The Abyss (1989)

The Abyss (1989)
Written and Directed by James Cameron

In the wake of his smash hits The Terminator and Aliens, James Cameron wrote, directed, crashed, and burned with this bloated sci-fi epic. I had the displeasure of viewing this film last night for the first time in probably 10 years, though this was my first time seeing the obnoxiously long 171-minute special edition version. The story is relatively simple, as a group of American soldiers and underwater oil rig workers investigate a sunken submarine at the bottom of the ocean. The film then unfolds sluggishly through territories well explored in the history of cinema, and Cameron makes sure he hits every unnecessary and trite direction possible. Despite some actually spectacular action/fx sequences that heat up in the second act, Cameron drowns the third act with somewhere around three to four separate climaxes, and for his finale employs unforgivably sappy left-wing ideology with a child's vision of solving the world's problems. Ed Harris was reportedly to have said he would never work with Cameron again after the filming of this movie: I wouldn't either, because it stinks like a big piece of shit.

***If this film has one saving grace it's everyone's favorite bad actor Michael Biehn, playing the wigged out Navy Seal who turns his back on everyone***

[171 minutes. Color. In English. PG-13.]