What Lurks Beneath

Another case of a potentially decent cast, at least some of them, in search of a script.

I usually do a quick flip thru before I watch the movie to see what is in store and was kinda impressed. One or two stages were OK for a budget film, almost good. As to rest, let's just say it is likely that the director and crew never bothered to visit any of the over 200 submarines on display, nor watched any of the many good submarine movies out there.

Don't expect much from the acting. Not sure many of them even watched a good navy film to get into character. A few exceptions maybe.

But worst of all is the script. The specific events that make, or more often break, the movie are completely unbelievable. Good Sci-fi movies can make you believe in anything because they make sure the setup and the expected basics (the hows, the cast reactions, etc) are believable. Not this movie. You barely start down the path of believing something and then it falls apart quite quickly.

The only reason to watch this is to see how to take a possible 3 to 4 star movie, and make it a 1 or 2. (I gave 2 only because I saw something in a few cast members.)

Acting is almost daytime soap opera quality. For this to be a naval sub, it seems very small, and the crew limited. The movie is obviously filmed on a tiny budget. I am not a sailor or in the military, but the captain gives direct orders and they are not followed through. The captain never questions his crew, nor does he follow up on the orders he gave his crew. I have to blame the writing and direction on why this was so poor. There is a serious lack of motives, from the crew and the creature.

The creature. Isn't scary, sexy, but is more of a poor subplot or a MacGuffin device to keep you watching. The special effects are also budgeted, but I have never graded a movie on eye candy. There is so little blood or violence. I would say it would be rated PG-13 or TV14 at best. Removing the creature from this story and what you have is badly written version of Crimson Tide or some other nuclear submarine psychological thriller.

In the end, this movie isn't good enough to watch for content. It isn't campy and thus not a good cheesy movie. It just exists and I hope that director Jamie Bailey and writer Marcus Raul find new career paths.

Not awesome, but not bad. I felt like the suspense built. There is lack of trust in the crew, which made you not know who is good and who might be bad.

Decent special effects.

It is a struggle that this submarine seems to only have 10 crew, but hey- actors cost money.

The sub interior is very realistic and well done. I have been in a submarine, and it was pretty well done.

Most CGI is well done.

Overall, I liked it. Again, not going to be in the academy awards, but it is worth a look on a rainy afternoon.

For Parents: Some language Nude woman for about 5 seconds from a distance.

Otherwise, it is ok. I think 15 and above can watch it and would find it interesting.

The Plot:

The crew of USS Titan find themselves on the brink of WWIII with Russia when a naked stowaway appears in one of their torpedo tubes. Captain Banks fears she may be Russian, but she's something far more dangerous.

Yeah, this movie. Hands down, this is perhaps the worst movie i have screened so far all year. The acting is dismal but maybe I could have gotten over that if the script was any good.

It's not. It's just horrible. The dialog is inauthentic at best and the delivery is wooden.

The storyline is really silly and you know this film is going to be bad right from the titles which show a cartoon (yep, not even CGI) mermaid swimming.

The direction is slow. Real slow. Sleep inducing slow. It's truly a bad movie. Don't waste your time.

Relative novice director Jamie Baily and first time writer Marcus Raul have attempted a serious and poignant horror thriller that becomes one of the most torturous movies to rate because it has an apparent number of inscrutable rational flaws of logic and military behavior involving a nuclear submarine, its members, a well performed female stranger, and possible World War III (reminiscent of the television series Outer Limits, 1995-2002) devastation along with an extremely difficult job of including a number of subplots that get awkwardly entangled into the movie. From the beginning, writer Rual has a difficult time incorporating important plot points that seem to control the script in ways are arbitrarily inserted in places that don't feel natural. The attempt to tie the climax with a fragile relational dilemma, behind the scenes secrets between the American Naval members and the British Intel operators seem unnecessarily uneven. Nevertheless the sincerity of the attempt at a pure consistent narrative structure throughout the movie along with the dramatic and emotional ending holds itself up well. This movie is worth one viewing for its depth of substance incorporating a series of neat Naval command protocols usually overlooked in average military movies, the number of authentic feeling human doubts, and the strength of the main plot that make this movie barely survive its higher rating.