Review of Deep Rising (1998) by Xgary X — 23 Aug 2011

The captain of a ship for hire is caught between a crew of mercenaries out to rob a luxury liner in the South China Sea and a plague of huge sea creatures with a taste for human flesh. An early outing by low brow crowd pleaser Steven "The Mummy" Sommers, Deep Rising is an enjoyably unpretentious creature feature containing the usual blend of big guns, dark corridors and gory deaths.

Sommers is as adept as always at keeping the action cracking along at a fair old pace, never pausing for anything so trite as tension or character development and despite the fact that the effects have dated somewhat, the monsters are actually quite cool (the scene when one of the mercenaries is spilled out onto the deck by a wounded creature is a highlight!) The characters are the usual action movie stereotypes, but Treat Williams is fun as a kind of watered down Ash from Evil Dead 2 and I actually laughed out loud a couple of times.

Famke Janssen is also a treat for the eyes and Anthony Heald is amusing as the obligatory back stabbing weasel and although the dialogue is little more than samples from the A to Z of lame one liners it's quite good fun.

Trash, but entertaining trash.