The Cruel Deep [1999]

After watching a couple of movie trailers, I thought about getting either Mission Impossible 2, Gladiator, or The Matrix (but I've already seen this one) The Dolby Digital effects of the DVD was AMAZING!!!(Even though i only got the cables that came with the PS2 and connected the audio cables to our CD Player and the video cable to the TV via the SCART port) The picture was also good on the trailers.

My dad went to get some DVDs from somewhere but didn't get any of the ones that I wanted.....he said they were 'too expensive'! Instead he got The Cruel Deep from a sale in a shop. I thought it'd be a really bad film, something like : No good sound effects, extras, good picture quality, or a good story.

It was only after I watched the film that I realised that the plot would have been improved a lot, if really famous people starred in it(e.g. Tom Cruise), but it was OK. The sound was great, but the volume had to be turned up quite a lot. Because the sound on DVDs don't have noise, this was not a problem. Picture quality was also quite good!

The movie is based around a Greek artefact, which belonged to the Greek government, but an American collector also wanted it. A (classics)teacher goes to Greece to find out more about it, while she finds out that her husband is on the trip too. They meet on the ship, which has terrorists on board, working for Bates(the American collector), wanting to get the artefact back from the Greek government(who were transporting it back to the island of Lesvos, the home of the valued object, after it was seized from customs at the airport). Various events means that the teacher ends up with the artefact in her hands, and it an underwater struggle of a classic Goodie - VS - Baddie movie, of the teacher (Larissa Miller) and her husband (Rob Lowe) against the main terrorist guy. All this action is to take place on the ferry from Athens to the Greek Island of Lesvos. What will happen to the artefact? Who knows? Buy the movie!

Now please, please give me the 50 gift certificate Amazon.co.uk, so I can get more games (i want SSX!) for my new PS2!!! I mean, I did write the first review for this film!!


Action romance novel to the big screen   November 5, 2004
B. Chandler (Arlington, Texas)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful

Move over Bruce Willis and Steven Seagal; here comes Rob Lowe. This has the ruthless bad guy frustrated by ex-military reluctant hero. There are "stay in the car scenes", and "I do not believe you" scenes. Lots of bombs and explosions and water. Tempered by gushy love and unrequited love on a verbal level.

Basic story line is an international art thief hires hit men with lots of equipment to recover a statue. Parallel to this is the story of a woman who thinks her husband is boring and goes on vacation. Too bad for both groups as hubby shows up to recover wife and just happens to have extraordinary military skills.
Will the bad guy get the statue?
Will the lovers get together?
Or do the all get wet under pressure?


WORTH YOUR TIME - JUST DONT EXECT THE BRILLIANCE OF LORD OF THE RINGS SPECIAL EFFECTS   October 25, 2008
stuart (MIDDLESBROUGH, ENGLAND)
I bought this for 99p with three other films (a 4 films on 2 dvds pack), the other films were JET, THE LAST LINE OF DEFENSE and STORM and I have those to watch yet.

I decided to watch this today and I went in with low expectations - not expecting brilliant acting, special effects etc. Luckily it was pretty good for the price I paid for it.

Yes the plot we have seen countless times before in Die Hard, Under Siege (which is very similar to this) but another terrorist film can't hurt can it?

The story is: Rob Lowe is working all the time and hardly see's his wife (who is annoyed) and decides to go on a cruise ship with a Greek student (who has teacher's pet/creep written all over him. Rob Lowe finds this out and turns up on the cruise unannounced where he gets arrested for not having a passport.

At that moment terrorist take over and it then turns into a Die Hard type film hence action, shoot outs etc which I found pretty bloodless (but then this is rated a 12).

I found this enjoyable but also found quite a few flaws with the film:

1) With hundreds, if not thousands of passengers on board the ferry, when it sunk what happened to them? Did they all drown? I did not see one body or one survivor in the water.

2) I heard the sub captain say when ordered to torpedo the mini-sub, that the sub was a decommissioned naval vessel and therefore had no torpedoes. But a few minutes later, hey presto a total of two torpedoes were launched at the mini-sub, albeit unarmed. However they both managed to find their target but somehow managed to bounce harmlessly off of the mini-sub.

3: The CGI looked like a computer game (but that was to be expected).


But if you can overlook those problems this film is worth your time and yes there are better films out there that are very similar but if you've seen them all and are looking for something to pass the time this is entertaining then pick this up.