I was completely unimpressed with THE NEPTUNE FACTOR when I, then all of twelve years old, saw the movie in its original 1973 theatrical release. When I discovered the film available on DVD, I decided to revisit it on the chance that it had simply been over my then-youthful head--and upon seeing it again realized that I was a pretty good judge of films even way back then. Simply put, THE NEPTUNE FACTOR bites a big one.
The plot was hackneyed even in 1973: an earthquake shakes up an undersea lab and a "special submarine" is dispatched to find out what has happened down there. They go down, down, down to the bottom of the sea, they look out the submarine window, and they see... some really big fish. Yep, that's about all there is to it. They look at some really big fish.
Now, the cast itself isn't bad at all. After all, it includes Walter Pigdeon, Ben Gazzara, Ernest Borgnine, Yvette Mimieux--and they are very capable players. And they give it their all, but they just can't get a lot of mileage out of it, particularly when the really big fish are just really big (and pretty grainy) close ups of little fish that you might find in somebody's home aquarium. And then there's the submarine itself, which is clearly a plastic model, and which seems to have filmed at the bottom of a kiddie wading pool with some plastic seaweed stuff thrown in.
If this sounds boring, well, it is. Now and then a really bad film can become accidentally entertaining. It may be so bad that it's astonishing, as in PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE. It may be so bad that it's endearing, like ATTACK OF THE 50 WOMAN. But most bad films are just dull and boring, and when it comes to dull and boring THE NEPTUNE FACTOR is working hard to lead the pack. Give it a miss.
GFT, Amazon Reviewer
The plot was hackneyed even in 1973: an earthquake shakes up an undersea lab and a "special submarine" is dispatched to find out what has happened down there. They go down, down, down to the bottom of the sea, they look out the submarine window, and they see... some really big fish. Yep, that's about all there is to it. They look at some really big fish.
Now, the cast itself isn't bad at all. After all, it includes Walter Pigdeon, Ben Gazzara, Ernest Borgnine, Yvette Mimieux--and they are very capable players. And they give it their all, but they just can't get a lot of mileage out of it, particularly when the really big fish are just really big (and pretty grainy) close ups of little fish that you might find in somebody's home aquarium. And then there's the submarine itself, which is clearly a plastic model, and which seems to have filmed at the bottom of a kiddie wading pool with some plastic seaweed stuff thrown in.
If this sounds boring, well, it is. Now and then a really bad film can become accidentally entertaining. It may be so bad that it's astonishing, as in PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE. It may be so bad that it's endearing, like ATTACK OF THE 50 WOMAN. But most bad films are just dull and boring, and when it comes to dull and boring THE NEPTUNE FACTOR is working hard to lead the pack. Give it a miss.
GFT, Amazon Reviewer