Shortly before striking box office gold with “The Mummy” in 1999, Stephen Sommers wrote and directed 1998’s “Deep Rising,” a modestly budgeted science-fiction horror film. A host of negative reviews — including one by Roger Ebert, who later featured it on his Most Hated list — sank the film upon release, so you aren’t to be faulted if you haven’t heard of it. However, if you liked the action, creature feature thrills, and humor in “The Mummy,” you’ll enjoy “Deep Rising” as well — despite its 34% Rotten Tomatoes rating.
Like “The Mummy,” “Deep Rising” follows a blueprint from classic Hollywood and B-pictures: There’s a fast-talking hero (Treat Williams) and a clever heroine (Famke Janssen), a host of bad guys (including Wes Studi, Anthony Heald, and Djimon Hounsou), and an insurmountable monster: a colossal, Lovecraftian sea creature with a taste for passenger ships. The dialogue is breezy, the action briskly paced, and the monster scenes appropriately gross. If there’s an issue with “Deep Rising,” it’s the budget, which can undermine its special effects and production design. If you can see past that, you’ll most likely agree with Ty Burr’s assessment for Entertainment Weekly: “It’s pretty darn wonderful — a tightly written, often howlingly funny ‘Aliens’ knockoff that, in its portrayal of tough men and tougher women under pressure, favorably recalls the work of Howard Hawks.”
