This movie is exactly what it looks like; a cheesy b-grade horror-sci-fi film. Where this movie excels is in not taking itself seriously. This is a great popcorn flick with above average acting, dialog and special effects (for a 90s b-grade cheese fest anyway). The bad guys are spectacularly over the top. Treat Williams is a great anti-hero leading man. Kevin J. O'Connor is hilarious in his role of the likable but dorky sidekick.There isn't much more you could ask for in a laugh out loud popcorn flick. Academy fodder this is not, but it's still one of my top 20 or so favorite movies

The diologue proves this movie doesn't take itself too seriously...I hope. It's slightly better than a SYFY Channel movie and that's partly because you can recognize some of the poor actors. The special effects are, well special and the creature is very reminiscent of everything including Aliens. Five Stars because this may have been the birth of Famke Janssen's action career.

Just like the big bug or alien movies of the 1950's, Them, The Blob, Deadly Mantis etc, the one thing that all of these and countless others just like them had in common is that none of them made any sense, had very questionable or impossible science and guns were largely useless. So it is with Deep Rising; a 90's version of a 50's Sci-Fi theme.Basically, a team of mercenaries are sent to rob a luxury cruise liner that has been rendered crippled on purpose by the owner of the ship in an effort to claim the heist on tax. Passengers and crew were meant to escape in the lifeboats while the ship was deliberately scuttled, eliminating all clues pointing to it being an inside job. Unfortunately once the ship was sabotaged it was attacked by large worm-like sea monsters that wipe out the majority of the people on board. Once the mercenaries arrive and realise what they're up against, it's a fight for survival while they try and find a way off the sinking ship and not get eaten in the process. It's a simple, almost arcade game style monster movie. In a word, Deep Rising is dumb, but it doesn't set out to be anything different than that. Just like those movies of old, there's very little story, the same implausible science and despite the odd decent casting choice, we get some very 2 dimensional acting from all concerned. You won't get any character development in this, whatever you see of a person in the first 5 seconds is exactly how they'll be right up until their death. However in spite of all this, Deep Rising works as it never takes itself seriously. It's a prefect late night TV movie where your brain is at that stage of shutting down for the night but you're not quite ready for bed yet. There's enough blood & gore and enough decent CGI action to keep you watching until the inevitable showdown with the boss monster at the end. The end where the last remaining 2 decide to blow up the cruise ship are pretty good with the explosion sequence being a highlight. Deep Rising is worthy enough for late night viewing but it's not worth the money to warrant owning your own copy.

The worst thing about Stephen Sommers' films is the poor CGI (and the amount of it they include). The effects in this are probably the best overall from any of his films, although certain shots are definitely still clunky. Sommers should've just written the story and let someone handle the screenplay, as it's really not all that good, filled with generic dialogue from "I've got a really bad feeling about this" to "There's something you don't see every day". Kevin J. O'Connor is pretty funny in this, as he was in The Mummy, and the scene where he gives Wes Studi a pistol while he's being eaten by the creature is gold. Treat Williams does a pretty good job with the material he's given, as does Famke Jannsen (who also looks very lovely). The action sequences are all fun, and the film takes advantage of the cruise ship setting.