A fearless, globe-trotting, terrorist-battling secret agent has his life turned upside down when he discovers his wife might be having an affair with a used car salesman while terrorists smuggle nuclear war heads into the United States.
Director:
James Cameron
Stars:
Arnold Schwarzenegger,
Jamie Lee Curtis,
Tom Arnold
A commercial transport ship and its crew are marooned on a planet full of bloodthirsty creatures that only come out to feast at night. But then, they learn that a month-long eclipse is about to occur.
In the colorful future, a cab driver unwittingly becomes the central figure in the search for a legendary cosmic weapon to keep Evil and Mr. Zorg at bay.
The wanted criminal Riddick arrives on a planet called Helion Prime, and finds himself up against an invading empire called the Necromongers, an army that plans to convert or kill all humans in the universe.
When a man goes for virtual vacation memories of the planet Mars, an unexpected and harrowing series of events forces him to go to the planet for real - or does he?
Director:
Paul Verhoeven
Stars:
Arnold Schwarzenegger,
Sharon Stone,
Michael Ironside
Two crew members of a spaceship wake up from hypersleep to discover that all their colleagues are missing. Despite this, it appears that they are not alone.
Ellen Ripley is rescued by a deep salvage team after being in hypersleep for 57 years. The moon that the Nostromo visited has been colonized, but contact is lost. This time, colonial marines have impressive firepower, but will that be enough?
Director:
James Cameron
Stars:
Sigourney Weaver,
Michael Biehn,
Carrie Henn
Formerly married petroleum engineers who still have some issues to work out. They are drafted to assist a gung-ho Navy SEAL with a top-secret recovery operation: a nuclear sub has been ambushed and sunk, under mysterious circumstances, in some of the deepest waters on Earth.Written by
Jwelch5742
James Cameron described his creative process as "what I'm good at is working with actors to create scenes and then editing their performances to get the absolute best vibrating version of that scene and then share that with the audience. It's an amazing process to go through. Sometimes you think it's not going to work when you get started and then the characters come to life." See more »
Goofs
The door that Bud, Catfish, and Sonny close after saving Bud from drowning appears to be hinged on one side of the hatchway then the other. See more »
Quotes
[first lines]
USS Montana Captain:
Sixty knots? No way, Barnes. The Reds don't have anything that fast.
See more »
Crazy Credits
There are no opening credits, save for the title, which emerges from darkness. The camera then follows down the "Y" of the title, and dissolves into the underwater blue of the ocean. See more »
Alternate Versions
When Bud writes back to the crew telling them he's "back on the air", different music, namely keyboard composition, was composed to replace the original score and to accomodate the added scenes of the ship rising from the abyss. The original score picks up again when the crew on the ships above go to see the alien ship rise out of the water. See more »
This review is for the special edition of Abyss that adds 28 minutes of footage especially near the end according to Wikipedia. I had seen it many years ago but although I remembered it was underwater and had a particularly cool and original creature, I didn't remember much else from it. After watching it again recently, I wonder why. This is one of the best undersea adventures I've seen, certainly the most ambitious. This was made before computer effects became so prevalent so most of the action underwater is actually shot underwater on sets and in diving suits. State-of-the-art computer effects (at the time) are used to portray most of the strange deep-sea creatures and they still look great today. The Abyss starts as the rescue operation of a nuclear submarine but veers more into good first encounter science-fiction as it goes along.
What struck me was the great underwater setting that at times made you feel claustrophobic and isolated as if you were deep underwater yourself. It's not the most action-packed film and it can feel slow at times so try to be relatively awake before watching it. The first half sometimes somehow made me feel contemplative and relaxed but it might bore some people. You should be warned that most of the film takes place in a relatively confined location so there's no undersea exploration a la Cousteau per say. It's also a character-driven conflict between reason and open-mindedness (the rig crew) VS ignorance and destructive impulses (the military). As it went along, my appreciation of the film went from only good to remarkable. There are strong suspenseful and dramatic character moments extremely well played by Ed Harris (rig captain), Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio (creator of the rig and future ex-wife of the rig captain) and Michael Biehn (leader of the navy seals). I particularly liked the shuttle scene between the captain and his future ex-wife. Because of the creatures, there's also a feeling of mystery and sense of wonder at the unknown which is rarely seen in modern sci-fi but that I often enjoy. The characters are not the type to shoot first and ask questions later which I found refreshing.
What I also found noticeable is that there are several "false" endings, as in it might stop there but it doesn't, going further into the "abyss" as it were. This is a great humanistic and human sci-fi flick that gets better as it goes along. It's closer to 2001 than Aliens but it's not really like either one. The extra footage in the ending makes for a more satisfying conclusion that helps things make sense. However, your appreciation might vary on how cynical you are, I can see it ruining the film for a minority. In my opinion, it's worth owning but be careful of which DVD version you pick, the "special editions" don't necessarily have a second disc with the extras and the covers don't tell you how many discs there are (you want the 2-disc version).
Rating: 8 out of 10
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This review is for the special edition of Abyss that adds 28 minutes of footage especially near the end according to Wikipedia. I had seen it many years ago but although I remembered it was underwater and had a particularly cool and original creature, I didn't remember much else from it. After watching it again recently, I wonder why. This is one of the best undersea adventures I've seen, certainly the most ambitious. This was made before computer effects became so prevalent so most of the action underwater is actually shot underwater on sets and in diving suits. State-of-the-art computer effects (at the time) are used to portray most of the strange deep-sea creatures and they still look great today. The Abyss starts as the rescue operation of a nuclear submarine but veers more into good first encounter science-fiction as it goes along.
What struck me was the great underwater setting that at times made you feel claustrophobic and isolated as if you were deep underwater yourself. It's not the most action-packed film and it can feel slow at times so try to be relatively awake before watching it. The first half sometimes somehow made me feel contemplative and relaxed but it might bore some people. You should be warned that most of the film takes place in a relatively confined location so there's no undersea exploration a la Cousteau per say. It's also a character-driven conflict between reason and open-mindedness (the rig crew) VS ignorance and destructive impulses (the military). As it went along, my appreciation of the film went from only good to remarkable. There are strong suspenseful and dramatic character moments extremely well played by Ed Harris (rig captain), Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio (creator of the rig and future ex-wife of the rig captain) and Michael Biehn (leader of the navy seals). I particularly liked the shuttle scene between the captain and his future ex-wife. Because of the creatures, there's also a feeling of mystery and sense of wonder at the unknown which is rarely seen in modern sci-fi but that I often enjoy. The characters are not the type to shoot first and ask questions later which I found refreshing.
What I also found noticeable is that there are several "false" endings, as in it might stop there but it doesn't, going further into the "abyss" as it were. This is a great humanistic and human sci-fi flick that gets better as it goes along. It's closer to 2001 than Aliens but it's not really like either one. The extra footage in the ending makes for a more satisfying conclusion that helps things make sense. However, your appreciation might vary on how cynical you are, I can see it ruining the film for a minority. In my opinion, it's worth owning but be careful of which DVD version you pick, the "special editions" don't necessarily have a second disc with the extras and the covers don't tell you how many discs there are (you want the 2-disc version).
Rating: 8 out of 10