|
| Down Periscope [1996] | ![Down Periscope [1996]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51T1QD0TBVL._SL160_.jpg)
 enlarge | Director: David S. Ward
Actors: Kelsey Grammer, Lauren Holly, Rob Schneider, Harry Dean Stanton, Bruce Dern
Studio: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Category: DVD
List Price: £12.99
Buy New: £4.97
You Save: £8.02 (62%)
New (7) from £3.17
Avg. Customer Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 6597
Format: Pal, Widescreen
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
Running Time: 89 minutes
Number Of Items: 1
Discs: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
EAN: 5039036016186
ASIN: B0001B3YP6
Theatrical Release Date: March 1, 1996
Release Date: April 5, 2004
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...
Great fun. Good story. February 6, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
For some reason, whenever this film is shown on TV it's given a poor review. In fact, it's a tremendous little film and is well worth watching again and again.
Other reviewers have outlined the story of how Dodge is given an old rustbucket, diesel submarine with a crew of apparent nincompoops and is then assigned the task of penetrating America's sea and air defences in a mock attack on two harbours. The characters are superb (my favourite is 'Nitro' the volt-happy electrician who connects himself into the circuits so as to ensure that the radio works).
The whole crew is barking mad and yet although it's essentially a farce, the film never descends into downright silliness. The story is well thought out and very well told by a cast of great actors. It's just a shame Dodge wasn't given the task of attacking three harbours because then the enjoyment would have been even more prolonged.
If you enjoy a good comedy, I throughly recommend this film. Maybe one day they'll recall the crew and show us what happened when they all boarded their new hunter-killer sub and went to sea on some new adventure.
Genius January 17, 2008
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
Who would have guessed that a comedy based on a submarine manned by navy misfits could be funny. More to the point who would have guessed that a film starring Kelsey Grammer could actually be funny. Kelsey is not my favourite actor and I hated `Frasier,' but he seems to be perfect for his role as Lt. Commander Tom Dodge in this laugh-a-minute movie. In fact all the cast provide a stunning performance. Down Periscope is a game of cat and mouse where Dodge has to outsmart his nemesis in a series of war games. Everything about the film is perfect, and I don't know why I hadn't seen it before. Down Periscope is genius and a really unique and comical film that's as funny the tenth time as it is the first. I recommend to all.
Great fun October 28, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
It's Mary Poppins meets the dirty dozen. It starts slowly and only really gets going when they get on the submarine. The electrician and sonar are superb; highly recommended
Highly amusing nautical comedy April 11, 2007
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
I had been told that this screwball naval comedy included every submarine film cliche known to man, and noted that it had not been a particularly huge hit when it came out ten years ago. But as the hero was played by Kelsey Grammer (Frasier) I thought it would be worth picking up a pre-viewed copy and putting it into my computer drive to enliven the last 90 minutes of a four-hour train journey.
In the event this film was vastly better than I had expected and the other passengers must have wondered what I was laughing at.
Grammer plays Lieutenant Commander Tom Dodge, a highly talented but utterly unconventional submarine officer whose sense of humour and far from by-the-book attitudes have placed him in grave danger of being passed over for command of his own boat. The film opens with a fierce debate at a promotion board, at which Rear Admiral Graham (Bruce Dern) who has taken a particular dislike to Dodge, argues that he is too maverick a personality to be trusted with command of a nuclear submarine.
But there is a compromise on offer. Graham's superior, Vice Admiral Winslow (Rip Torn) who is not quite so prejudiced against unconventional officers if they get the job done, has noticed that the former Soviet Union is selling off old diesel submarines in job lots to tin-pot unstable countries like Iran and Iraq. (Quite a prescient point given that this film was made five years before 9/11).
Admiral Winslow wants to test the possibility that the ultra-sophisticated high tech units deployed to defend the US coast against equally sophisticated attackers might make mistakes if faced with a much lower tech but crafty opponent - particularly if the enemy captain is highly unconventional or, in his words "a pirate."
So they give Dodge command of an ancient rustbucket of a diesel submarine called "Stingray" and invite him to see if he can get past all the much better equipped defenders of two key naval bases.
Admiral Winslow has a soft spot for Dodge, and gives him a green light to ignore the rules the way a real rogue attacker would; Admiral Graham is determined to humiliate him and does his best to make the Stingray's task "Mission Impossible." He starts by assigning Dodge a "crew from hell" of oddballs and misfits. These include a mad martinet, Martin Pascal (Rod Schneider) as his XO, and Lieutenant Emily Lake, (Lauren Holly), the first woman ever to serve as diving officer on a US submarine but who has no previous experience outside a simulator. Almost all of the crew have a combination of strengths and weaknesses - for example the sonarman, imaginatively nicknamed "Sonar" (Harland Williams) has absurdly good hearing but is a very odd character and rather too prone to saying what he thinks. Fortunately for the Stingray, Sonar's last captain got rid of him despite his enormous skill at the job because he thought Sonar was a security risk. Other members of the misfit crew are played by Harry Dean Stanton, Ken Hudson Campbell, Toby Huss, Duane Martin, Jonathan Penner, and Bradford Tatum, and they work together brilliantly - the cast obviously had a lot of fun making this.
Tom Dodge has to weld his peculiar crew into a team and take on an opposition which is determined not to give him an even break. He tries every trick that's not in the book to get past them ...
Apart from the crew of Stingray and the two admirals, one other performance of note in the film is given by William H Macy as Captain Knox of the USS Orlando, which was Tom Dodge's last sub before being given command of the Stingray. The Stingray keeps running into the Orlando and having to slip past her to meet the objectives of the exercise. Macy gives a brilliantly understated performance as a competent but unimaginative officer who has to display great reserves of self-control as he keeps falling foul of Dodge's maverick tricks. But you have to feel sympathy for Captain Knox as he holds on to his professionalism - something at which Admiral Graham is rather less successful ...
There are a fair number of things in this film which could only ever happen in Hollywood and not in real life, but although it is very funny and silly, you can suspend your disbelief most of the time.
I found this film laugh-out-loud funny and srongly recommend it.
P.S. Don't turn your DVD player off as soon as the credits start to roll - there is an amusing comic video clip accompanying the credits and cast list which is worth watching and listening to. It shows Kelsey Grammer as Dodge peering through the periscope at various cast members including himself (double take), Annie Talbot in her underwear, and some highly musical "singing sailors" who I think are actually pop stars, dancing around the deck of the Stingray while singing songs like "In the Navy".
Watch your Grammer. October 21, 2004
7 out of 11 found this review helpful
For the Navy this is a test of defenses. For Lieutenant Commander Thomas 'Tom' Dodge (Kelsey Grammer) this is a test of mettle. For Lieutenant Emily Lake (Lauren Holly) it is a test of form. And for each of the crew it is the test of only that which they are capable of performing.
Yes now in the days where anyone can get his or her hands on low tech equipment is our high tech defenses ready. Look what happened to Argentina when their submarine broke?Rear Admiral Yancy Graham (Bruce Dern) is betting his reputation of the readiness if the Navy and will go to any length to make sure the intrusion test fails. Now that you know the story, It's not the contest but how the people interact under stress. They did not let any submarine cliche out of this picture. Even the nervy "lets see what depth this will take" scene.
|
|
|
Learn how to have your own
Amazon Shop
Travel Maps and Guides
zeugma
| | Holiday Travel |
alpharooms.com for cheap holiday deals in spain and worldwide
Disneyland Paris for a great family holiday or short break.
Holday Cottages throughout Scotland, England, Wales, Ireland and France with Cottages4you
Hilton - need we say more, you will find Hilton Hotels in most areas throughout Britain, in cities and in the countryside.
Don't forget Travel Insurance
Airport Parking
|
|
|
|
