MONSTER! MONSTER! PART 2!

Part 2: Deep Rising
Year: 1998
Tag line: "Full Scream Ahead!"
Director: Stephen Sommers
Starring: Treat Williams, Famke Jannsen, Jason Flemying, Wes Studi, Anthony Heald, Kevin J. O'Connor

The Plot: a gang of happy-go-lucky modern day pirates led by Treat Williams come across a deserted luxury passenger liner in the South China Sea. Unable to resist the temptation of plunder, they board it and begin to explore before - shock! - strange things begin to happen and their crew begin to disappear...

The Actors: Treat Williams is his usual gruff, wisecracking self, obviously enjoying his work and the chance to pay the bills on time for once. He's supported by a solid Jannsen and other genre specialists such as Jason Flemying, Wes Studi and Kevin J. O'Connor, who all manage suitable looks of incredulity and/or horror.

The Monster: a delight. Finally revealed at the end to be a giant squid-like creature with more teeth than the cast of Aliens, it's many tentacles plague the crew of the liner and the pirate ship throughout, showing an ability to move lightning fast through any conduit, including sucking one poor unfortunate victim down through a toilet. Ouch. It efficently extracts all the water from it's victims before spitting out the skeleton and other unusable body parts, which is capably demonstrated at many points in the movie.

The Film: Deep Rising is a guilty pleasure from start to finish. From the eerily empty cruise liner, to the rough but likeable pirates, the movie falls just the right side of self-deprecation to give the viewer a fun-filled ninety minutes. Put your brain into neutral, set your disbelief to "suspend" and away you go!

Monster! Monster! Factor: eight out of ten