Unscrupulous Admiral Malice (Ned Beatty) is pressured by defense secretary Neighbor to move up the stealth submarine project the Sub Standard despite it not being read leading malice and military contractor Wedgewood to arranged for the sub to be tested with an ill equipped crew captained by a disgraced submarine captain who has fears of water and tight spaces.
Going Under is a 1991 submarine movie spoof made in the same vein as Warner Bros. Police academy movies down to the fact co-writer Randolph Davis would go on to write Police Academy: Mission to Moscow and Michael Winslow makes a brief supporting performance as an unnamed reporter character. Originally filmed under the title Dive!, the movie supposedly did have a few test engagements in theaters before Warner Bros. Ultimately decided to release the movie directly to video with the film largely having fallen into obscurity since. There's really not all that much to say other than like many of the Police Academy follow-ons Going Under feels very tired and without much punch to the material.
In the opening where we're introduced to some very broad satire about the military industrial complex that somehow gets into a military meeting staged like an episode of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, the movie does get the odd chuckle here and there particularly from Bill Pullman's introduction as Biff Banner whose backstory of disgrace of beaching his submarine is mildly amusing, but as talented an actor as Pullman is even he can't support leaden material. The movie runs into an issue of making its central submarine funny and despite the Sub Standard having a ramshackle nature it doesn't offer all that much for comedic possibilities with the extended cast largely more confusing than legitimately funny and this is despite having funny people like Wendy Schaal of The 'Burbs and American Dad or Chris Demetral of Dream On making up the core cast. The Sub Standard when you compare it to what was done with The Big Bus or the planes in Airplane! Just feels lacking in solidly placed gags and instead just relies on a lot of mugging and noise to make up for the shoddy script.
Going Under goes under with very few laughs to justify itself even at an anemic premise of 80 minutes. I would say that Going Under is the last gasp of that particularly wave of that style of comedies, but Police Academy: Mission to Moscow would come out a mere 3 years later.
