The Cruel Deep

• Cert:
• Cat.no: PDVD 1658
• Running time: 88 minutes
• Year: 1999
• Pressing: 1999
• Region(s): 2 (UK PAL)
• Chapters: 20
• Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 (Dolby Surround)
• Languages: English
• Subtitles: None
• Fullscreen: 4:3
• 16:9-enhanced: No
• Macrovision: No
• Disc Format: DVD 5
• Price: £19.99
• Extras : Scene index, Trailer
  

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  Director :

  Jean Pellerin

  (The Clown At Midnight, The Cruel Deep, Laserhawk)

Producer :

Screenplay :

(from a story by Phillip Roth)

Music :

Cast:

John: Rob Lowe (About Last Night, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, Austin Powers 2: The Spy Who Shagged Me, Bad Influence, Crazy Six, The Cruel Deep, For Hire, The Outsiders, Peril, St. Elmo’s Fire,Wayne’s World 1 & 2, TV: The Stand)
Chloe: Larisa Miller (The Cruel Deep)
Crowley: Harry Von Gorkum (The Cruel Deep)
Elgin Bates: Craig Wasson (Body Double, The Cruel Deep, Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors, Velocity Trap)

The Cruel Deep,or Under Pressure as it’s known in the USA, starts off in 1454 on theIsle of Lesvos, Greece, in which a priceless artifact is buried because itsnomadic owners are in a hurry. You know it’s priceless because it’sgold-coloured.

In the present day, John Spencer (Rob Lowe) is a worker on a Tennessee dam and weknow he’s the hero type who will save the day at the end of this film because he saved a deafboy from getting washed away by the water spewed out from the dam he works on. His pregnantwife Chloe (Larisa Miller) lectures on priceless artifacts, history, etc. She’sjust been offered a trip of a lifetime to investigate the one in question, but how to have acareer *and* resolve their marital difficulties at the same time?

Those who are also after the item are fanatical billionaire art collector Elgin Bates(Craig Wasson) and his henchman Crowley (Harry Von Gorkum). They are the badguys. We know this because they are English. We know Crowley doesn’t come from oop Northbecause he supports Manchester United.

In a bid to save his marriage, John takes a trip to Athens to find Chloe, just misses herat the hotel then gets onto her ship by the skin of his teeth losing his passport behind him.The captain thinks he’s a stowaway so locks him up, just before Crowley appears to take commandof the ship by killing said captain.

This film sounds like a cross between Die Hard and Crimson Tide,the former because the bad guys gatecrash while the hero of the hour is hidden from their viewand the latter because Elgin Bates returns to blow the crap out of the ship and send it sinkingso they head downward towards the bottom of the ocean.

Will they survive or will the bad guys triumph? Is that a rhetorical question?

The picture quality is fine and well-detailed. While the trailer is in 16:9,the film is open-matte 4:3, which can comfortably be zoomed in to fill awidescreen TV. The average bitrate is an above-average 5.61Mb/s.

The surround sound won’t make your hair stand on end but is fine for what itneeds to do.

English language, but no subtitles.

Menu :

The menu is static and silent, with the basic options.

Overall, for such an unoriginal film it’s very entertaining. However, it’s the sort of filmthat won’t require many regular viewings so I’d recommend a rental in this case.

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