User Reviews

This movie is best summarized by a conversation early in the movie between the Rob Lowe character and his wife. He's just told her that the ship is being taken over by terrorists, that the captain has been shot in the head, and that they have to get off the ship. She responds with a monologue about how she just wants a little excitement in her life and he should let her have it. From there it goes downhill.

Oh, and the props department really should have done some more work to make the statue that's so important in this film look like something more than paper mache.

it seems lately,i've been seeing either average,or less than average movies.well this one fits in that category.it stars Rob Lowe.i found it to be a low rent version of Under Siege,and other movies of the type.the acting is pretty solid,and there is some tension which builds and builds,but doesn't really lead to anything.i found the action scenes boring.to me this movie isn't really compelling or engaging.i lost interest within about 45 minutes and started doing other things,while paying half hearted attention.the other thing i found with the movie is it doesn't have a high degree of realism to it.at least i didn't think so.still,i isn't completely awful.the acting elevates it to a 5/10.otherwise this would be a 4 or maybe even a 3/10 star movie,in my view.my advice,have this movie on in the background while doing other things.2./5. by the way,this movie is also known simply as Under Pressure(not the Charlie Sheen movie of the same name)and The Cruel Deep.

My brother panned this movie for being horrible, so I just had to check it out. I had also seen a small glimpse of it when he watched it. Of course I was expecting a mess of a movie but it turned out to be decent. Yes, the plot, special effects and pretty much everything else was pretty poor, but at least I got some laughs off of it.

Fairly unoriginal. Were there anything that hadn't been done dozens of times in this movie it might be worth watching.

The only real credit I can give it is Larissa Miller. A reasonable actress but a rare example of a HEALTHY looking woman with a decent female musculature in contrast to the common waifs we see.

I agree with the comments that say "watch it at 3am when you're bored and have had a few beers".

Because I paid good money to rent this DVD I sat through it in the hope that it would improve. No such luck.

The film is called The Cruel Deep in UK.

The acting was wooden, the plot was a pot pourri of other excellent films, Oceans Eleven, Under Siege to name but two.

I can only assume that the opening scenes where Rob Lowe rescued the little girl were put in merely to make the film longer (84 mins in total), or to let us know that John Spencer (Lowe) was going to be the ultimate hero, (if we did not know that just a few seconds into the film).

There are so many badly put together scenes. When Lowe and Miller were fighting one of the terrorists for their lives whilst the Ferry was sinking, the terrorist had a sub aqua tank on. When Lowe had disposed of him he magically managed to turn one tank into two, one for himself and on for Miller. Has the writer and director never heard of 'Buddy Breathing'?

With hundreds, if not thousands of passengers on board the ferry, when it sunk what happened to them? Did they all drown? I did not see one body or one survivor in the water.

Did I fall asleep and wake up in the middle of another film? Because I thought I heard the sub captain say when ordered to torpedo the mini-sub, that the sub was a decommissioned naval vessel and therefore had no torpedoes. But a few minutes later, hey presto a total of two torpedoes were launched at the mini-sub, albeit unarmed. However they both managed to find their target but somehow managed to bounce harmlessly off of the mini-sub.

There are numerous occasions in the film where the impossible happened.

Finally, was there some sort of political statement to the film also? Britain has the Elgin Marbles from the Greek Parthenon and the Greeks want them back (being a Brit, I feel they should be returned). As the film is about the attempted smuggling of another Greek artifact out of Greece, I assume the writer of the script feels the same as I do about them.

The reason I think this may be the case is because even one of the characters in the film is called 'ELGIN' Bates.

I gave it a one star rating but maybe should have given it 4 or 5 in order to convince others to watch the film so they can suffer the same as I did, but I would not be so cruel.

To be brutally honest I thought I would never see a film as bad as 'Solaris', but this ran a close second.

Plutus1947

Why I stayed awake to view this tedious torture of a film was beyond me.

Right off Rob Lowe should have thrown his wife overboard. She was more stupid than stupid and her foolishness at every juncture made you want to shout "leave your husband and get on with the Greek". This was one of the worst films I have ever seen. I regret that I showed my stupidity right through to the end. I could have cut it off. I was hypnotized by the amateurish acting. What a wasted evening. This gets a zero on my meter. Women can't be that stubborn and obnoxious and STUPID. Don't say you haven't been forewarned.

This movie attempts to be a high-tech thriller, like a mix between 'Die Hard' and 'The Poseidon Adventure'. Despite a few familiar faces among the acting staff, production values are way low. Special effects don't look too special, and the acting is sub-standard.

The first half of the film actually looks promising. Not feature film quality by any standard, but mildly entertaining nonetheless. Then things go downhill fast. The bad guy never really seems threatening, and the plot is downright silly.

If watched under normal conditions, you probably will groan to yourself 'oh what godawful trash', but after a few beers, it will make you laugh enough to make the rental price worth it. Whether an action movie should produce such a reaction is debatable.

Rob Lowe and Larisa Miller do what they can and give okay performances. But the rest of the film is a near-unwatchable mess. The production values are well-below par, the camera work is limited, the setting clichéd and lit in as an atmosphere-less way and the special effect substandard at best. The writing is stilted and gives no momentum whatsoever to what is going on with the characters and their predicaments, and the direction is entirely flat and characterless. The story is tediously paced and lacking severely in suspense or thrills, and I found it so bland and unbelievable that at no time was I compelled by it. The characters also manage to be undeveloped and irritating, as well as very poorly acted(reads very like go through the motions with no personality), Harry van Gorkum in particular overdoes his stereotypical villain role.

Overall, a disaster in almost every way. Only the efforts of the two leads stops it from being irredeemable. 2/10 Bethany Cox

Offers nothing new to an already tired formula. This is anchored down by it's poor special effects and over blown premise. Rob Lowe manages to tread water with what little he has to work with. Worth a passing glance if theres nothing else on offer.

Saw this on DVD as 'The Cruel Deep' which as a title is rather meaningless. Yes there is a lot of sea but it looked pretty and blue as it always seems to do around Greece. After a preamble in historic Lesvos and an unconnected bit at a water dam a simple and ungripping plot emerges that gives various actors a chance to show how bland they can be.

It also gave the film makers a chance to show how bland computer generated effects can be. When computer effects in films look like part of a computer game, well the game is up and inertia sets in. Why use real water pouring down ship corridors when completely false CGI water will do? Ask the producers.

It was a film where I was rooting for the bad guys and Harry Van Gorkum as the villainous Brit is watchable compared to the rest. The heroine is your typical 'I'm posited as a clever and capable woman but become more stupid and helpless as the film progresses' type role. Rob Lowe has a nice beard though.

Sucks! If this movie would have contained ANY kind of humor, it would have rated somewhere in the neighborhood of the Attack of the Killing Tomatoes, but sadly, no; no excuse for this having been filmed at all. Embarrassing to see Rob Lowe, who must have been panicking for a contract when accepting this one. Sad!

I must admit that I had hopes for this one coming from UFO! Lowe and Miller play an estranged couple who find themselves in the middle of a botched terrorist plot to retrieve a valuable Greek artifact. Van Gorkum's acting as the terrorist leader tries to draw parallels with other more notable villians. Overall, this is a passable film in its own way. And if you plunked down $6-$7 to see "Speed 2", spend the $2 rental fee on this one!

They could have least shown Larissa Miller nude in the shower scene and given everyone something to look at. This was an attempt to copy "Die Hard" and probably a James Bond movie or two. I don't know which was the stupidest character--Rob Lowe or Larissa Miller or the terrorist. My daughter kept "rooting" for the terrorists. Also, what was the point of the "saving the little girl" scene at the beginning?? Also, did you know that you can learn how to operate a mini sub by reading "Popular Mechanics"? I quess you could learn how to fly a jet by playing video games or reading a two page article in some magazine. I watched the whole movie for a wasted evening.

Move over Bruce Willis and Steven Seagal; here comes Rob Lowe. This has the ruthless bad guy frustrated by an ex-military reluctant hero. There are "stay in the car scenes", and "I do not believe you" scenes. Lots of bombs and explosions and water. Tempered by gushy love and unrequited love on a verbal level.

The basic storyline is about an international art thief that hires hitmen with lots of equipment to recover a statue. Parallel to this is the story of a woman who thinks her husband is boring and goes on vacation. Too bad for both groups as hubby shows up to recover wife and just happens to have extraordinary military skills.

Will the bad guy get the statue?

Will the lovers get together?

Or do they all get wet under pressure?

It wuz baaaaad and then some. Weird thing was how I didn't change channels. So bad that just HAD to find out how it ended. Lowe & Miller were alright, but most of the bit parts were appalling, stuck in stilted 'pause & deliver' mode, not assisted by a script that seemed committee-driven, last-minute hackwork. Character depth struck a new lowe (sorry). All of the above must be laid at the door of the director, who can only do better.

...But not by much! Under Pressure or 'The Cruel Deep' as it's known on my DVD case can be enjoyable if your expectations are quite low,

It stars Rob Lowe (known for this kind of trash before being saved by 'The West Wing') as a Husband whose been neglecting his wife (Larissa Miller) so decides to suprise her on her Greek Holiday with a sexy student, by turning up unannounced on her cruise liner, but low and behold at this very day and this very ship there's a bunch of bad guys led by the obnoxious Brit (aren't we always)played by Harry van Gorkum who are after a priceless Greek statue for a Bill Gates-like Business Tycoon, many explosions and dead bodies later Lowe has to save his wife (who by the happens to be an expert on greek mythology) and the Statue while evading the bad guys, OH.. AND THE SHIP SINKS leaving Rob,Wife and Bad guys a limited amount of time to get out alive.

all in all i've seen worse rubbish than this, and for a Straight to Video release I bought for 50p I can't really complain,

as I said keep your expectations rock-Bottom and you might enjoy!

My Rating **1/2 out of ***** or 6/10

This is one of the worst films ever. Robe Lowe as the main actor. Need I say more? There is nothing good about this film at all. You'll do well to sit through it all. You wonder where people get the inspiration to make such dirge.

I am watching "Escape Under Pressure" right now - this very minute in the United Kingdom. Channel Five.

At the same time, I am struggling with the writing of a film script of my own. What a boost this film has given me! "Escape Under Pressure" has given me new hope! Not even I can be that bad!

That was really all I wanted to say. The script is appalling. Rob Lowe quit West Wing because in his opinion he was worth so much more! The producers wouldn't give it to him - maybe because they saw this! Pretty as in pretty stupid! Have I reached ten lines yet?

But the only really stupid guy is me - I'm watching it! And I'm still watching it - so painfully bad! At least there's only fifteen minutes more to go! Don't ask me how it ended ... I'm just grateful it did!

MIKE NEWMAN

Like a gruesome car wreck, this movie holds your attention.... An American couple on board a Greek ship, find themselves in the middle of a dramatically overplanned international scheme to steal a valuable Greek artifact. It wasn't so much the implausible plot, but the laughable similarities to some of the movies we know and love-and yes the Hasselhoffian manner in which John Spencer (Rob Lowe) manages to exert himself in his efforts to save the day. This Hollywood mutation was however, fairly entertaining. Highly recommended for a 3am veg-fest.