The Deep

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An obvious attempt to cash in on the success of Jaws, this 1977 thriller was also based on a bestseller by Peter Benchley, and it features a memorable performance by Robert Shaw (the doomed shark hunter in Jaws) in one of the last roles of his career. Looking very tanned and healthy, Nick Nolte and Jacqueline Bisset play a young couple enjoying a tropical vacation who discover a glass ampoule while scuba diving off the coast of Bermuda. It takes a seasoned treasure hunter (Shaw) to identify the ampoule as part of a valuable shipment of World War II morphine lost at sea, coincidentally, atop the even greater treasure of a sunken Spanish galleon. Thus begins a race for drugs and treasure pitting Nolte, Bisset, and Shaw against a ruthless drug lord (Louis Gossett Jr.) who'll do anything--even resort to Haitian voodoo--to get what he wants. It's all rather contrived and exploitative (after all, the movie's best known for Bisset's wet T-shirt scuba-dive), but as escapist entertainment goes it's got some exciting highlights including a moray eel that attacks on cue and... well, uh, Jacqueline Bisset in a wet T-shirt. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews:

Drug Drama in Bermuda.......2007-08-05

1977's "The Deep" is a very serviceable movie drama, featuring a solid cast (Robert Shaw, Nick Nolte, Jacqueline Bisset, and Lou Gossett), an exotic location (Bermuda), and a thrilling premise (a hunt for underwater treasure).

The movie opens with an underwater dive by David and Gail (Nolte and Bisset) while on a romantic holiday in Bermuda. Those not distracted by Gail's wet t-shirt will watch the couple discover a ship wreck and various artifacts, including a mysterious glass ampoule. The dive is interupted by Gail's scary encounter with an unknown underwater creature under the wreck.

Back on shore, the couple's effort to trace their small collection of artifacts leads them to two encounters. The first, with legendary Bermudian diver Romer Treece (Robert Shaw), leads to the discovery that they have found a long-sought World War II freighter loaded with glass ampoules of morphine, and that the freighter may be sitting on top of an even older Spanish treasure ship. The second encounter, with Haitain drug dealer Cloche (Lou Gossett) leads to the discovery that Cloche and his gang are prepared to kill to get to the morphine.

The rest of the movie is a suspense-filled chase on land and underwater, as Treece, David, and Gail try to recover the Spanish treasure while staying one step ahead of the Haitians in a complicated game of cross and double-cross. The tension lasts to the final scene, a dramatic fight to the death inside the wreck of the freighter.

This movie is well-recommended as a entertaining underwater thriller, featuring Robert Shaw in one of the last roles of his long career.

Thank you Ms. Bisset, you made this kids heart jump in this movie.......2007-07-31

OK sure it's not the greatest movie made but it is one fun underwater adventure and as stated my first crush started with Ms. Bisset's wet tee-shirt dive over the opening credits. The memories this one brings back. The underwater photograph is still stunning and the tale of treasure hunters and drug dealers is still very well done.
The copy I have features both the full and wide screen version of the film but little else, but who cares lets go diving!

2 People dive for treasure.......2007-06-17

They find out there 3 sunken ships off the coast of Bermuda. So they ask another man to help them.
Starring Nick Nolte, Robert Shaw, Jackie Bissit Great Movie

The Deep.......2007-06-02

I had seen this movie on TV many years ago, and wanted to watch the whole thing. It's not available in video stores. I enjoyed it very much as did my husband, who had never seen it. The movie is based on the book by Peter Benchley who wrote "Jaws". I recall an intro from the TV showing that appears to be missing from the video. It shows the submarine being wrecked off of the coast of Bermuda and a young Romer Treece finding Adam Coffin on the beach. Whatever the movie lacks in substance is made up for in the fine talents of Robert Shaw, Nick Nolte, Jacqueline Bissett, and Louis Gossett, Jr. This was one of the last movies that Robert Shaw made. His early death was a great loss to the movie industry.

A beauty named Bisset..........2006-12-25

The film opens with Nick Nolte and Jacqueline Bisset diving in the waters off Bermuda, exploring a sunken wreck... They soon find themselves drawn into a sea of jeopardy and intrigue involving a cargo of dangerous drugs, a fortune in Spanish treasure, ocean predators and ruthless drug smugglers accompanied by black magic voodoo...

The adventure begins when they discover a strange ampule containing liquid, and a coral-encrusted Spanish medallion near the wreck of a World War II freighter..

Henry Cloche (Lou Gossett), a local underworld figure with a hand of menace, offers to buy the ampule, then changes to unrefined tactics, for he knows that the small glass vessel holds the clue to a rumored cargo of morphine, convertible into a fortune...

As Nolte and Bisset try to discover some light to the mystery, they unite in an alliance with Romer Treece (Robert Shaw), a strong ocean-expert recluse, who wants to punish Cloche whom he believes responsible for the death of his wife...

Motivated by their own personal welfare, the trio dive depths, racing against the ticking time bomb of Cloche's vicious and relentless pressure in an effort to recover the Spanish treasure and to prevent the morphine from falling into his hand... The dramatic events culminate in a final explosion beneath the sea...

If you love to see our quiet photogenic Bisset swimming around half-naked in a breathtaking wet-T-shirt, well, don't hesitate to join our innocent heroes in their efforts to wrest the treasure from the bottom of the ocean in their dangerous underwater battle in the deep...

Average customer rating:

At long last it is here - the movie that started them all
OPEN OCEAN SWIMMING WITH OCEANIC WHITETIPS!
Great !!
Absolutely superb!!
It's baaack!

Blue Water, White Death
Starring: Peter Gimbel , Ron Taylor , Valerie Taylor , and Stan Waterman
Director: Peter Gimbel
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000PMFRTW
Release Date: 2007-07-31

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An Interview with Blue Water, White Death Filmmaker Valerie Taylor

There are a few scary moments in the film, of course, but was there any one particular moment you recall when you really thought someone was going to get hurt?
Yes, when we first left the cages, there were over 100 big potentially dangerous sharks around us all in a feeding pattern. I thought "this is madness , one of us could get bitten. I said to Peter you go out first and if you make it I will come out after you." "watching Peter leave the cage by himself was both fascinating and fearful". I think that was my most frightened moment. I guess no one likes to see a friend in what is a very dangerous situation. Surprisingly when I swam out and joined him there was no fear just a huge excitement.

Jaws came out a few years after this, and of course Benchley was inspired by Blue Water, White Death. How did you feel about that and its portrayal of sharks as man-eating monsters?
Jaws was a fictitious film about a pretend shark. It was the same as a gorilla destroying the building in King Kong. Just a story. I do not know why it affected people the way it did. People loved the gorilla and hated the shark. Universal had us going around the US doing TV and radio interviews talking about sharks and how sharks did not think or behave like the fictitious beast in Jaws. I guess it is the fear of the unknown. Sharks are not well understood. They live in an alien environment. Gorillas live in ours. We understand them better. Once you understand an animal it becomes less fearful.

Do you have one particularly interesting memory from this adventure that's etched in your mind? What was the greatest part of this whole adventure?
Absolutely. Diving with the oceanic white tips in the open ocean while they were feeding on the whale. No one had ever done anything like this before and no one will ever do it again. It was the greatest, most exciting few weeks in my life. I would pay to do it again. Sheer unadulterated adventure. A trip back in time to a world unchanged in several million years. Blue Water, White Death was a gift which at the time I was unaware of. The greatest part of the whole adventure was, quite simply, the adventure.

What do you hope people watching this film for the first time today will get out of it?
The same as they did when it first came out. It has not dated. It is an exciting and true undertaking such as few people are ever lucky enough to experience. No one ever asked us to act a part. Jim Lipscomb, the above water cameraman, was incredible the way he followed us around carrying that big 35-mm Arriflex on his shoulder. We became used to him and his camera but he was always there recording everything we did. It is a great pity that all the outtakes are lost. There is a second story just in what never appeared in the final production.

Did this expedition and your experience swimming with great whites change your life in any significant way?
We had worked with Great Whites before. It was the Oceanic sharks that changed how I looked at dangerous sharks and it was the wonderful people I was so fortunate to be working with that gave us friendships that endure to this day that were most significant to me. However, I guess it was the original story about hunting for the biggest Great White that gave me these memories, so Great Whites have enriched my life. Also Ron's filming of these wonderful sharks opened the way for us to work on Jaws, Jaws 2, and Orca. I guess swimming with Great Whites did make a big difference to the lives of both of us. We still work with Great Whites but we will never be able to dive with hundreds of big sharks feeding on a whale carcass again, nobody will. Thirty eight years ago, before the impact of computer technology we lived in a different world. Today Blue Water, White Death could probably be produced in a computer.

Can you talk a bit about the filming technology of that time and how challenging it was to film underwater?
I did not do any underwater filming. That was Ron Taylor, Stan Waterman and Peter Gimbel. They were shooting on 35-mm film in the Techniscope format which is very wide screen. I was just a female shark wrangler. I also did a lot of the underwater still photography. However watching the problems the underwater cinema-photographers had to overcome, I was always relieved when all the cameras worked and no great sequences were missed because of camera failure. It was not a filming job where any missed action could be repeated.

Customer Reviews:

At long last it is here - the movie that started them all.......2007-09-08

I remember seeing this when it first came out and have waited years to see it again. I have been a diver for 20 years. This is one of those movies that started it all. The stars of the movie, Stan Waterman, Peter Gimbel, and the Taylor's are icons in the diving and underwater film making business. This is the first movie of Great White sharks and the lengths to which these people went to film them are astounding. These adventurers went out in the middle of the Indian Ocean, parked themselves next to a sperm whale carcass, and got up close and personal with large oceanic sharks at feeding time. They also went to the Hermes wreck at 180 feet and off the coast of Dangerous Reef in the Sourthern Ocean.

- no dive computers, no DAN to evac you out, and never quite knowing what to expect. This is a true life adventure caught on tape when diving really was by the seat of your pants. If you are a diver or adventurer you must see this film. If you like the film buy the book that documents the adventure - Blue Meridian - The Search for the Great White Shark by Peter Matthiessen

OPEN OCEAN SWIMMING WITH OCEANIC WHITETIPS!.......2007-08-15

I just watched this movie for the first time and I must say i was amazed!This documentary by Peter Gimbel follows his crew to exotic locations including South Africa, Madagascar, Ceylon and Australia looking to be the first to film the Great White shark in its own world. The footage is fantastic with some of the most harrowing moments ever shot on film. Truly the moment where one by one the divers exit the safety of their cages to film dozens of feeding oceanic whitetips is unprecedented and unlikely to be repeated again. I couldn't believe my eyes as the Taylors(Ron & Valerie) and Peter Gimbel continuously prodded away the inquisitive sharks while Stan Waterman filmed the breathless action. When the crew travels to Dangerous Reef,Australia and meets the Great White, the results are spectacular. Never before had a Great White been filmed in its own environment and the pulse-pounding work of these underwater pioneers is priceless. A great purchase for all shark enthusiasts or action fans this DVD comes with several extra features including a reunion of the crew members who reminisce fondly of their great adventures beneath the waves. A MUST HAVE!

Great !!.......2007-08-07

..The original and great documentary about Great White Shark...
this dvd edition is very good !!

Absolutely superb!!.......2007-08-06

I'd been waiting to see BWWD since 1971. Tried to get a VHS copy but failed. Now the DVD is out and a copy appeared in my mailbox, having pre-ordered several months ago. The movie itself is every bit as exciting as I remembered it. My wife, who is a also a diehard scuba diver and hadn't seen it before, agreed it's top notch. The real bonus is the high quality of the digital transfer. Every bit as clear as the original, with stunning colors and lighting to match. What a pleasure to watch. There is also a bonus feature on a get-together with some of the divers, including the Taylors and Stan Waterman.

It's baaack!.......2007-07-02

An incredible documentary that pioneered underwater filmmaking- Crazy to think that this was Benchley's inspiration for Jaws, and that it's FINALLY coming to DVD this month!

Average customer rating:

Sucker for creatures!
Deep Star Six
almost a 'B' movie
once again,don't know why,but i really like it
80' Sci-Fi on a budget. Gotta love it man.

Deep Star Six
Starring: Taurean Blacque , Nancy Everhard , Greg Evigan , Miguel Ferrer , and Nia Peeples
Director: Sean S. Cunningham
Manufacturer: Lions Gate
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B00005O5B5
Release Date: 2001-10-23

Customer Reviews:

Sucker for creatures!.......2007-05-11

Remember watching this flick in LA, could'nt remeber if it was a hit, or one of those U just could have skipt all together. It was one of those!
Story stinks,creature sucks, actors to!U will enjoy Leviathan and Deep Rising, much more don't waste money or time, this is a stinker!

Deep Star Six.......2007-01-10

Good movie if you can appreciate its time. It holds nothing to these new space age special effects horror movies. I love the horror movies of the 80's and early 90's and Deep Star Six is one of my favorites.

almost a 'B' movie.......2006-10-05

The monster was pretty fake. The jokes were corny. The special effects...were there any? The underwater shots were grainy. At times, it was over-acted. This movie was so-so. It won't scare you. The Alien series or The Cave are much better. This movie may have been okay in its day, but times have changed...and movie making have improved a lot...a whole lot. Skip this flick.

once again,don't know why,but i really like it.......2006-05-05

ok yes i know,it's a monster movie without a monster(well we see very little of it),it's really more an action movie underwater(the first of three that year,and the least),in five mins. you already can see who will live and who won't,and most f/x shots of the outside are so dark you can't see anything,it's all this and more, but ,but....i still like it!!!
if you are in the mood for it it can be fun.

80' Sci-Fi on a budget. Gotta love it man........2006-03-13

Of the two 80's "what lies beneath the surface of the sea" sci-fi flicks (leviathan being the other) this one had a very attractive male cast. Greg Evigan was fun to watch wet not to mention Matt McCoy's delicious blue eyes.

The story was lack luster and the female characters were less than 2 dimensional, they were 1 dimensional if that's even possible and the creature wasn't near as menacing as the Leviathan beastie. It was like a goofy cockroach.

Overall though it is still a fun flick to watch, but will really only appeal to lovers of the underwater suspense horror flicks, which is kind of a niche thing at best.

Average customer rating:

Deep Purple "Come Hell or High Water"
This is the Deep Purple concert you have always wanted
The Battle Rages On Stage
Hell Came And Its Name Was Blackmore
Great for the tension, the interviews, and, oh, yes: the music

Deep Purple - Come Hell Or High Water
Starring: Jon Lord , Ian Paice , Ritchie Blackmore , Roger Glover , and Ian Gillan
Director: Hugh Symonds
Manufacturer: Bmg Special Product
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00005NNSM
Release Date: 2001-05-29

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"It works extremely well or it doesn't work at all," says Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice on this concert DVD, reflecting on DP's 25th anniversary reunion tour. This great-sounding disc (filmed in Birmingham, England, on November 9, 1993) finds the band working extremely well indeed. Legendary lead guitarist Ritchie Blackmore left the band after the tour's European leg, so the Birmingham concert has, in retrospect, the sense of capturing lightning in a bottle, providing (in keyboardist Jon Lord's words) "a wonderful combination of improvisation and discipline." Blackmore is conspicuously absent in the interview clips, but the remaining "Mark II" lineup (vocalist Ian Gillan, bassist Roger Glover, Paice, and Lord) speaks eloquently on the band's behalf, never masking their resentment toward Blackmore's sullen decision to quit. It's no wonder, because this is no withering nostalgia act. With Blackmore in top form (eyes down, emotionless, fully involved), the band is tight and mighty, and despite a few faltering moments (particularly in Gillan's otherwise laudable vocals), this DVD never disappoints.

Lord's blues-rock wizardry is consistently astounding, and with a set list that spans the band's illustrious history, everyone gets a chance to shine. Gillan can't reach the highest highs like he did in the early '70s, but he never hits a sour note, either. Paice cuts loose with a "Space Truckin'" solo (don't you dare call these guys dinosaurs), and, surprisingly, the show's highlight turns the Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black" into a transcendent jam. So what of their post-Blackmore era with replacement axman Steve Morse? This DVD offers ample proof that DP would thrive, come hell or high water. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews:

Deep Purple "Come Hell or High Water".......2007-05-09

Hi I'm 50 years old if your a true Deep Purple fan you will love this dvd even though richie is an nut case the music is A+++++++++++ the band is tight and never miss a lick.

Daryl

This is the Deep Purple concert you have always wanted.......2007-03-27

WOW! That is all I can say initially. Ritchie Blackmore and crew made this concert the best they ever did! If you have ever wanted to see Ritchie do his legendary riffs (he usually hid them from camera shot in the early years concerts) this is the DVD for you. All the guys excelled in this performance. They had it together.

Interestingly, as this was a "reunion" concert. When the band left the stage, Ritchie exited on one side and the rest left on the other...

Again, FANTASTIC CONCERT. I encourage you to get it - you will NOT be disappointed.

The Battle Rages On Stage.......2007-03-10

I approached this DVD "Come Hell Or High Water" with a certain amount of apprehension after hearing about this Birmingham show and Ian Gillan recently wanting the live album (audio only) not to be released. But let's face it, even the average Deep Purple show is a little special, and to me, this DVD wasn't bad at all. I'll admit that Ritchie Blackmore's antics made it hard at first, but the overall performance still comes across pretty well. Drummer Ian Paice shines in some of the later songs, and the rest of the band (Lord, Glover and Gillan) all try to make up for Ritchie's lack of dedication you might say. Some of Gillan's expressions are a treat, and the overall uniqueness of a Deep Purple happening is captured well on video. Technically it's excellent, nothing too flashy. It's a treat to watch something done by people you know have a feel for Purple's work, which doesn't come off routine looking or full of gimmicks. Overall, this is a pretty good resemblance of the 25th Anniversary tour, just not one of the best moments. The interviews between some of the songs are cleverly done, but after a few viewings I wished I could have passed on them, but no such luck. All things considered, the DVD doesn't make a bad addition to the ever growing Purple memorabilia.

Hell Came And Its Name Was Blackmore.......2006-09-28

Only 3 stars for Come Hell or High Water is almost being harsh. But Blackmore's behavior during the concert is so outrageous that I was embarrassed for the band just watching the show. I feel sorry for the fans that actually paid to attend the concert who were probably very excited to see a Deep Purple show where all 5 members participated.

But really only 4 participated. Those 4 being Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Ian Paice, and Jon Lord. Those guys must have huddled before the show and said, "let's give these fans a musical performance that they'll never forget." Whether Blackmore was in the huddle with them or not, one thing is for sure, Blackmore agreed to also give the fans an experience that they'll never forget, but the experience that he provided was how to be a complete jackass...not the experience of the guitar performances that he is legend for.

The back jacket of the DVD reads, "No one who has heard Deep Purple kick off a show with Highway Star will ever forget it...." Well, I sure won't forget how it was done on this DVD. The band comes out on stage, starts the song, but something's missing...Blackmore is missing! The first minute of the song goes by, but there's no Blackmore; there's no guitar playing; only vocals, keys, bass and drums. At first I thought it was a some sort of prestaged thing where Blackmore would appear with much fanfare. Well, he finally does appear where the guitar solo is supposed to come in, but not with much fanfare. Blackmore is clearly pissed about something and is determined to let everyone in the band and audience know it. He walks on stage, saunters over to the amps, grabs a cup of water that is sitting there, flings it through the air, looks at the other guys in the band as if to say, "take-that!", and then he feebly proceeds to play a horrible version of the Highway Star solo. The other guys in the band are visibly exasperated and just roll their eyes.

After Highway Star, the DVD breaks to a quick video interview with Gillian, Paice, Lord and Glover where they comment on how something wasn't working between them that night at the Birmingham NEC, UK, on November 9, 1993, and that Blackmore, as he was known to often do, acted "like an angry little child when he didn't get his way about something".

Clearly, Blackmore indeed didn't get his way about something for the recording of this DVD. The tension on stage was so thick you could cut it with a knife. Blackmore was conspicuously absent from the stage and absent from playing throughout the whole show, and that really took away from the performance. Instead of rocking out through the DVD, I'm sitting there the whole time going, geez what a shame. To be fair, things were working with everyone in the band except just one guy. Gillian, Paice, Lord and Glover did indeed play like it was 1972...they were on.

The song list was terrific. They play:

1-Highway Star
2-Black Night
3-Talk About Love
4-Twist in the Tale
5-Perfect Strangers (Blackmore almost looked as if he njoyed being there for this song.)
6-Beethoven
7-Knocking at Your Back Door
8-Anyone's Daughter
9-Child in Time
10-Anya
11-The Battle Rages On
12-Lazy
13-Space Truckin'
14-Woman from Tokyo
15-Paint It Black
16-Smoke on the Water.

Blackmore couldn't wait to get off the stage. He walked right off after Smoke On The Water...exit stage left; the other guys took some bows and exited stage right.

For a 1993 recording, the picture was above average and the sound was very good. You get a superb Dolby 5.1 mix. But the picture quality was brought down a bit by the lighting choice throughout the show; it was as if consideration the night of the show was not given to the fact that the show would be recorded for DVD. The editing was great; you really got to take in each angle before the shot changed.

With the short interviews (spliced in between songs instead of as an extra feature which kind of took away from the live performance illusion) the DVD is an even 2 hours long. There were no Blackmore interviews.

It was great to reminisce and watch a Deep Purple show. The performances were a 5 by Gillian, Paice, Lord and Glover; Blackmore gets a 1. Sound is a 4. Picture is a 3. The long shots of the band in action before changing angle makes up for the choice to put the interviews between songs instead of at the end or as an extra...so the editing is a 3. Hence, 3 stars overall.

Great for the tension, the interviews, and, oh, yes: the music.......2006-01-16

I really enjoy this dvd---the tension from Blackmore towards the rest of the band makes for interesting viewing. In addition, the interview segments are quite compelling. That said, the music is top notch, even if Ian Gillan sounds alittle strained at times (especially on Child In Time). Especially recommended for Blackmore and the interviews (to be fair, Gillan sounds better on the cd version of this dvd).
vince palamara

Average customer rating:

Want the movie but not willing to pay that money.
A TRUE GORE MASTERPIECE, FROM THE AGE OF GORE (1978-1983)
Been There, Done It!!
So Bad it's Almost Good
Misogyny kills it

Humanoids From the Deep
Starring: Doug McClure , Ann Turkel , Vic Morrow , Cindy Weintraub , and Anthony Pena
Director: Barbara Peters (II) , and Jimmy T. Murakami
Manufacturer: New Concorde
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: 6305325812
Release Date: 1999-06-15

Amazon.com

The peculiar genius of schlock-king Roger Corman is in full bloom with this extremely gory, pointedly offensive homage to 1950s monster movies (with a generous helping of Alien thrown in for good measure), in which a legion of mutated salmon-men terrorize a small town in their search for unwilling female companionship. (Potential viewers should be warned that this movie goes to great lengths to show what earlier films in this genre had only implied.) A guilty pleasure for exploitation fans with a strong stomach and a twisted sense of humor. For what it's worth, director Barbara Peters has claimed that additional shock scenes were inserted by producer Corman without her knowledge. The glop-intensive special effects were devised by Rob Bottin, who later went on to gross out the masses with his work on Seven, Robocop, and John Carpenter's graphic remake of The Thing. --Andrew Wright

Customer Reviews:

Want the movie but not willing to pay that money........2007-07-17

To the sellers you are charging way to much for this movie, 50 dollars is a litle extravagent for the movie

A TRUE GORE MASTERPIECE, FROM THE AGE OF GORE (1978-1983).......2006-08-23

Humanoids From The Deep was released during the age of gore (1978-1983) in 1980. Incredible film transfer picture is sharp and crisp, audio is loud and clear. An interview with Roger Corman done by Leonard Maltin is really a nice feature on this dvd release. There are also a few other trailers from other Roger Corman movies on this dvd, along with talent bios. Roger Corman really struck a cord with gore fans with Humanoids. Humanoids is 80 minutes just like the old 1950s sci-fi movies. Barbara Peters does an excellent job directing this movie. Vic Morrow plays Hank Slattery so well that I could really believe this hank charachter existed. Doug Mcclure plays the calm and steady Jim Hill. Ann Turkell a believable scientist. All the other lesser known actors really fused the script and the story of Humanoids really well. A young Rob Bottin does an awesome job in the special effects of the mutated Humanoids, Rob Bottins effects work was done for the production of Humanoids in 1979, way before computer animation. I think the effects were quite believable even then in 1980 and even today. The Humanoids are a really believable monster, long teeth, long sharp claws. I could have done without their screeching and wailing but I think it fit the Humanoids perfect. Excellently written story by Frank Arnold and Martin B.Cohen. The ending to Humanoids was shocking for its time, but really quite common as with gore movies at this time (1978-1983). Directors and writers of this film genre were always trying to shock film audiences with gory effects during this time in the film industry. Keep in mind Humanoids came out during the age of gore but also before the MPAA got involved in controlling content in motion pictures. Horror gore movies like Humanoids From The Deep got away with alot of really gory effects. This movie should, I hope will keep your interest, the thing I like about Humanoids is the black humor, black humor aside, viewing the end of Humanoids from the deep will leave you thinking "what if this really happened?". If you have 80 minutes to spare on something wild watch Humanoids From The Deep there is lots of gore and an awesome classical soundtrack by a young James Horner, great Rob Bottin monster effects, political issues about over land development, and by the way a few georgeous ladies to ad to this shlock fest.

Been There, Done It!!.......2005-11-28

I've read the reviews from all 37...and a big kudos to you all for watching this movie. I was a paid extra in the movie(senior year in high school) i can say it was alot of fun being a mindless humanoid when the stunt man refused to get in the suit. Spending my time next to a gas burner to keep us warm at 3:30 in the morning waiting for the next shot. i have great memories of us extras dining with Doug, Vic, Anthony, Ann, Barbra. The movie was campy fun and a definite B movie of desperate measure.

So Bad it's Almost Good.......2005-08-21

Doug McClure established himself as Trampas on tv's "Virginian" that ran from 1962 to 1971. After "The Virginian" McClure had a hit or miss career in the movies. This particular movie is a campy bit of fun that is most assuredly not a family movie, though teenage boys will likely figure out a way to watch it.

The plot is a rehash of monster movie plots that date back to at least the 1950s. We have local creatures that have mutated from fish to become somewhat humanoid. The fish-humanoids move about as fast as an arthritic old man, but that somehow does not prevent the critters from killing dogs and people with abandon. Even more interesting, the creatures seem to figure out a clever way to grab the local ladies, even though they often run away, and mate with them.

Somehow the cast manages to put in a decent acting job in spite of the monster silliness. Doug McClure is level-headed Jim Hill who battles local fisherman and bully Hank Slattery, played by Vic Morrow. Ann Turkel plays a rare female scientist Dr. Susan Drake. Then there are a number of very pretty monster victim babes.

When I watch this movie I think of "Plan 9 from Outer Space," because the monsters shamble along and yet they somehow manage to make victims of healthy men and women. Though some of the victims fall prey to the monsters laying in wait for them, sometimes the victims fall prey through sheer silliness. The monsters are certainly big and strong, and once a humanoid catches a victim the victim is unlikely to survive the encounter if male, and female victims are sexually violated.

The rape of female victims by the monsters raises this movie to a new low. The scenes are graphic and while intended to be horrifying, often end up being a little silly. The victims are stereotypically portrayed as scatterbrained bunnies bolting headlong from a monster only to fall prey to the monster as they somehow manage to fall and scream a lot. For some strange reason the humanoids also have an interest in human female breasts as the monsters rip the bikini tops from their victims. Of course, this movie also assumes that the genetically created monsters have no female monsters to mate with, unless the female monsters were stalking the men in the movie and we did not get to see that.

This movie also features a "surprise" ending that horror film fans will see coming well before the end of the movie. Fans of director Roger Corman will likely intuit the ending from nearly the beginning.

In spite of the rehash of monster movies, and the gratuitous sex scenes, this movie is bad enough to be worth watching at least once. The acting by the leads is decent, and there are some satisfying special effects. This movie is deservedly rated R, and I would be reluctant to watch this movie with anyone else unless I knew they would not be offended.

Misogyny kills it.......2005-08-15

The story is that the original director, a woman, submitted this film and Corman felt there wasn't enough of the T and A factor. So, Corman filmed new scenes to add it in. Okay, that's fine, one expects that in such low-budget, drive-in fare. The problem is that when the director objected to what amounts to scenes of sexual violence against women, along with the bare breasts, Corman fired her and put in a new director. That's really not cool. The movie would have been fine without the depiction of the rapes -- at the very least, the camera could have cut away at one point, leaving us to imagine what may have happened, and it would have made the final scene even more effective. Best to just forget about this one.

Average customer rating:

Killer electric sea-ponies!
Definition of Sucks
Don't bother watching it
Clash of Civilizations
DEEP DOO DOO

Deep Shock
Starring: David Keith , Simmone Mackinnon , Mark Sheppard , Sean Whalen , and Armando Valdés
Director: Phillip J. Roth
Manufacturer: Dej (Ingram)
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B0000CBY0Z
Release Date: 2003-11-18

Customer Reviews:

Killer electric sea-ponies!.......2006-11-06

This film promises you giant killer eels. What it gives you is a carbon copy of THE ABYSS. The eels get about two minutes of screentime and look like snakes with horse heads. That, and they never do anything cool.

Bad acting and horrid effects ensue when an unknown heat source is detected below the Polar Ice Caps. Guess what the cause is: Super-intelligent electric eels with thoughts of world domination!

Take my advice and only rent this movie to laugh at it with a group of freinds.

Definition of Sucks.......2004-12-23

Deep shock is possibly the worst movie I've ever seen in my life. Hardly ever do you actually 'WANT' to turn a movie off. This one made the list. Not worth renting! If you are considering buying this release for somebody, you are a bad person. If you happen to see it on cable, don't watch it, go out and enjoy the day. Avoid this movie at all costs.

Don't bother watching it.......2004-05-26

First of, I completely agree with the other reviews for this movie.
My five year old insisted on renting this movie, because he was hoping to see those "scary sea creatures". He was totally disappointed, as was I with the movie quality. Most computer-generated special effects were too much like a video game clips, Movie plot was silly. The worst thing was the sound quality. Music was way too loud comparing to the dialogs' sound. Actors mumbled a lot, when I tried turning the "subtitles" on to understand what they were saying, I found out that there was no option for it. Basically I missed half of the conversations.

Clash of Civilizations.......2004-01-23

There is a trench near the North Pole and heat is pouring out of it. If left unchecked, this would result in massive global flooding. The problem is being investigated by the UN.

One scientist wants to understand what is going on while another just wants to blow up the trench mindlessly. guess which one the UN supports?

Well, the heat is actually artificial. It is being created by an ancient race of eel-like creatures that have awakened to spawn. They are intelligent. They think the world belongs to them and not humans. Can a deal be reached?

Well, at one point the UN, in its infinite wisdom, feels the way to end the heat is by blowing up 50+ 1-megaton nuclear missiles (can you say massive radiation and HEAT?).

There may be a chance of coexisting with the eel-creatures but there is no time to work out the solution now. But maybe if the creatures hibernate some more, there will be time later for proper communications.

Average effects and moderate acting are added to the odd plot. Anyone who has followed world events for the past year or two will really wonder at the writers who dreamed up the UN scenarios. Seems a small group of scientists are making very important decisions without the rest of the UN. At one point the group actually answers to the President (yeah, right).

Anyway, all of the silliness combines from all directions to make the film work (a single serious element would have made it terrible). Did you know it was an okay idea to fire high-powered rifles aboard a submarine?

DEEP DOO DOO.......2004-01-08

Since when did eels have heads like dragons? Since when did David Keith resort to such mindless dribble to jump start his career? This can be answered in this laughably enjoyable "thriller." The plot focuses on age old eels who have come out of a trench in order to lay their eggs. Of course, the government once again wants to mess with nature. Seems these eels have hastened the global warming threat and unless they are destroyed, the earth will enter a new ice age in about fifty years. In comes the noble scientist who wants to examine them first. Of course, this is where the movie relies on its feeble plot, which is so muddled and meandering, the viewer can only ask who cares? Keith is wasted and the rest of the cast, especially villain Mark Sheppard, need to return to acting class. The special effects are amateurish and the whole movie seems long, even though it's relatively short.
Rent it, but don't buy it; if you buy it, sell it on e-bay!

Average customer rating:

An extremely ambitious script!
SHARK HAD NO TEETH!!!!
Not so deep junk
Deep Debt
One of the Worst Movies ever made!

Deep Water
Starring: James Coburn , Costas Mandylor , Finola Hughes , Alex Hyde-White , and Larry Poindexter
Director: John Putch
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B00005PJ8P
Release Date: 2001-12-18

Description

An international terrorist plot to kidnap the daughter of an oil tycoon off an ocean liner goes awry after a nuclear test in near-by waters creates a massive tidal wave that capsizes the ship. Now, a group of survivors must fight their way through the upside-down maze of the ship’s corridors racing against the rising water, deadly sharks, and the terrorist leader still on board.

Customer Reviews:

An extremely ambitious script!.......2006-05-14

This movie had all the dramatic factors to catch our attention and interest. A terrorist faction, an important girl to be watched and the always sensible nuclear premise.

But with such ties to disentangle, there is a hidden risk to dismiss one of the main ethic conflicts; unless you have a hidden Ace or may to lead the film over two hours and a half.

As whole entertainment the film is enjoyable to watch, but it could have been still better.

SHARK HAD NO TEETH!!!!.......2005-05-04

DEEP WATER is certainly no "Poseidon Adventure" but for a tidal wave capsizing a luxury liner rip-off, it entertained me enough not to totally trash it. The funniest thing about the film is that when the shark makes its way onto the capsized vessel, he doesn't have any teeth. He must not be a killer shark, or else he gummed his victims to death?? Anyway, the late James Coburn took home a paycheck for his almost cameo role, and Finola Hughes was almost sexy as the villainous tv reporter. I think Larry Poindexter who played the supporting role of Lazo would have been better in the lead role played by Costas Mandylor. Larry seemed to be more of a heroic type and is basically a better actor than the somewhat hunkier Mandylor. Alex Hyde-White did not ooze enough villainry to be a good "Ghost" and there are no real surprises. DEEP WATER is a mediocre, but enjoyable little straight to DVDer!

Not so deep junk.......2003-03-11

About the Movie:
From the stacks of "you get what you pay for" comes this rather awful b-grade direct to video movie.

Deep Water sloshes through water parted 30 years ago by one of the classic adventure films of the late 20th century, Poseidon Adventure. Like Poseidon, it involves a cruiseliner that is hit by a tidal wave and capsizes. Like Poseidon, everyone dies except maybe 5 people. Like Poseidon, the only way to get out is to travel up to the lower hull to escape.

Deep water tries to be unique by adding guns and bad guys. There's no Gene Hackman yelling at God in this movie. Instead we have terrorists trying to kidnap an heir's daughter and a US Marine trying to stop them amidst rushing water, excruciatingly bad dialog, lousy sets and mediocre visual effects. We even have sharks swimming around in a kitchen in a place where there is no obvious way they could have gotten there. Oooo! How original.

This is clearly a rip off of a far better film. The film even recognizes it halfway through when one of the bad guys on the ship gets upset about the situation and announces, "We're living in the Poseidon Adventure . . . , and I for one intend to be in Ernest Borgnine's group when they pop the hull and haul his fat butt out."

At least they admitted it.

There really isn't very much redeeming about this film. Not even the performance by the late James Coburn could do anything to help it. Then again, since his entire part in the movie involved him sitting helplessly on a Navy Aircraft Carrier and fuming at politicians, I suppose it's not much of a surprise.

The only good thing about this movie is the opening theme. It's sort of catchy.

About the DVD:
This budget DVD release comes in a plastic hard case in fullscreen (pan+scan) with Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. The video quality is decent.

Like many budget DVDs, it lists its interactive menus and inclusion of scene selections, subtitles and theatrical trailers as Bonus Features. Strange how they call them Bonus Features, when 99.9% of DVD releases have them.

Bottom line? Get the Poseidon Adventure instead. It's a far more entertaining and a far better movie than this halfhearted ripoff of it. 1 lonely star.

Deep Debt.......2002-12-04

My guess is they lost money on this one. Although James Coburn certainly turns in a good performance as the Captain of a Navy Aircraft Carrier, we don't see that much of him. Costas Mandylor tries hard as a macho Navy Seal but just can't carry the movie by himself. The rest of the perfomances are mediocre. It comes close to being a worthy film but doesn't quite make it. I think a good acting bad man like John Lithgow or Gary Oldman would have made it work, but the group of kidnappers aboard the cruise ship just don't have what it takes.

One of the Worst Movies ever made!.......2002-05-11

Yes, 5 stars because it is so bad that you will laugh until you cry. It is so bad that mere words cannot convey the feelings you will have as you watch in horror and amusement. Take for granted that it is poorly written and acted, that is a given. What really stands out is the plot. This film is, in almost equal parts, James Bond, Love Boat, Top Gun, The Poesiden Adventure and Jaws. The writers also throw in a little nuclear war threat just for good measure.

Customer Reviews:

And why did I want to see this film again?!.......2005-09-01

This IS the 1980 film starring Doug McClure. Now, ol' Doug was never going to win any awards for his acting, but even he outdoes himself in the bad acting department in this super cheesy film.

I remembered this film from the days when I got my first VCR. I had remembered it as being fairly well done. Boy, was I wrong! This movie BITES!

HFTD follows the same basic premise that every "seafaring" monster film has since Jaws was made: people get attacked, pets get attacked, locals get angry, loyal local takes charge to get monster, expert scientist is readily on hand to assist, more people get eaten, festival/holiday is disturbed by the monster; hero dispatches monster, and finally, the film sets us up for a sequel.

Jaws was a one time thing. Even Speilberg never thought it was going to be as popular as it was since they hadn't been able to get the shark footage that they wanted. The result was a benchmark film against which all other seafaring "monster" films are judged.

The acting is quite terrible throughout. It's not amateur hour, but you can actually see the non acting throughout (McClure's screen wife has absolutely no expression on her face when she is attacked by several of the Humanoids). The scientist who knows what's going on (Ann Turkel) is so vapid that you just want to shake her. Ann Turkel got her acting chops from the modeling runway and we all know that is sufficient (right!). She has no expression and she moves as if in a dream, delivering her lines evenly and expressionless. Hilariously when the hero, the scientist, and the honorable local (an American Indian) go to the location where the local first saw the monsters, we can tell that the location is anything BUT where he first saw it. How can this be since he saw it on his own property? However the location they identify is NOT his property!

The script is such a pitiful mess that the writer should be ashamed of himself.

The monsters (the Humanoids) are two legged fish monsters with a tail - at about 7 feet tall - they are the result of frog DNA being merged with salmon DNA and then the salmon being eaten by "the once thought extinct but isn't really" coelocanth. So where do they get their two adult legs and extra long five fingered arms (oh, that must be the frog DNA at work, since frogs are bipeds, aren't they?).

Rob Bottin created the monster costumes and while not totally stupid looking, they are quite idiotic (but that's more the director's and producer's fault than his).

Really cheesy and badly done film. Don't bother.

Why Roger...why?.......2005-06-01

I don't see why Roger Corman would allow one of his best, if not best of his works to get butchered like this, even when he was producing. The entire scare factor that the original had is gone, the great music is gone, the characters you could give a damn about are gone, the awesome monsters are gone, leaving this movie a VERY pale imitation of a classic 1980 monster movie.

I can understand that this was a low budget, but so was the original, and it still came out better. The original Humanoids looked much better then these here new ones, the older ones had character and a feeling of terror, these here new ones are horrid, they still have the basic design...but the feeling just is not there. The monsters awesome shreeks are gone, replaced by crappy sounding "ape" grunts.

You couldn't give a care about the characters anymore, that is the best I can say about them. The acting, even by my standards is dreaded, I guess Corman felt that the only way to possibly keep a viewer's attention is throw blood everywhere and womens' chests.

Remake From The Deep.......2004-03-10

This is not the original starring Doug McClure, but the remake staring David Carradine and Emma Samms. While not the original, the story is pretty much the same (complete with some footage from the original added in).

A small town is the setting as a fish plant is targeted for dumping chemicals in the local waters. The fish have gotten bigger as a result but something else has gone wrong as well. The chemicals being dumped are needed by a new resident in the waters, a fish man created by the military.

David Carradine is the head of the plant and is trying to stop his employees from dumping. To make matters worse, one of the animal rights activists has a thing for his daughter. Then people start to be killed in the water. A shark is blamed but it does not explain why only male bodies have been found. None of the females have been recovered. Then most of the animal rights people, and Carradine's daughter, are killed or taken one night.

No one seems to know what is going on except for reporter Emma Samms. But then a survivor shows up and the town finds out that there is something fishy going on. Samms is really a doctor who helped create the creatures. She is trying to stop them and exposes the military involvement. But one survivor points to the possibility of others. The military does not care, they will just blow everything up.

Good ending, nice twist and I liked the way the creatures don't occur just from dumping, but were lab created (a slight improvement over the original). Still, it is a nice remake but I found it hard to take David Carradine seriously (I kept seeing flashes of Revenge of the Nerds). Definitely one to see if you like Roger Corman or a good creature flick.

fish men want our women!.......2003-09-30

Beware all ye expecting the 1980 version of this movie starring Doug McClure! This is a 1996 remake for cable (Showtime), its' real title being Roger Corman Presents 'Humanoids From the Deep'.

This drecky mess stars Emma Samms and David Caradine, along with a number of less noticeable actors who currently reside in the 'where are they now' file. The plot involves a big business/government cover up (gee, how very original), toxic chemicals in the ecosystem, and a small, coastal town under siege by hungry, mutated fish men.

Apparently the government contracted a private company to splice the genetic material of fish with that of convicted felons in an effort to create a race of amphibian soldiers. Sounds like a reasonable idea, right? Anyway, the government isn't happy with the results, so they terminate the project, but some of the fish men escape.

Cut to a small, coastal fishing village. Canco, the major fish catching and canning company in the area, is responsible for dumping a biohazardous growth hormone into the waters to embiggen the fish. Actually, it's one particularly dislikable guy named Bill who is responsible. David Caradine, who plays Wade Parker, also works for the company (seems like he and the evil Bill run the company), finds out what's going on and demands that the dumping stop. Bill agrees, but only to placate Wade as there's good money to be made in those big fish.

Enter a nameless eco-group, whose leader, Matt, is played by Justin Walker. This group knows chemicals are being dumped into the waters, and are protesting Canco. Later they videotape Bill and his cronies at work, pollutin' the waters. No real attempt was made by Bill or his evil lackeys to cover up what they were doing, as they did it in broad daylight, with huge, yellow drums with biohazardous markings clearly visible, so it's no big surprise they got caught on tape. Also, it seems this growth hormone is attracting the mutated fish men, as they need the chemical to survive.

After the death of a little boy, completely ripped off from a much better movie, the fish men start to make their presence known. Their attacks become more brazen, and we soon find out that they are kidnapping, not killing, local females for mating purposes. Yuck....Damn those amorous fish men, stealin' our wimmen!

Man this movie had a lot of problems...worst being the inept direction. The actors, most being fairly capable, seemed totally mismanaged. An extremely poor script and plot certainly didn't help matters any. The thing that really annoyed me was how so many technical aspects were glossed over, like the DNA splicing, effects of toxic chemicals on the environment, the military involvement, etc. No real thought was given to any of these aspects, instead skimming the surface of theses many themes to aid (hinder) the plot along. Mutations, DNA splicing, and conspiracies being the crux of the movie, it's painfully obvious that the writer threw this stuff in the story, without having any real knowledge to support it. And the sets...the interiors were so obviously fake, making parts of the movie seem like a high school production. The characters' motivations are all over the place, causing the actors to appear indifferent to events that should mean more to them than they do. A specific example is when Wade's teenage daughter is taken by the fish men, and presumed dead. Wade doesn't seem all that broken up about it. At some points he does seemed upset, but given that your offspring may have been eaten by a mutated fish man, I'd figured you'd be pretty horrified and suitably despondent, but not so here.

On a positive note, the creatures did look kinda cool, but it was obvious that the suits (no CGI here) allowed for very little mobility, hindering the action in their limited screen time. The suits were fairly detailed, but I think if they were simplified, allowing more mobility, they would have been much more effective. The gore was needless, and the blood looked painfully fake.

In the cheap thrills department, there are a couple of brief nudity shots, if that's your thing, but they were unnecessary, and only served to further exemplified the total lameness of the movie. "Hey, we know this movie stinks, but here's some breasts!" Emma Samms, never got au natural, retaining some of her dignity, but not much.

There are some extras, including a director's commentary (!?) which I was interested in hearing, but was unable to sit through this movie again so soon. Also, there are some trailers for other movies, including one for a movie called Watchers 3. In watching this, I was amazed at how blatantly this feature ripped off the movie Predator. I don't mind producers copping ideas off better movies, but at least try to make it seem not so glaringly obvious. Geez...

Have you seen the original version lately?.......2003-04-28

Perhaps memories fade, because I just viewed both versions of "Humanoids From The Deep" and found the original to be unwatchable. There is a reason Barbara Peters has not become a successful director, and it's because her film is uneven and flat. If it is the amateurish quality that makes people yearn for the original in order to laugh at it rather than be engrossed in the narrative, then those people should watch the original. For those with the expectation of getting caught up in a scary story, the remake is the only film to watch. It follows a similar story but has better caliber actors and some genuinely funny moments like Clint Howard observing that Justin Walker is the only one who survived a monster attack and asking "Did you know these monsters?" See only the remake.

Average customer rating:

Poe meets Jules Verne (sort of...)
War Gods, what are they good for? Absolutely nothing, uh huh
SO BAD IT'S, WELL, BAD
Enjoyable and Visually Appealling Film
IT SINKS!!

War Gods of the Deep
Starring: Vincent Price , Tab Hunter , David Tomlinson , Susan Hart , and John Le Mesurier
Director: Jacques Tourneur
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B00005O075
Release Date: 2001-11-20

Amazon.com

Vincent Price and Tab Hunter star in this entertainingly silly adventure. Very, very loosely based on Edgar Allan Poe's "City in the Sea," War-Gods of the Deep starts off just right, with a stormy night and a huge old mansion by the sea. Before you know it, everyone is charging through secret passages and swimming around in enormous diving helmets. The plot zips along nicely, and the cast of pros knows just what to do with it. By this point in his career, Vincent Price could do tragic brooding menace with both hands tied behind his back, but he still puts his all into it like a champ. David Tomlinson also does a great job as half of a comic relief team--the other half being an uncredited chicken. This may not be a story for the ages, but it's not a bad way to spend an evening. -Ali Davis

Customer Reviews:

Poe meets Jules Verne (sort of...).......2006-07-28

For once, I found myself in agreement with every other reviewer here. Read 'em all, they know whereof they speak!

Having just polished off all 8 Roger Corman POE films (plus CASTLE OF BLOOD), I set my sights on this, hoping it might turn out better than I remembered. As it happens, it was EXACTLY as I remembered. Can't win 'em all. AIP refused to let their POE series end with Corman's departure, and plowed on. There does seem to be a lot of talent involved here... except, like the 3rd season of LOST IN SPACE, it feels like it was shot from a 1st-draft script that could have used a LOT of extra work.

The story, involving a seaside mansion, secret tunnels, underground caverns, and a secret "world" lorded over by a megalomaniacal madman will no doubt remind the viewer of several other films, most of which are better than this one. Using a POEM as a jumping-off point (they'd done it before with THE RAVEN) this seems to borrow ideas from such Jules Verne stories as JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH, THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND, and perhaps others less well known. Price is classic as always, though his character shows virtually no admirable qualities. Tab Hunter seems to be walking thru the picture. Susan Hart is a DOLL, but gets VERY little to do. I like David Tomlinson, generally... just NOT HERE. He's annoying, and so is his chicken, oddly named Herbert (is that a reverse on "A Boy Named Sue"?). John Le Mesurier, who I've seen in many films & tv shows, actually gets a chance to exhibit more depth and emotion in his brief scenes as the long-kidnapped preacher than I've ever seen from him, and perhaps more than anyone else in the film!

I often get frustrated with characters like Price's "Captain" who simply CAN'T be reasoned with. He issues Tab Hunter an IMPOSSIBLE task and deadline, then quickly condemns him to a watery grave. (Was anyone surprised?) He kidnapped Susan Hart because she's a DEAD RINGER for his long-dead wife. While a staple of late-model DRACULA films (including those with Gary Oldman, Frank Langella AND William Marshall), I wonder where this idea really originated, as the earliest use of it seems to be the 1932 Karloff classic, THE MUMMY.

While the basic premise is interesting, the cast adequate, and the sets & props excellent, the writing drags it down unforgiveably, leaving no room for the director or the actors to go with it. I was also confused by the layout of the tunnels (considering how important they were to the plot, it's a point of confusion that should have been better handled). And of course, the climactic underwater action scenes are just impossible to follow. (This is no THUNDERBALL-- made the same year!) A shame... this makes THE PREMATURE BURIAL look like 5 stars by comparison!

War Gods, what are they good for? Absolutely nothing, uh huh.......2004-04-22

In an effort to determine what exactly went wrong with War Gods of the Deep (1965) aka City in the Sea, I looked at the individuals involved in bringing this film to life. The story is based on an Edgar Allen Poe poem, The City in the Sea, so it had good roots. The director, Jacques Tourneur, seems quite accomplished, at the very least prolific, directing scads of films and television shows from the 30's all the way into the 60's. Let's look at the writers...Charles Bennett, well, he appears to be a very capable writer, responsible for a few films I've really enjoyed like The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) and The 39 Steps (1935). Let's see, who is the other writer? Louis M. Heyward? The schlock producer/writer responsible for such films like Pajama Party (1964), Sergeant Dead Head (1965), and Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966)? Oh bruther...Oh wait, I also see he was a production executive for KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park (1978)...I think I've found the weak link in this production.

The film stars Vincent Price as The Captain, 50's teen heart throb (also known as 'the sigh guy') Tab Hunter as Ben Harris, Susan Hart (who was married at the time to James H. Nicholson, one of the founders of the AIP, the studio that released this film...big mystery as to how she got the part here...) as Jill Tregillis, English character actor David Tomlinson as the foppish Harold Tiffin-Jones, and Herbert, the chicken...yes, there is a chicken in this film, and it did get a screen credit at the end.

Okay, the film opens pretty well, with a dark and stormy night and a large, isolated manor house/hotel on a secluded Cornish coast, sitting on the edge of a high cliff before the raging sea. A body washes onto the shore, and some locals discover it's a lawyer who is assisting American Jill Tregillis manage the transition of an estate from a recently passed relative...I think...the finer points of the story got a little muddled, and continued to do so throughout the film. Ben Harris, and American geologist (I think) gets involved, for whatever reason, and goes to tell Jill that her lawyer (or barrister, as I think they are referred to in good old England) has bit the proverbial big one. No one seemed particularly put out by this fellow's demise, giving me the impression that the English feel the same about their legal professionals as we do in the states. Here we meet one of the residents of the house, an artist named Harold Tiffin-Jones, and his pet chicken named Herbert. Why does he have a pet chicken? Well, I didn't get the impression he was married, so draw your own conclusions. After Ben has a slight skirmish with a mysterious intruder, he finds that Jill is missing, so he, Harold, and Hubert investigate. They find a secret passage, one that leads to caves and such beneath the manor, and find a giant whirlpool, to which they promptly fall in...what a couple of goons...and awaken in the city underneath the sea...oh bruther...

Some stuff happens, barely, and the boys (and the chicken) meet The Captain. Seems many moons ago the city was a land based one, but fell into the sea, pulled there by an underwater volcano. The residents at the time, being very smart, fashioned machines and such to enable them to continue to live in their city, but weren't smart enough just to just leave the city as it was sinking...and now The Captain is the leader, king, whatever, of the now remnants of this once great city, and is desperately searching for a way to save the city from the increasingly active volcano that threatens their existence, sending fish men and such to the surface to steal books, kidnap people, whatever, all in a means to try and stave off disaster. Yes, there are fish men, who aid the humans in the city underneath the sea for some reason or other. Why? I haven't the slightest idea... Why don't the humans just leave the city, you ask? I wondered that myself... Well, living in the sea has been a sort of blessing as well as a curse, extended their lives to highly un-natural lengths, but has rendered them highly susceptible to the ultra-violet rays of the sun in that prolonged exposure would cause rapid aging followed by death. Why kidnap Jill? Because she bears an uncanny likeness to The Captain's deceased wife...oh bruther...

War Gods of the Deep actually has some pretty good-looking sets and gave a glimmer of hope that was soon extinguished as the plot unfolded. As far as the source material is involved, Price does have some voice-over with him reading passages from the Edgar Allen Poe poem, but that's about it...Vincent Price and David Tomlinson are fun to watch, but really can't help save this drecky mess. Tab Hunter and Susan Hart are obviously thrown in for eye candy, as neither seems entirely capable of pulling off their respective characters. This film seems to try to do for Edgar Allen Poe's poem what Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959) for Jules Verne's story, even borrowing elements from that much better film, replacing the goose from the film with a chicken. Too bad it didn't work. Oh, and I can't finish without mentioning the drawn-out underwater scenes that tried to create all kinds of suspense and tension, but due to the fact that movement is restricted and everyone moves, in effect, slow motion, these scenes had quite the opposite effect, and will probably prompt the viewer to be looking for the fast forward on the remote.

The wide screen print here looks okay, with a few blemishes, and there is a trailer, but that's it for special features, unless you count the availability of French and Spanish subtitles.

Cookieman108

SO BAD IT'S, WELL, BAD.......2002-04-19

With little fanfare, MGM has quietly transferred a handful of great B films to DVD that they not too arbitrarily categorize as "Midnight Movies." The nice looking digital prints are in their original theatrical format and appear as if they were taken from original material. The discs come with no substantial extras but care has been lavished on the box art, often reflecting the lurid lobby cards and posters of their initial release. Even acknowledging the B category, these are for the most part well-crafted and, well, adequately acted.

In "WAR GODS OF THE DEEP," the late and much-lamented Vincent Price co-stars with 50s pretty boy Tab Hunter in an adaptation of an Edgar Allan Poe story that pits he-men against gill-men with sexy Susan Hart caught in the middle.

See, Price is uberlord of a lost underwater city (apparently built by a low bid papier mache developer), and he's got gillgoons that kidnap landubbers. The second half is a showdown between brave humans and slimy fishmen with an angry, about to blow volcano towering over everything. ...

This gets 3 stars 'cause Vincent Price and Edgar Poe had a hand in it.

Enjoyable and Visually Appealling Film.......2002-01-04

Although the story-telling and pacing leave a lot to be desired, this is a nice addition to the very collectible MGM Midnite Movies series. Great sets, locations, and actors (Vincent Price, whom many would pay to hear him recite his laundry list) make this a very visually appealing film. I disagree with Maltin's comment about the "shoddy underwater city". For its time, the visual effects (with the notable exception of the gill-men ), sets, and props were impressive. Try it out and see for yourself.

IT SINKS!!.......2001-12-16

As a storm rages outside a creepy old mansion on a clifftop, lovely Susan Hart is kidnapped by a half-fish/half-man creature and taken to Vincent Price's undersea lair. Tab Hunter, David Tomlinson and Herbert The Chicken (who gets a special screen credit at the end) go to rescue her. I wont say any more about the plot in case you want to check this out for yourself. I thought the movie was not campy, outrageous nor exciting enough to be anything more than a pleasant Sunday-afternoon time-killer. Director Jacques Tourneur has done some great stuff in the past (like Curse Of The Demon)and I was hoping for more thrills....oh well! Vincent Price just walks through this one having nowhere near as much fun as he does in some of the other AIP Poe adaptations and in Dr Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (also with Susan Hart). The DVD itself has great artwork, a nice letterbox print and good sound plus a trailer.

The Miracle Swimmer Learn to Be in Control in Water, Shallow and Deep: Prevent Panic

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The Miracle Swimmer Learn to Be in Control in Water, Shallow and Deep: Prevent Panic
Starring: M. Ellen Dash
Director: M. Ellen ("Melon") Dash
Manufacturer: Transpersonal Swimming Institute
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0001S0TE