DEEP RISING

The monster tries to make a treat out of Treat Williams

DEEP RISING (1998). Writer/director: Stephen Sommers.

John Finnegan (Treat Williams) and his crew have been hired to take a group of men out to an unknown spot in the South Pacific. What Finnegan doesn't know is that they are heading for the huge cruise ship, the Argonautica, to loot it on its maiden voyage. But when these pirates arrive, they find that hardly anyone is left alive on the ship, discovering mostly bloody skeletons. Apparently a gargantuan, voracious sea creature with a zillion tentacles (with maws on the end of them) has devoured just about everyone -- hundreds of passengers -- and now wants to make dessert out of the pirates; Finnegan and his crew; a pretty thief named Trillian (Famke Janssen), who was locked in the hold; and the duplicitous, slimy owner Simon Canton (Anthony Heald), who wanted to blow up the ship for the insurance. Deep Rising has some excellent and very gruesome special effects, but its tone is too flippant by half, at times turning it into more of a black comedy than a horror film and dissipating the considerable tension. However, the movie is generally fast-paced, slick, creepy and exciting -- more of an action-disaster-creature flick than a horror film -- and features a highly dangerous and rather engaging monster. One scene wherein the survivors discover an abattoir filled with skeletons is especially macabre. Williams [Prince of the City] strikes the right note; Jannsen is competent; Heald is way over the top. Jason Flemyng makes an impression as Mulligan, the handsomest of the pirates; and Kevin J. O'Connor, despite how irritating this actor can be in certain roles (including this one), is good and strangely appealing as Finnegan's engineer, Joey. The few moments of humanism don't quite come off in a movie this callous. The ending left room for a sequel that never materialized. Sommers also wrote and directed the dreadful -- and dreadfully campy -- Van Helsing.

Verdict: Well, it's not It Came from Beneath the Sea, but what is? *** out of 4.

X2

X2 (aka X-Men 2; X2: X-Men United/2003). Director: Bryan Singer.

This sequel to X-Men is another winner. Seems a bad guy named Willam Stryker (Brian Cox) had a mutant son named Jason, and his experiences with him so embittered him that he now wants to wipe out all mutants. To do this he intends to use Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and the professor's Cerebro machine (which detects mutants and connects Xavier to everyone's minds). Professor X is given God-like power in this, but his opposite number, Magneto (Ian McKellan) is along for the ride and then some. X2 has some terrific sequences: Magneto using the iron in a guard's bloodstream to make his escape from prison; Pyro's (Aaron Stanford) fiery assault; the X-Men's plane being pursued by missiles. Jean Gray (Famke Janssen), Roque (Anna Paquin), and Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) all get plenty of screen time, as does Alan Cummings, who is as good as the others as Nightcrawler/Kurt Wagner. The entire cast, including Shawn Ashmore as Iceman, play with conviction, and the direction, photography [Newton Thomas Sigel] and musical score [John Ottman] are of a high order.

Verdict: Exciting, amusing, and moving. ***1/2.

HIDE AND SEEK

HIDE AND SEEK. (2005). Director: John Polson. Screenplay: Ari Schlossberg.

After his wife commits suicide, Robert De Niro takes his young daughter (Dakota Fanning) to a new home in the country where she seems to be beset by figurative or literal demons. She has an imaginary friend named Charlie who's soon up to some dirty tricks – or is he imaginary? The picture holds the attention but doesn't really become gripping or suspenseful until it's nearly over, when the mystery over who and what “Charlie” is and who he'll kill next, begins to give you the willies – and then – the mystery is solved practically the next moment and what results is a prosaic chase. [I won't spoil the film by revealing the revelation; let's just say it's been done before – over and over and over again.] Hide and Seek is well-directed, has a couple of tense moments, and is very well acted by De Niro and Fanning, although the girl's character is perhaps a little too creepy for her to be entirely sympathetic. Amy Irving is written off at the beginning, and Elisabeth (Leaving Las Vegas) Shue has virtually nothing to do as De Niro's friend. Famke Janssen gets a little more screen time as his colleague and former pupil.

Verdict: Okay, but nothing special. **.

GOLDENEYE

GOLDENEYE (1995). Director: Martin Campbell. [NOTE: On occasion Great Old Movies will review films less than 25 years old if they would be of interest to our readers.]

Pierce Brosnan took over the role of James Bond with this movie. There's a new “M”, a woman (Judi Dench), who tells off Bond in one sequence, as well as a new Miss Moneypenny, who does the same, but Q remains Desmond Llewelyn in a sequence that borders on something out of Get Smart. There's an exciting prologue involving skydiving sans parachute; the rest of the story deals with a double-agent (Sean Bean) who steals a powerful weapon called GoldenEye from the Russians, and plans to use it to devastating effect if he isn't stopped. The Bond girls include ex-Soviet fighter pilot and hit woman Xenia Onatopp (Famke Janssen, pictured), and the much nicer Natalya (Izabella Scorupco), the only survivor of the attack on the facility that housed GoldenEye.

This is a good-looking movie photographically, and has some exciting moments, but no really outstanding sequences [certainly not as compared to what has come before in the 007 canon]. The scene with Bond chasing after a Russian ally of Bean's in a tank is rather long and comparatively dull, and in the scene after the prologue Bond acts like an overgrown adolescent. The climax on the giant satellite dish isn't bad, however. Sean Bean nearly steals the picture with Janssen close behind him. Tina Turner “sings” a forgettable title song, and the rest of the score by Eric Sarra is mediocre to say the least. John Barry is sorely missed.

NOTE: “Goldeneye” was the name of Ian Fleming's estate.

Verdict: Pierce Brosnan makes a not-bad Bond, and this is a not-bad Bond adventure, although certainly not top-rank. **1/2.