LEVIATHAN (1989)

"Say 'Aah.' motherfucker!"

For whatever reason, 1989 was a big year for underwater movies.  THE ABYSS, DEEPSTAR SIX, THE EVIL BELOW, LORDS OF THE DEEP, LEVIATHAN and god only knows what else.  Unfortunately, the only film (that I've seen) that ended up being any good was James Cameron's THE ABYSS.  The rest sucked.  The less suckiest of the remaining suckers was LEVIATHAN which is simply an underwater retelling of ALIEN mixed with THE THING, but with all of the tension removed and replaced with bigger flamethrowers.

One day, some deep sea miners are doing their deep sea mining duties when they discover a sunken Russian ship called Leviathan.  Stuff happens and before you can say "Oh god, I hope my penis doesn't fall off!" people are starting growing icky scales and weird stuff like a mouth on their hand.  That sounds really cool, but after the initial shock wears off, it just turns into your standard monster movie.

Overall, LEVIATHAN is an entertaining ride and a neat time capsule to the world of cheesy-looking 80's monsters.  A little blood, mildly scary monster, average special effects, awesome failed attempt at a catchphrase ("Say 'Aah.' motherfucker!"), good acting, what appears to be Luxo Jr. on a computer monitor, average monster movie pace, strong cast.  Not a horrible movie, but it's nothing to write home about either.  Honestly, I expected more from Director George P. Cosmatos, who also brought us RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART II and TOMBSTONE.

Is that Luxo?!

A FIRE IN THE SKY (1978)

Astronomers discover that a comet is headed straight for Earth. They tell the proper authorities, but they refuse to listen. Why won't they listen?!!!!!

Astronomer Richard Crenna insists that the comet, named Jenny [yes, I typed that out in Forrest Gump's voice], is going to hit Phoenix and that everybody needs to be evacuated immediately because there's only 8 days until the impact. Of course, it wouldn't be much of a movie if that happened, so instead AFITS branches off into a number of different stories covering people from all walks of life living their lives totally unaware that in a weeks time they're going to get blasted to smithereens. You got the young couple in love and her snobby parents don't approve; Merlin Olsen leading some kids on a hike out in the desert; the concerned mother of one of the kids (since they didn't take a radio with them); the astronomers; various town folk and then an investigative reporter versus the politicians, but to throw a monkey wrench into the situation her husband is in cahoots with the politicians and he's cheating on her!!! Talk about having a bad week!

Tightly constructed script, fairly impressive special effects for a 70's TV movie, interesting characters, above average acting, 70's clothes, plenty of drama. I enjoyed the hell out of this movie and the two and a half hour runtime flew by! Some people might be turned off by the lack of action, but for me the story was interesting enough and I kinda liked seeing a film that focused more on the human than the destruction.

If you can find it I say check it out. I'll definitely be watching my copy again.  Also, Lloyd Nolan is credited on IMDb as being in the film as "Doctor", but I can't find him for the life of me and I don't see his name on the opening or closing credits.

Older sister from SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE II.