Submerged

This movie was one of the worst I have ever seen (not including anything by or with Pauly Shore). I couldn't believe that a film could actually be THIS bad!

Coolio has to be the single worst actor (again, not including Pauly Shore) to ever "star" in a movie. The temptation to hit the STOP button during this movie was huge (in fact, if there was a THROW IN THE TRASH button on my VCR, I would have been inclined to press that).

Do yourself a favor, and do something more interesting than watch this movie, like watching the grass grow, or watching golf on TV.

"Submerged" is an updated remake of Universal's "Airport 1977." Although this is a Paramount release, "Submerged" uses the same model work, stock footage, and many key plot points from "Airport 1977" including the same rescue sequence. This version sensibly takes some of the story outside of the plane crash--the fatal flaw of the original. There are some good action chase scenes and some lively explosions. There are some other interesting additions, such as shark-infested waters and a pregnant woman in labor. The plane decor is interesting -- including a old western-style saloon bar. Aside from Dennis Weaver as Stevens, the acting is pretty wooden and uninteresting. Overall, "Submerged" is midly entertaining, on par with a good made-for-TV movie.

Okay, I just had to sound off on this one... Like a tremendous mental-gimp, I've just sat through this film in its entirety.

You'll note that the trivia section of IMDB points out that portions of the raising of the 747 were "borrowed" from Airport 1977. This really doesn't scratch the surface... Virtually all exterior shots of the plane skimming the ocean, landing in, sinking, and even the at-rest shots are borrowed from Airport '77. All of the "raising" shots are pulled from '77, including most of the interior flooding clips, with the exception of Dennis Weaver's drowning. I couldn't help but wonder if Olivia Dehavilland might come floating by at any moment, or maybe a "dead" Tom Sullivan. Another eye-roller: Dennis Weaver's name in this film is Stevens, which is to compensate for the fact that Airport '77's plane is owned by the Stevens Corporation (headed by Jimmie Stewart of course).

This is a veritable calvalcade of actors who don't work much, or at least haven't worked in a while, which might have been the first clue that it was going to be a real stinker.

I've rated this film a 2 - It's quite worthy of a "1", but if this film can't offer any other redeeming quality, at least somebody helped Coolio, Max Caulfield, Nicolle Eggert, and Dennis Weaver make their car payments that month!

Submerged (2000)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Low-budget action picture has a plane hijacked so that a group of terrorists can steal a missile launching code. The plane ends up crashing into the ocean and sinking to the bottom so it's up to some Navy Seals to try and save the passengers.

If the plot sounds familiar then you've probably seen AIRPORT '77. That disaster film is one of my favorite pictures so when I heard about this movie I just had to check it out. Director Fred Olen Ray is a master at low-budget movies and he at least made this one look like a professional production but sadly there's really not too much here to enjoy.

THe biggest problem with the film is the fact that there's just no drama, tension or suspense. The film is well-made, like I said, but at the same time one wishes that there was some sort of connection to the characters that made you care about them or that the film really made you fear that some sort of disaster was going to happen. None of that happened so we were left with a rather flat film.

The film does have some familiar actors including Dennis Weaver, Fred Williamson, Nicole Eggert and even Coolio. Of the cast, Weaver comes off the best playing the rich redneck who likes to drink. The film does offer a couple nice action scenes but the scene with the plane being raised from the ocean is actually footage from AIRPORT '77.

The movie was your average low budget film. But the part that got me the most was the blatant scenes stolen from Airplane. It was so obvious it makes you wonder who they were trying to fool. Splicing scenes from a movie made in the 70's into a movie made today and trying to be taken seriously, is pathetic.