City Beneath the Sea is set in the brave new futuristic world of the 21st Century (it was made in the 20th...) where a city underneath the sea has been built, it is known as Pacifica. Admiral Michael Matthews (Stuart Whitman) has been recalled to take charge of Pacifica after a 6 month hiatus away because everyone blamed him for the death of a much loved & respected scientist Bill Holmes (even though listed in the credits as played by Larry Pennell the character of Bill Holmes is dead from the start & never seen on screen in present time, he is only seen briefly on a video monitor), however the president wants Matthews there as the entire gold content of fort knox is going to stored in Pacifica as well as the entire world supply of H1-28 which is the most powerful power source ever created unfortunately it's also highly explosive. To add to Matthews worries it turns out that a meteorite or Planetoid is headed for a collision with Earth & will hit at Pacifica's location in seven hours...This made-for-TV remake of the made-for-TV City Beneath the Sea (1969) was produced & directed by infamous 60's sci-fi filmmaker Irwin Allen & is a silly piece of sci-fi nonsense that is an OK time waster. The script by John Meredyth Lucas moves along at a fair pace & is passable light hearted Saturday afternoon entertainment if your in the right frame of mind, it's a pleasant enough way to spend 90 odd minutes but you'll have completely forgotten about it by the time the day finishes. The character's are pretty clichéd, the heroic hero dude, the bad guy & a blonde woman are all one dimensional stereotypes. The whole double cross & plan to steal the gold & H1-28 is poorly handled without any suspense or tension, the bad guys are revealed straight away so there's no mystery element & a potentially decent twist ending is wasted & they barely do anything anyway. Then there's the meteorite thing, was Matthews the only person on the entire planet who thought about firing nuclear weapons into it to change it's course? Surely the president & his scientific advisor's would have come up with the same conclusion or is it just that Matthews is the cleverest person on Earth? Some of the logic just isn't very good & rather clunky, just about worth a watch if you don't expect too much.This is definitely an Irwin Allen film with loads of bright garish sets & hideously dated looking computer banks the size of a small shed complete with random flashing lights & computer screens that feature plenty of bad super imposition. The city of Pacifica is obviously a scale model & a not very good one, the main computer control room set was apparently re-dressed & used in Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972). What was it with Allen & all those flashing random lights anyway? They were a trademark of the films he made & I don't see their attraction to be honest. I recognised the yellow model ship thing from Allen's TV series Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1964 - 1968). Also, why are the fish & marine life so big? Huge fish that swim past the windows & the like? Odd.Technically the film is alright, some of the sets & 'futuristic' equipment are horribly dated these days & wouldn't even convince a 5 year old. Still that's where part of it's charm & fun comes from I suppose. The acting isn't the best even though there's some good character actor's here, Richard Basehart teams up with Allen again to play the president, Sugar Ray Robinson makes an appearance somewhere along with Whit Bissell, Joseph Cotten & Burr DeBenning all of whom are sadly no longer with us.City Beneath the Sea is an OK sci-fi adventure flick that is relatively undemanding fun in a cheesy & dated sort of way, good enough but not great. Not to be confused with the short lived British TV series City Beneath the Sea (1962) or the underwater adventure film City Beneath the Sea (1953) about two divers looking for sunken gold.

Unfortunately City Beneath The Sea has not been aired as far as I know for several years. I scan listings regularly for it. Effects as I recall were way ahead of its time. Plot was terrific and acting was great. The original version is ripe for showing on TV again as well as a DVD release. And with re-makes being all the rage lately, this would be a good one to remake as well. This movie was listed in one of Blockbuster's annual movie guides, indicating that it was due for release, but it never happened. If it is ever aired again, don't miss it! If it is ever released on DVD, buy it! You will not be disappointed.

Interesting to see that a lot of people liked this when they were kids . I first saw it one Saturday night in the late 1970s and actually liked it . After a gap of over 25 years I saw it again this afternoon and thought it absolutely sucked The very first scene features a special effect that wouldn't have been allowed on the very worst episode of DOCTOR WHO . Then we're shown our hero Adm Michael Matthews being introduced along with his bevy of bimbo office babes . I sure did appricated that in the mid 21st century all woman must wear mini dresses but I'm not sure Adm Matthews does . I mean this guy is a bit gay isn't he ? Watch as he prances down steps and tries to be all mean and moody in a white jump suit . Hello sailor The production values are grim . There only seems to be three sets : the control room , the gold vault and a swimming tank with much of the action taking place via monitor screens . This is where CITY BENEATH THE SEA fails . It's a pilot about a city beneath the sea right ? So the producers have already exausted two plots from a totally limited concept . Mincing Matthews has to act fast ( And if you see any acting in this please let me know what scene it appeared in ) to stop some bad guys carrying out a theft and a meteor crashing in the city . I'm surprised it got beyond script stage to be honest

When I first saw this film in 1971 on KING-TV in Seattle as a kid, I had no idea it had won an Emmy for best special effects or that the screenplay had been written by Star Trek producer John Meredyth Lucas.All I knew was that it was a wonderfully clean and futuristic looking film, with lots of action and exciting situations. For fans of Irwin Allen's previous TV shows, it's a treasure house of familiar faces and reused props. James Darren, Robert Colbert and Whit Bissell are here from "Time Tunnel," as is Richard Basehart and Robert Dowdell from "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea." The glowing red planetoid, which still looks fantastic as it approaches the Earth, had previously been a glowing GREEN planetoid used for "Land of the Giants". Even the main title music for this film is background music from "Land of the Giants". The opening shots of the flying sub (stock footage from Voyage) is straight from the negative, and looks incredible. The film also boosts many new effects as well and impressive sets. It would have been a great TV series, something more ambitious for the early 1970s than "Invisible Man" or "Six Million Dollar Man". A fun ride.