Deadwater (2008)
When a WWII-era battleship, reactivated and deployed in the Persian Gulf for black-op interrogations, falls radio silent, an elite Marine task force, along with an NCIS investigator and two scientists, are sent to investigate. When the Marines arrive, they find nearly everyone on board slaughtered. The survivors join with the task force to hunt down the mastermind behind the attacks, a notorious terrorist named Fadawi who threatens their very survival.
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Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.
The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.
The film may be flawed, but its message is not.
The movie really just wants to entertain people.
OK...OK... It's not going to win any awards! But it is a great study (listen to directors comments) on how to make a low budget ($350,000) thriller in 15 days. Shot with two Panasonic HVX-200 HD camcorders on a docked WWII Liberty ship in LA, the 15 man crew did an amazing job in the cramped sets they had to work with... which is why the lighting is minimal. But isn't that the way it's supposed to be in the typical "spooky house" (the ship) movie. The writers simply cranked the script out after visiting this museum ship...and they acknowledge that much. They simply wanted to have fun making a movie. One unintentional hilarity is the similarity to part of the plot line to "Ghostbusters".
Well, to say that BLACK OPS (a.k.a DEAD WATER) is Oscar gold would probably anger a lot of people who have seen it, but for me as a horror fan, it was like watching a movie with my TV turned off, everything that mainly took place in dark areas you couldn't see and the places that were supposed to be well lit, seemed like the light was cast by using very cheap bed lamps, honestly the lighting effects in this film are so poor adjusting your TV's contrast makes it look like your watching a fog bank, the storyline is uninteresting, plainly put, the acting seems decent but the dialog was poor so the acting is more shallow Overall, If you don't like a movie that mainly takes place in the dark and don't have an interesting storyline, well try something else of course.
Oh when oh when will I learn not to let my absolute adoration of Lance Henrikson make me sit through even extremely bad films Ie. pretty much anything post-"Millennium". This brain-dead little number is no different. Attempting to tie a Iraq war film with a supernatural ghost story may work on paper, but this is not paper and the result is an absolute mess that's nearly unwatchable. Bad acting, bad special effects, incoherent storyline. One can go right down the list of bad film-making 101 and put checks down it. The sad thing is I KNOW this won't be the last movie I watch from Henrikson, i still believe the guy rocks. But it will be the last Roel Reine flick that I watch.My Grade: D-DVD Extras: Director's commentary; One night on the set; Alternate opening; deleted scenes; Trailer for this movie; and trailers for "War, Inc.", "Player 5150", "Day of the Dead", "Three Days to Vegas", "Jack & Jill Vs. the World", "the Amateurs", & "Rockaway"
Even taking into account that this is low-budget, Black Ops is truly a horrendous pile of steaming crap. Watch this at your own peril. The film combines an element of supernatural horror and an action/adventure military flick, but fails on both counts.There are better films that touch on the same current topic of Middle Eastern terrorism and the use of torture and extraordinary rendition. There are also numerous horror movies that are infinitely more satisfying.The camera work and audio are crisp and professional-grade. The storyline, dialogue and acting are not.1 star out of 10.