Dead Calm (1989)

Memorable, crazy movie

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

When I started watching this film, I did not expect to be swept away by this dark, moody, tense, original und unforgettable portrait of a hellish sea trip. My original interest in the film was ignited only because of Nicole Kidman's presence in one of her first starring roles, back when most of her films were still Australian indies. "Dead Calm" manages to create a beautiful atmosphere, and Sam Neill, Billy Zane and especially Nicole Kidman were born for these roles: all of them have taken on great parts other than their roles in "Dead Calm", but this needs to be counted among some of all their best performances. The movie may lose depth as it is heading closer towards its climax, and the ending does feel way too rushed and could have used some more creative writing, but that does not make "Dead Calm" any less exciting and breathtaking: I was thrilled from beginning to end, and the stunning cinematography as well as the incredible score only further contributed to my perception of this fantastic, underrated thriller.

I always include this cinematic landfill on the list of my top 10 horrible movies I've had to endure. Finding this turd thrilling is equal to believing Adam Sandler movies are actually funny. Corny acting, horrible script, predictable in every way. My wife was getting irritated with me because I was doing the lines before the actors. The scene set ups were so obvious. You could predict every outcome, every scenario and every word. Actors cannot save a mess like this. Everyone is.............dead. And.....don't open that door! Come to mind. Talk about dead in the water. This is an insult to the classic thrillers. It always puzzles when I see words like excellent thriller and fantastic used in reviews of this kind of formulated device. It's like their frame of reference is The Three Stooges meet Godzilla. Now that's a thriller.

Released in 1989, "Dead Calm" is the story of a grieving Australian couple vacationing 1200 miles from land on their yacht in the South Pacific (Sam Neill and Nicole Kidman). Horror ensues after they rescue a stranger from a small dinghy (Billy Zane) and the built-in protections of civilization are nowhere to be found."Dead Calm" is one of the greatest horror/thrillers ever made. The "monster" is human – a psycho nut job -- which isn't anything new, of course. It's the confined location of the open sea and the cut-off-from-the-world atmosphere that make "Dead Calm" great, along with all-around excellent filmmaking, including the breathtaking cinematography and magnificent score by Graeme Revell.Neill shows that he has the gravitas to carry a film as the male protagonist, which is why he was snagged for 1993's "Jurassic Park." Kidman similarly shines as the female protagonist in her first major motion picture. Incidentally, Neill was 41 and Kidman 21 at the time of filming. Likewise, Zane de-shines as the antagonist and shows why he was picked for the villain of 1997's "Titanic." There's not much dialogue because this is a visually/musically based film and not dialogue-driven. As such, the acting HAS to be absolutely convincing, and so it is.The film runs 96 minutes and was shot off the east coast of Australia (Gold Coast, Great Barrier Reef, etc.).GRADE: A

An excellent, sparse thriller. I think it'd be one of the greats if not for the opening and closing sequences. The opening one, about Nicole Kidman's and Sam Neil's loss of their son, could have easily been explained with dialogue - or not, since it never really comes back up again and only serves to slightly inform the audience of their emotional state. It compromises the rest of the film, though, which is set at sea. Kidman and Neil are on a long sailing trip when they come upon a stalled yacht. Before they even have much of a thought about it, a young man (Billy Zane) rows over to their boat as quick as his muscles will guide him. He claims that everyone else on the boat died of food poisoning and that it's now sinking, but Neil doesn't buy it. When Zane falls asleep, he rows over there himself and finds that everyone else has been murdered. Zane wakes up while Neil is gone and commandeers his own boat - and kidnaps his wife. Neil, an experienced sailor, fixes the other yacht and chases after them. Man, this is tense stuff, and all three of the actors are brilliant. It's too bad about that final sequence, which harms the movie far more than the unnecessary opening sequence. Supposedly test audiences reacted badly to the original ending, so they had to wrap it up more neatly in a bow, which just sucks. Well, I guess it's the film's only laugh, so there's that.