Horror Extreme Movie Catalog

I saw this one in the theater back in the day(my most vivid memory is that I really had to pee and I was happy when the film ended so I could dart off to the restroom). I wasn't crazy about it then, and I'm still not today. It's a pity coz the right ingredients are here. You got an underwater crew menaced by a prehistoric beasty(on an adequate budget) directed by Sean Cunningham. Sounds like fun, right?
Well, for a monster movie, there is a surprising lack of monster action. Most of the film it seems like endless scenes of folks sitting in cockpits/control rooms, water bursting from walls, people bickering, people shouting stuff like, "Close the hatches!", and endlessly repairing damage(or attempting to). When the monster shows up, you're already kinda tired of the whole thing. It doesn't look quite as bad as others have said(it's wisely kept in the dark most of the time), but it's not terribly impressive.
On the positive side, those of you who couldn't get enough of Greg Evigan in My Two Dads will have a splendid time watching him as a hero in a full length film! And using the F word! Also along for the ride are Matt Mccoy, Miguel Ferrer, and Ferris Buhler's mom. Ferrer is Deep Star Six's version of Michael Biehn's character in The Abyss.
Deep Star Six has a few good bloody moments, and even fewer suspense moments, but it's not a total throwaway I guess.

Besides being a cheesy movie, although it has Miguel Ferrer, son of legendary screen star Jose Ferrer at the helm, I did buy it just to complete my trilogy of underwater Sci-Fi thriller movies (The Abyss*****, Leviathan*** and Deep Star Six**).

Not much to say here, except that it is a shame we still get dished up movies on DVD in the full screen version.
While I can still understand it for a movie in a ratio 1.66:1, where the cropping of the image would be minimal if at all, for a movie filmed in 1.85:1, 2.35:1 and up it is simply unforgivable.

Mostly movies by Universal are dished up like this (see the recent release of "Colossus - The Forbin Project", or even a splendid movie like "Iceman" starring Timothy Hutton and John Lone).

Also a shame are all those movies send to the market in mono, when they were originally released in Stereo Surround sound in theaters (see MGM/UA's release of "Meteor", starring Sean Connery and Natalie Wood and "Midway" starring Robert Mitchum and Glenn Ford).

This simply shows that the industry has absolutely no respect for their audiences, or worse, that they consider them stupid.

It is even more amazing, since all the above titles were released at one time on Laserdisc with their original soundtracks and image ratios intact.
I should know, because I own them and therefore I have living proof in my hands that ever since Laserdiscs have been discontinued in favor of DVDs, the industry has made steps backward instead of ahead as the technology proves.

Yet they allow themselves the luxury to play games with us, instead of practicing what they always preach: excellence.
Some Hollywood dinosaurs should really die off if they cannot prove they still can maintain a bit of decency and honesty of the trade.

It is not enough to make a quick buck, my dears.
You need to really get back to work if you want to stay alive...
This is truly my honest suggestion to the industry, if they really want to go on producing movies.

For the DVD quality, there is little to be said. A bit better than the VHS version, at least in the title section, but still, being in Full Screen one has a difficulty to keep focus throughout the action scenes, since everything is framed at 1.33:1, hence confused for this sort of movie.

Not recommended at all.

Wait for a real reissue of this movie, and possibly in Widescreen.