Okay, so let me just start off by saying if I were in the place of the main character, it would not be that difficult to kill the man who has literally destroyed my life. He's a complete idiot. But anyways, the monster is literally the title, just a big octopus. The final scene reminded me of the classic, "It came from beneath the sea". But the effects of Ray Harryhausen mop the floor with the effects in this film, it's just gross. However, they had a good start, being stuck on the bottom of the ocean in a submarine that is about to implode at any time is a pretty terrifying concept. It's hard to say much about the actual film though because the majority of the movie was the characters talking about the monster, rather than actually dealing with it. I will admit that it has a satisfying ending with the characters. I remember seeing this on TV in the early 2000's, and as a kid I liked it. Now though, it's lost a lot of its charm.

During the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis a Soviet submarine tries to slip past the American blockade to deliver a load of extremely deadly bio-chemicals. Unfortunately, the submarine is detected and while trying to escape it is destroyed by American torpedoes and the canisters sink to the bottom of the ocean. Thirty-eight years later the scene shifts to Bulgaria where a notorious terrorist by the name of "Casper" (Ravil Isyanov) manages to detonate a bomb inside the American embassy but is caught by a CIA analyst named "Roy Turner" (Jay Harrington). The decision is then made to bring the terrorist back to the United States via an American submarine commanded by "Captain Jack Shaw" (David Beecroft) who happens to hold a rather dubious reputation by those in senior management positions. However, as luck would have it the route the submarine takes just so happens to be inhabited by an octopus which has grown to gigantic proportions due to the chemical spill that occurred 38 years previously. Now rather than reveal any more of this film I will just say that I thought the first hour or so was actually quite good. Sad to say, the second half of the movie was a complete disaster due in large part to more-than-a-few preposterous scenes and some incredibly bad dialogue between the main actors. What made matters even worse is the fact that this movie honestly had some potential. In any case, I rate this film as below average.

I'm talking about Octopus (2000) Directed by John Eyres and Written by Bose Davidson, and Michael Weiss. Spoiler Alert ahead. The movie is a blend of various types of genera: It starts off as a Government agents fighting terrorists, goes on to become a Submarine drama, and turns into a underwater monster, that carries the title of the movie. The terrorist element is re inserted toward the end, as the bad guys plan to blow up a cruise ship,Jay Harrington plays the agent Roy Turner a field statistician put in harms way, as he is to accommodate the ruthless assassin Casper, played by Ravil Isyanov. They are to be transported by submarine, commanded by the brave Captain Shaw, played by David Beecroft, and his disposable crew. Notably the sexy Karen Lowery as Dr Lisa Finch. and Ricco Ross as Brickman the brave first mate.The movie is very watchable, with satisfactory production values, It is filmed in the style of a TV series. Episodic in general. The movie was at it's best, aside from the outdoor terrorist sequences that open the show, when it played the dynamics between the moral agent, and the ruthless killer.The monster takes the starring role, and that's too bad. The creature effects crew, could not figure out how to get it right, The digital effects in this movie failed to achieve what stop motion pictures like, "It came from Beneath the Sea" (1955) achieved, a believable and coherent giant octopus. The big climatic final shots, failed to impress. By the time all the plot elements pulled together at the finale, the movie had stopped being fun. Four out of Ten, bring your popcorn Stars.

Octopus (2000) ** (out of 4) A government man is able to catch a terrorist but only after his partner is killed. To get him back to the U.S. they decide to load him on a submarine but on the journey the sub comes under attack by a large octopus. It turns out that during the Cuban Missile Crisis a Russian sub had toxic chemicals on board when it was struck by a torpedo and this is what has caused the octopus to mutate. This "nature amuck" film is yet another from the fine folks at Nu Image Films and like the others they're dealing with a low budget but the film is in good nature and one certainly shouldn't take it too serious. I think this is going to appeal to those who enjoy the low-budget style of someone like Cannon. This film here certainly has a lot of horror elements but they also go for some rather cheap but fun action including the opening sequence when the submarine is struck and eventually sinks. I must give the set designer credit because even with the low budget we still get some good looking sets that makes you feel as if you're on a real sub. Jay Harrington plays the government guy and his performance is pretty good but at the same time you can't help hate him because he's such a wimp. He watches this terrorist kill his partner and he does nothing. He watches this terrorist kill people on the sub and he does nothing. He's even given a third chance at redemption and does nothing. He's certainly not the type of "action hero" you want to see in a film like this. Ravil Isyanov isn't too bad as the science expert and David Beecroft does fine work chewing up the scenery. The octopus looks incredibly cheap, as you'd expect but that doesn't take away from the fun. When it's fighting the sub you can tell it's not nearly as big but later in the film it fights a cruise ship, which is much larger than the sub yet now the octopus is nearly double the size. The biggest thing working against the film is its 100-minute running time, which is just way too long for a picture like this. Thankfully the majority of the film contains nothing but action but there are still a few too many dialogue scenes that really go no where and I'm still not sold on the fact that the entire terrorist plot couldn't have been thrown out. Again, this is certain "B" movie material but if you're a fan of these types of films then this one here isn't too bad.