3Deep Movie Reviews

Like far too many films these days, "The Deep End of the Ocean" begins promisingly then collapses midway under the crushing weight of heavyhanded plot mechanics, incredibility and sentimentality. The premise of the story is so compelling that the audience can't help but be drawn emotionally into the intense plight facing this family.

Michelle Pfeiffer portrays a young photographer, living an idyllic life in Madison, Wisconsin with a loving and devoted husband (Treat Williams) and three adorable young children. While in Chicago for a class reunion, every parent's ultimate nightmare becomes a reality: her middle child unaccountably disappears in the middle of a crowded hotel lobby. These scenes, in which she undergoes a sense of mounting panic as well as a crushing sense of guilt and personal self-doubt, are more terrifying than anything contained in a conventional "horror" film. We cringe too as the investigators come up against one blank wall after another, empathizing fully with a mother driven to desperation in the face of the unspeakable.

As months pass, the family attempts to cope with the horrific reality of their situation and the film promises to become an insightful study of the effects of the loss, fear and guilt that accompanies the disappearance of a child. But then the film goes agley as it moves ahead a decade and the child is miraculously discovered living a mere few blocks away, happily ensconced with a man first thought to be a kidnapper then revealed as an innocent pawn in an abduction scheme gone awry. As the child moves in with his "true" parents, the screenplay settles into a bland T.V. movie formula, in which each character must act out his or her customary little drama with little heed given to believability or originality. Instead of exploring the various stages a family goes through in the wake of a devastating loss, the film cheats us by coming through with an unconvincingly upbeat resolution. It becomes quite clear that the filmmakers are far more concerned with jerking out tears than with providing a truly thoughtprovoking exploration of its theme. This is a shame because the actors (especially Pfeiffer) handle their roles admirably. Only Whoopi Goldberg, in a totally thankless role as a compassionate investigator of missing children, seems hopelessly miscast. This film might well have been a labor of love for her (and indeed for everyone involved), but for the audience, it only makes one sigh over how much better it might have been.

: Beth (Pfeiffer) and Patrick (Williams) Cappadora are a happy, ordinary family, with 2 young sons, until one day, in a busy hotel lobby, every parent's worse nightmare happens, one of them, Ben, the youngest, disappears. The loss of their 3-year-old shatters Beth and Patrick, and so they move away to another town to separate themselves from their grief. Nine years later, they finally move back, only to discover their son, now 12, living in the town with the people who kidnapped him all those years ago. The film follows the intricate family drama that ensues when the Cappadora re-unites.

It is hard to describe this film, but it is one with a very stable and unfamiliar plot. You will not be unsatisfied with this film I would recomend it to anyone with a family to look after, so you can see what really does happen. It is very suspensful and probably too much for young children to handle otherwise it is a great film.

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...

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.

Emma Samms is great in this picture. Robert Carradine also stars in this story of mutated "fish men" that attack a small village. The picture has some great scares and a real good sense of humor. Highly recommended.

Fortunately I bough a used copy and the few dollars I spent won't haunt me as wasted. Note: I will never buy another movie advertised in the New Yorker again. Unfortunately I cannot take back the 2 hours it took to watch it hoping all along that it would get better by some magic. NO chance.
What a crashing bore! The plot is relentlessly unbelievable and the dialogue was apparently written by an escapee from a defunct writing school. When the characters speak to each other they stop before the end...not because there is tension in the plot but because they really have nothing to say!
Swinton's "mother" will take her place among cinematic pantheon of disturbed and disturbing mothers - Norman Bate's mother, Sigourney Weaver's Mother in Alien, et al.
And the son - the moron in the movie who is sublimely clueless about the goings on around him. Yup---Wellesley College is a better place than the Naval Academy. God forbid that the Naval Academy allows such mental castaways creatures as this the opportunity to destroy the nation from within.
Altogether a waste of time even with the soft porn scenes of 20 seconds or so.

The Deep End is a worthwhile drama/semi-thriller set in a welcoming Lake Tahoe suburb. There is an irrefutable water theme expressed with the insightful cinematography, which adds to the overall aesthetic quality of the scenery. The film is reminiscent of a British "cozy mystery" where a beautiful and often comforting town atmosphere acts as a buffer for an ugly or severe crime which threatens to disrupt the sanguinity of an otherwise peaceful town. The center of the setting of The Deep End is within Margaret's (the main character played by Tilda Swinton) house. She lives in a very traditional world with a military husband away on duty, and several bright, talented kids, whom she takes care of emphatically. The story begins with the revelation of Margaret's oldest son's hidden homosexual relationship. What follows is a suspicious, but accidental death of a shady character from Reno that is suspected to have had a special relationship with the son. The rest of the movie revolves around Margaret coming to terms with difficult situations and leading a secret life from her family and community. Though, The Deep End is not, in the strictest sense, a mystery. The genre is difficult to pin down, but it is perhaps in a similar category with Atom Egoyan's Exotica.

Margaret's character is the strongest aspect of the film. She is portrayed as a very traditional wife and mother who has apparently not had to make too many big decisions independently in her life. Though, as the film progresses, it becomes obvious that she is a very strong and very intense woman who seems to have an almost unhealthy self-sacrificing drive to keep secrets from her family in order to protect them. Her son is also a strong character in the film. He is frustratingly innocent at times, but emotionally perceptive and with the same drive to protect his family (mainly Margaret) throughout the film. The third main character is a thug-with-a-heart-of-gold type. He is played by Goran Visnjic, who does a good job expressing his character's conflicting emotions and agendas. All three characters, by the end of the movie, are likeable, and not without their flaws.

Overall, The Deep End is worth a viewing for those who are willing to sit through two hours of introverted suspense without laughing or crying: it is not funny or sad, but introspective, perhaps. The acting is spectacular. None of the leading actors are big stars and they do not seem to be afraid to act, rather than portray a designated personality like a lot of the familiar Hollywood faces. The Deep End is an undeniably unique film, at the very least.

Finally, for the year 2001, we have an intelligent thriller that doesn't involve futuristic apes, a too-cute humanoid, or waves of pesky bombers attacking a love triangle. And it was almost certainly produced on an infinitely smaller budget.

THE DEEP END stars Tilda Swinton as Margaret Hall, the mother heading a family of five (herself, two sons, daughter, father-in-law) while hubby is off doing Guy Stuff - commanding an aircraft carrier at sea. As mothers sometimes do, she discovers that her oldest son Beau (played by Jonathan Tucker) has become pals with an older man who's exerting a really bad influence. The plot quickly thickens as Beau's new bud shows up in the middle of the night at the Hall's shorefront home on Lake Tahoe and, without anybody knowing, gets himself killed on the property in an accident so silly it/s almost funny. Margaret discovers the corpse the next morning. Not wishing to have her son involved in a potentially scandalous police investigation that will hurt his chances of getting admitted to a hoity-toity college, she hides the body in the lake. Of course, the body is soon found, but the cops don't have a clue. Then the sleazy blackmailer Alek (played by Goran Visnjic) shows up with a videotape of ... well, you'll see.

Even though I don't live in a vacuum, I've never heard of the principal actors in this splendid suspense drama. Swinton is positively riveting as the harassed Mom trying to keep control of downward spiraling events before the Good Life goes to Hades in a handbasket. Tucker is infuriatingly good as the son who just doesn't 'get it'. Best of all, the character of Alek is the biggest surprise of the storyline. And, the film is photographed in one of the true garden spots of California/Nevada. It shows what the Good Life can be if one is allowed to enjoy it. In this excellent summer drama, poor Margaret doesn't have the chance.

I exceptionally enjoyed an advance screening of this film. Though it'll likely be released to only a few theaters, see it if you have the chance.

As apocalyptic disaster movies go this is one of the better ones. It keeps the special effects to a minimum- focussing instead on the various human storylines that run through it. Deep Impact's strong cast includes Tea Leoni, Vanessa Redgrave, Robert Duvall, Morgan Freeman, Elijah Wood and Maximilian Schell. The one criticism I would have of this movie is that it's myriad of individual storieslines when taken in conjunction fail to work. Courageously, perhaps, the film's directors have tried to balance incredible cinematic spectacle with personal stories of great emotional import. The only problem is that there are quite simply too many stories. As a result no individual plot line is developed sufficiently in the 117mins running time to garner the viewers sympathy. The film would have benifited greatly from the axeing of at least one of its subplots or possibly just having one narrative thread instead of several. There are inevitably several moments of beauty and pathos yet the sense of tradegy would have been so much greater if only this excellent cast had been given the scope within the film to develop their characters more. As regards the cast Morgan Freeman contributes his customary powerful performance as the US president. Tea Leoni is muted but engaging in what is probably the main role. Her performance tends to stagnate somewhat as the film progresses. Vanessa Redgrave contributes an excellent cameo as Leoni's mother but is only seen briefly. Max Schell lacks charisma and Elijah Wood's undoubted talents are utterly wasted as Leo Biederman. The film is, however, well paced and succeeds in building a great tension in the viewer as it approaches its climax. It raises intersting questions about democracy and the role of the State in the case of such a catastrophe. They are questions, unfortunately, which it does not choose to pursue to any great extent.
Deep Impact is a highly viewable film but in the end too ambitious for its own good. Its ultimate message of hope in the midst of disaster rings true and it contains many stories of courage and sacrifice. In the end though this is a film that sacrifices too much to its over-ambitious excess of plot lines for it to attain the level of true greatness.

This movie is inevitably compared with "Armageddon." In my opinion, the comparison ends with the subject matter and the strategies for destroying the comet. "Armageddon" is a Bruce Willis movie, and Bruce--whom I enjoy-- puts up a great fight with the big space object. It's entertaining, it's fun to watch, but it's not very different from a lot of John Wayne movies in its essential story line. "Deep Impact," on the other hand, deals with the emotional, social, and political effects of impending disaster. The portrayals of all the characters were thoughtful and finely wrought. (What a treat to see Vanessa Redgrave and Maximillian Schell in this movie!)

Tia Leoni plays a character who may seem "wooden"-- I know from many years of experience working with people that her reaction is totally believable, that many people shut down when faced with overwhelming panic. I also found her parents, and her relationship with them, to be very skillfully portrayed. As for Morgan Freeman, I'd vote for him anytime. This movie has quickly made its way into my list of all-time favorites (my husband and two teenagers agree with me on this one). It makes me think of "Testament" with Jane Alexander, which lacked spectacular special effects but resonated with human truth. The difference is that I can't bring myself to watch "Testament" again, but I can see myself watching "Deep Impact" again, and sharing it with friends.

By the way, "Deep Impact" has a very cool website with links to articles in astronomy journals that gave me new respect for all those big space objects out there.

This is a film that could easily have gone sour. We could have had inordinate focus on the young folks or a lot of political hokum about we are all one happy family or - more likely - the majority of the movie could be spent on the impact and awful aftermath.

Great opening, good build up. Tea Leoni seems made for the part of striving newswoman and her very drive opens up a secret that is as somber as it is news-worthy. Slowly the tension rises as we wonder who will be saved (the random drawing is great) and who is condemned to perish. Several things separate this from the usual run (say ARMAGEDDON).

First, our heroine does not survive but goes out in a tender scene with dad. Second, the asteroid does hit and does destroy a large part of the Earth. Third, we are left with a feeling of hope instead of despair and even a sense of pride. This one deserves an "A".

If for you the remarkable things about the galapagos include the iguanas, tortoises, and finches, you will be disappointed in this program. After a cursory glance at the earth- and air-borne species, the camera goes underwater and examines fish. The imagery is lovely, but we are NOT seeing those creatures which have made the galapagos famous! A fairer title would have been "OCEAN ENVIRONMENTS AROUND THE GALAPAGOS AREA."

No quibbles with the glory of the presented creatures, but we had been expecting much more about what makes these islands unique!

I was anxious to get in and see this movie.

For the record: I LOVE 3-D Imax. I literally get excited at the thought of heading in there with the glasses and settling back for an immersive experience. I will see anything shown in this format, and the premium price I pay for the tickets seems perfectly reasonable, given the fantastic environment (and i am NOT rich).

Over the past few years I have seen just about every 3-D Imax movie that has made the rounds into San Francisco's Metreon. And hands down, the best film yet made in 3-D Imax is "Into the Deep". Oh man. It is beautiful. Long, lingering, pondering shots. Just running the camera, letting the viewer's mind and senses adjust to the new realities brought by each change of scene. Alien vistas brought to you in an unhurried way, allowing your mind to run free in the 3-D space in front of your eyes, choosing which creatures to watch and how deeply to focus... Virtually unstructured, accompanied by a soothing female voice-over, the film takes you through a series of vignettes, each focusing on the intimate realities of specific life-forms. It's magic and amazing.

"Galapagos" itself is a heartfelt, environmental documentary... which should have been make in 2-D!! The 3-D aspects of it seem "thrown in" not part of the ride. It's written like a TV documentary. Why?? I can watch those at home. The voice-over script seems to drive the whole film: the film-makers apparently have a point to make about evolution. C'mon! We've only got 45 minutes here. The point of a 3-D Imax movie is the immersion, not the plot. I can get great plots already on VHS (and plenty of Kenneth Branagh too).

3-D Imax is a treat for the senses. A simple dissolve from one scene to another plays deep tricks on you brain's sense of depth perception and space. In the hands of an artist, this can be great (like the foreground/background mass transitions in "T-REX: Back to the Cretaceous", a visually excellent piece). But the makers of "Galapagos" seem to be in over their heads. Trasitions that must have looked fine in the storyboards did not translate at all well.

Basically I am left feeling like I paid ten bucks for something I could have watched on the Discovery Channel for free.

PLEASE FILM-MAKERS!!! If you read this... please make 3-D Imax movies that respect the medium and propel it forward. Quick edits and boilerplate pans and trucks from the 2-D Imax cannon just don't make it worthwhile without some 3-D "sculpting" of your transitions and shot set-ups.

The Galapagos Islands are located off the coast of Ecuador and is the site that Charles Darwin visited in 1835, viewing some of the marine life from a glass bottom boat. His observations on these islands formed the basis for his eventual theory of evolution. Now, all these years later, a marine biologist from the Smithsonian Institute, Dr. Carole Baldwin, makes the same trip. Darwin would have been amazed at all the technological equipment she has, and even more amazed if he could have viewed it as I did, in startling three dimension.

We saw it on a screen that was 80 feet high, and the three dimensional effect was so intense that I kept trying to reach out and touch the rocks and small birds that always appeared in the foreground. It was distracting at first, so distracting that I was more impressed with the technique than with what was actually going on in the film. But within a few minutes I was right there with the scientists, literally inside the picture as they climbed the rock mountains and descended into the ocean's deep in a submersible boat that seemed to come straight out of science fiction, not real science.

I was fascinated throughout the 40-minute film as the camera went where humans have never been before, filming sea lions, iguanas, giant tortoises, birds and lizards and using a special device to capture live sea creatures from the bottom of the sea. I felt I was climbing the lava rock mountain, descending into caves, and feeling the brush of foliage against my face. And the whole time I kept wondering how it was done, and enjoying the fact that I live at a time in history that a voyage to Galapagos can be enjoyed so much because of modern technology.

I did some research on the web later and discovered that during the filming a cameraman and a pilot died when their lightweight plane crashed on a volcano, and realize the dangers that it took to make this film. Then I went to the official website and found more details about the technical aspects as well as some excellent photographs. Recommended. See it if you can.

Director William Cameron Menzies, set designer for "Gone with the Wind" and the original "Invaders from Mars" (1953, which he also directed), keeps this modest Civil War story moving along nicely and with sufficient human-interest details. Guy Madison (TV's "Wild Bill Hickock") and James Craig are close friends who end up on the North and South sides, respectively, and who, not surprisingly, must fight one another in the movie's final reels, though they do so out of sight to one another. Come to think of it, we only see them together some two or three minutes at the start of this reasonably exciting B-epic that belies its budget, courtesy of Menzie's set designs, in spite of harsh early-fifties color and a less than liberal budget. Nothing profound, but this notable picture does convey some of the tragedy of friends and loved ones torn apart by the most horribly personal war in our history.

The story of how a hand full of heroes who blocked Sherman's march to the sea. Two friends from West Point find themselves on opposite sides in the war. The conflicts are not as cut and dry, as it would appear as two things come to mind while watching this movie. One is the basic conflict between friendship and loyalty to a cause; many times this is mistaken resulting in the balance of power changing. The second is a little more superficial but just as intriguing; both sides in the conflict must come up with ways to out gun the other side by using technology outside of its intended purpose. The use of a navel gun on a rail car is one. You will have to watch the movie to see the solution to extending the range of the smaller cannon. Other conditions call for more radical action.

Does the mission succeed and is it worth the price paid on both sides?

I can say the movie is worth the price of repeated viewing.

With a title called Humanoids from the Deep, you'd probably be pretty dumb to expect anything more than a schlocky B-movie. And since I'm always game for a schlocky B-movie, I actually had decent expectations from this movie (even Leonard Maltin gave it 3 stars out of 4). Maybe not so unsurprisingly, Humanoids turns out to be a pretty lame, but also rather watchable, "monsters run amok" flick.

The fishing village of Noyo has a few problems on its hands, actually rather a LOT, in the form of mutated salmon that want to kill all the men and rape the women. We see this cycle play itself out for, well, the entire movie, so that's pretty much all there is plot-wise, excepting the Native American who has trouble from a bigot (played by Vic Morrow).

I've always said that it's entirely possible to make a truly entertaining film (for all the right reasons) from a fun premise. So Humanoids from the Deep probably could have made for one wild little horror flick if not for the stilted pacing and second-rate creature effects. The movie certainly has its heart set in the right place. We've got all the ingredients we expect from a movie like this: lots of gore and gratuitous nudity. Now only if the director could have crafted this with more competence and fun.

Humanoids feels almost two hours in length, even though it runs barely over eighty minutes. The monotony is occasionally punctuated by the nudity and the kill scenes, but it's a shame all the moments in-between don't hold much interest. This is probably because of the lack of atmosphere; director Barbara Peters doesn't give the film the much-needed creepy edge and look it demands. The movie looks and sometimes feels a little bland.

Not helping matters much are the special effects, which are rather poor. These mutated salmon are obviously just men in shoddy suits covered in seaweed. The gore effects, while nothing great, are adequate enough, particularly in the extremely violent climax, which must have made the R-rating a close call. Hard to believe the effects were done by Rob Bottin, who did such a masterful job on the visuals in The Thing.

Humanoids' pacing does get better in the last half hour, when all hell breaks loose, and we get a pretty nifty massacre at the end. Peters even throws in some gunplay, which I imagine would have been more exciting with better direction and editing. As far as script and acting goes, the former isn't quite as stupid as I'd expected it (don't get me wrong, the science is idiotic, though plot holes are sort of kept to a minimum) to be and the latter is actually not that bad for a Roger Corman production.

The score is done by none other than James Horner(!), who must have been in the budding stages of his career. To his credit, he doesn't rip off John Williams, though the music does have a Bernard Herrman-esque sound to it.

I love schlock!! I love cheese! "Humanoids From The Deep" is my dream come true! Roger Corman understands what makes a bad movie good. Picture if you will, a small village where fishing and drinking beer are the only activities. Imagine this town invaded by hordes of horny fishmen. Women are savagely attacked and impregnated (??). Nudity? This flick has more bouncing boobs than a 3 stooges marathon! Doug McClure is the goodguy. As usual, he pulls off his role with the skill and charisma of driftwood. Vic Morrow is the badguy (although he comes "into the light" at the end). He basically plays the same drunken bigot he played in "Twilight Zone, The Movie". Morrow is a great actor. No one does a better job of being menacing! I've been afraid of him ever since "Blackboard Jungle"! Anyway, the Humanoids keep on raping and pillaging, until the great apocolyptic carnival scene! Lots of fake blood, explosions, and hand-to-fin combat! This film would make an excellent double feature with "Horror Of Party Beach"! A must see...

I consider myself well schooled in low budget schlock from various film genres. Watching cheesy films is an acquired taste, one not easily cultivated overnight. Even with some knowledge about who makes these types of films under my belt, I still stumble over major contributors to the clunker movie catalogue and wonder why I haven't spent time with these delicacies before now. Roger Corman is my latest discovery. I admit to having heard of Corman before in reference to the spate of Vincent Price horror classics that emerged in the 1960s along with a few other films he made over the course of his career, but until now I never saw any of them. This guy is a giant of the low budget film, producing or directing some 500 plus movies in the last forty years. He's still going strong as far as I know, and never limits himself to one particular genre; he's made westerns, horror, action, drama, and science fiction films with seeming ease. Moreover, according to the bio on this DVD, Corman helped launch the careers of numerous Hollywood bigwigs. If "Humanoids From the Deep" is any indication, I will spend a lot of time with this filmmaker's projects in the near future.

This movie really ought to be a huge cult cinema classic. Maybe it is in some circles, but if so, I never heard about it. What a shame, too, because "Humanoids From the Deep" is classic camp that rips off every 1950s monster film you ever heard about. The movie, set in a fishing town called Noyo, tells the story of a town rapidly fading away. The local tars are having a tough time catching enough fish to make a living, and just when it seems that all is lost a big time cannery corporation arrives on the scene promising to build a factory that will rejuvenate the local industry. Who can argue with an influx of well paying jobs? Certainly not a fisherman named Hank Slattery who sees dollar signs in the arrival of the suits. Most of the townspeople adopt Hank's position concerning the changing times, even level headed Jim Hill. Hill, who really doesn't care for Hank due to the man's racism against the local Indian tribe, grudgingly agrees that the cannery will help salvage the town. He's a bit suspicious about corporations in general, a thought shared by his wife, but he's willing to go along with it if it means food on table. The local Indians, led by Hank's nemesis Johnny Eagle, despise the idea of building a cannery on old tribal grounds. When a series of unexplainable incidents occur in rapid succession, the Indians and Slattery's goons duke it out with other over the future of the area.

What in the world could possibly cause all of the dogs in the area to die violently in the space of a single evening, lead to the disappearance of a few of the local ladies, and cause such discord between the Indians and the Anglo community? Why, humanoids from the deep, of course! That's right, within mere minutes we learn that Noyo has a big problem in the form of some weird half-salmon, half man beasties roaming around offshore. And these monstrosities take no prisoners, either, since they aren't above tearing open a few bodies, ripping off a few heads, or liberating a few bosoms in order to capture Noyo's women for mating purposes. Corman permeates this film with everything a low budget horror lover could want: completely unnecessary nudity, gallons of gore, and numerous massive explosions. The cars, houses, and boats blowing up in "Humanoids From the Deep" especially impressed me since the producers of the film sank a lot of money into these blossoming fireballs. This is obvious because they use the hilarious old "numerous camera angles and quick cuts" to get the most out of the effect. If you don't care explosions, there is always the gore to float your boat. The conclusion of the film, when Noyo celebrates their town festival and the humanoids make an impressive yet unannounced visit is sure to thrill you with the arterial sprays and gory amputations going on all over the place. What a great little film.

The performances aren't all that bad either. Vic Morrow plays Hank Slattery with all the menace you would expect from the late star. Doug McClure turns in steady work as the even tempered Jim Hill. The rest of the cast, while not as well known as these two actors, all do a pretty good job with their parts. Of course, the humanoids share top billing with the human actors, which is fine because the special effects used in creating these violent creatures worked quite well in my opinion. The humanoids are gruesome looking, with sharp teeth, oversized heads and arms, and a shambling gate resembling the undead in all of those Italian horror movies. I can't say I cared too much their endless shrieking and wailing, but the look and the unremitting violence of these monsters repeatedly entertains.

The DVD is quite a catch too (pun intended). You get five trailers: "Humanoids From the Deep," "Eat My Dust," "Big Bad Mama," "Death Race 2000," and "Grand Theft Auto." A short interview with Corman, conducted by Leonard Maltin, graces the DVD, along with bios for Corman and the cast. The film transfer looks good for an old film of this caliber, at least good enough to see all of the splattery effects and nubile young women running around town. "Humanoids From the Deep" is a must see for those looking for a way to spend a wacky eighty minutes.

This movie starts out in a small fishing town, which may or may not be getting a cannery built, depending on if the local political activist / indian chief gets his way. This whole subplot only exists to set up some explanation as to where the salmon men came from (the cannery people want to increase salmon population, and they use science - eek! - and it goes horribly wrong). Two things this introduction doesn't do is to 1) introduce the characters very well and 2) establish some sort of atmosphere. In the town, pretty much everybody dislikes pretty much everybody else; they argue, they scheme, they fight, they carry beer in from a truck. You don't really get to know (or care about) any of them. They're quite interchangeable actually. There are a few interesting secondary characters but they get little screen time, absolutely no character development at all, and are soon fodder for the special effects. As far as atmosphere, everyone seems to hang out on the dock or else go to the big annual salmon festival. And you should hear the salmon festival band - imagine a bunch of retired people going to the American Legion on a Wednesday night. Now imagine the band that might play there; now imagine a band four times worse than that. Egads, these folks must have been praying for salmon men to kill them for years if this is what they do for entertainment.

Anyhow, after suitable time is given to showing more and more of the monsters, they finally attack in force, and there's lots of blood spurting in all drections. Not an exceptionally exciting action sequence, but it is campy as can be.

Overall, this reminds me of something one might see on the Sci-Fi channel at 10:00 am on a Saturday morning. Not very good, but watchable. And there are some pretty girls getting nekkid. Too bad they didn't spend a lot more time on that, and a lot less time on those banal primary characters.

I love schlock!! I love cheese! "Humanoids From The Deep" is my dream come true! Roger Corman understands what makes a bad movie good. Picture if you will, a small village where fishing and drinking beer are the only activities. Imagine this town invaded by hordes of horny fishmen. Women are savagely attacked and impregnated (??). Nudity? This flick has more bouncing boobs than a 3 stooges marathon! Doug McClure is the goodguy. As usual, he pulls off his role with the skill and charisma of driftwood. Vic Morrow is the badguy (although he comes "into the light" at the end). He basically plays the same drunken bigot he played in "Twilight Zone, The Movie". Morrow is a great actor. No one does a better job of being menacing! I've been afraid of him ever since "Blackboard Jungle"! Anyway, the Humanoids keep on raping and pillaging, until the great apocolyptic carnival scene! Lots of fake blood, explosions, and hand-to-fin combat! This film would make an excellent double feature with "Horror Of Party Beach"! A must see...

I'll never forget this: 1980, a drive-in theatre in West Virginia, partying in a Chevy Impala. Nobody paying too much attention to the rubber monster movie on the screen.

Then someone says, "Hey, that monster's (having sex) with that girl up there."

Nobody said another word and we watched the rest of the movie.

After JAWS ('75), there was a deluge of drive-in B-movies set on or next to water. ALIEN was another huge hit in '79 so then came all the cheap sci-fi knock-offs. HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP combined/ripped-off both JAWS and ALIEN: you had the seaside setting as well as the slimy monsters.
Sure, it's an exploitation movie, but it also answered the age-old question of what monsters want with our women. And it's pretty much what we suspected.
In the right frame of mind, this is a Drive In Classic.

(But be careful: there's an even-cheaper "remake" floating around out there with Robert Carradine, a sexless, humorless, drive-in-less knock-off so avoid the more recent version. You need the one with Doug McClure in winter wear, teen girls in bikinis, and Vic Morrow as the nasty racist fisherman).

this one has great shark attacks with bloody efects afterwards, but its slowed down with some rampid stupidity in the dialouge and some dry parts, but never quit the good cast. Thomas Jane, LL Cool J, Saffron Burrows, Stellan Skarsgard, Jaqueline McKenzie, Samuel L. Jackson and Michel Rapaport and its fun to see LL Cool J as a priest, though I hated seeing Jackson die in the middle

this is not your typical shark movie.
these sharks, 3 mako sharks are genetically enhanced to produce a certain chemical to help cure alzhemiers disease, but there's only one problem. the shark's got smarter.
this movie is similar in it's message. don't mess with mother nature. just like the dinosaurs came back to kill in Jurassic Park, the sharks come back to kill in Deep Blue Sea.
awsome movie with some great actions scenes and very suspensful scenes.

DVD features include behind the scenes and the making of Deep Blue Sea. this includes live footage with actual sharks, and the making of the mako sharks, tanks, Aquatica, interviews with all of the characters, and much much more.

the best part of this movie, is that you have absoulelty no idea who is going to die. just because the movie had LL Cool J and Samuel Jackson, doesn't mean that they are going to make it out alive. this isn't your typical cheesey movie where the main characters or big named actors live, it's pretty surprising what happens in this movie. you have to watch it so see what i am saying.
some scenes of the sharks are computer generated, but some of the scenes aren't. they actually built an entire shark that could swim and move on it's own. pretty cool.

awsome movie, great surprises, and awsome death scenes. tons of blood, people getting bitten in half, just awsome.
and then to top that off, LL Cool J's awsome theme song comes out in the end..."My hat is like a shark's fin."

only problem with Deep Blue Sea is the ending, which is a total rip off from the 1st Jaws. but other than that, great movie.

awsome movie.

This was a surprisingly fantastic movie. Great acting, great plot, mediocre gore and a widely unknown type of shark, the Short-fin Mako that can scare the pants off you.
I had two problems.
1. Renny Harlin bragged about his sharks, saying no one could tell the difference between real makos, his robots or the CGI sharks. It's a lie. You can easily tell the difference. He even said one of his friends thought that the shark that killed Mchael Rapaport's character was real. Sure Harlin, it really was a real shark, not CGI.
2. Susan McAlester. What kind of [person] would purposefully jump in the water with a cut hand and swim out so far? Why not just swim out a tiny bit, before swimming out. SHE COULD HAVE LIVED! If I were Saffron Burrows, I'd say to the director to change that, becuase when Preacher kills the shark, he'd been munched by it just minutes before, Ii seriously doubt he would have been able to stand up.
There were some great shockers, like Samuel L. Jackson's death scene, fantastic. And the robots did bring a touch of reality into it that the Jaws films wouldn't have been able to. But you can't blame them, it wass the seventies after all.
This is one of those movies you rent for when a whole lot of your friends come around, or if it's a rainy afternoon. But whatever you do, don't watch this movie for the first time before you go to the beach.

In a terrible attempt to cash in on both the hip-hop craze and the popularity of the "Blair Witch Project", this movie was recorded in 1999. This movie really doesn't have much of a plot as about 95% of it is just rappers talking to a video camera about the "Hip-Hop Witch". All of their accounts are different as it seems the makers of this waste of money more than likely just asked each rapper to make up their own story.

The whole spoof on "Blair Witch" is poor at best as you have a few white kids getting lost in New York City. The movie might have worked better if they cut the amount of big name cameos down by about 75% and actually used some of these names as part of the movie, rather than doing what is subsquently a "video plug". The subplot involving a female news reporter getting screwed over her story is dumb and cliche-driven. There really is not one honest laugh to be found in this movie. Only redeeming value is seeing a young Eminem for about five minutes and hearing him go off on his own little speech about "The Witch". Even that scene really isn't funny but it's the closest thing to it that you will find in this movie.

Forget 8 Mile fanz. See 8 minutes of the Eminem you're craving for. Before he went Hollywood he kept it real with his featured role with Ja Rule and Mobb Deep and his boy Royce 5'9". Vanilla Ice was actually very believeable in it too. It's so fresh it's like Scooby Doo on ... so Holla at your boy!.

I have to say, with all of the press, both good and bad surrounding this little movie I was expecting to see something horrific. Instead I find a gem! Bad handheld a la Blair Witch camera work style aside, this movie has so many inside jokes it's like an EXTRAS dream, if in fact your the type of viewer that likes to catch things like that. Also Eminem in his film debut is a real coupe for the producers and RAh Digga, Pras and JA Rule also. The white kids story was hysterical as well. I can see where animosity might set in if your thinking your renting a studio release such as Sixth Sense (wich they so cunningly poke fun at) but really if you read on the DVD box it professes itself to be an indie. Rent it, buy it and enjoy it.