute ball as an adventurer in the Indiana Jones/Han Solo mould. I felt that he sort of had a bit of a Kurt Russell vibe to his performance; a very macho action hero type but in a rather self-deprecating manner who always has a wisecrack ready at hand. His comic timing was spot on and he was just a really charming and endearing presence. Actually never mind Kurt Russell, his performance is very similar to the one that Brendan Fraser would give in Stephen Sommers' next movie, The Mummy, the following year. Likewise Famke Janssen is very pleasant and likeable, brightening up proceedings whenever she appears. And the fact that she is also immensely sexy in this certainly doesn't hurt. In the real comic relief role of the film you've got Kevin J. O'Connor, very much doing the same job as he would for Sommers in The Mummy. He does a decent job although I've got to say that for me he alternated wildly between being funny and downright irritating. Character actor Anthony Heald (always good at playing a baddie) is a real hoot as the villain of the piece while there's even a very minor role for Djimon Hounsou as one of the mercenaries. It's amazing to think that in the same year as this trash he was starring in and picking up nominations for Amistad.
I'm sure that there a lot of people who hate this film, but I'm sure there are also a fair few around here who like or even love this film but may just be too embarrassed to admit it. Well this review is for those people. I'm standing up for all the people on here who don't think that cinema begins and ends with art house; the people who are more interested in the latest Sylvester Stallone film than the newest offering from Bela Tarr, the people who are more interested in films which feature cats talking and dancing than being tortured. This is a call to arms for all the normal people out there - it's time for the revolution of the simple-minded! 
Conclusion - Deep Rising is a film that knows full well just how dumb it is. However it's not trying to be anything else, there is not a hint of pretension about it. All that the people involved want to do is to entertain you for an hour and a half. And you know what, god bless them for it! The film aims very low, but as a result it ends up hitting some real highs. I am undoubtedly over-rating the film in regards to quality, but if anything I think I may be underrating just how much I enjoyed this film. I'd say that it's a great Friday/Saturday night flick, and I could see it possibly becoming a real favourite in a guilty pleasure kind of way. It's got big monsters, big guns, big explosions, some nasty deaths, a touch of gore and a really hot girl. What more could someone possibly want?
PS - Just to let everyone know my final paragraph there before the conclusion was inspired by some talk at the time between myself and Daniel about his forays into art house.
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