Archives: A
- E F - N O
- Z Posters Message
Boards
Who
We Are and Why We Do What We Do
BLU-RAY DVDs:
Batman Begins
Black Hawk Down
Blade Runner
Bourne Trilogy
Cars
Casino Royale
Cloverfield
Dark Knight
the Duchess
Enchanted
Fifth Element
Hellboy
Chronicles of Narnia
Harry Potter years 1-5
Ice Age
Incredible HULK
Independence Day
Iron Man
Juno
Kill Bill 1 & 2
Kung Fu Panda
Mamma Mia!
Men in Black
No Country for Old Men
Persepolis
Pirates: Dead Man's Chest
Pirates: At World's End
Rambo box set
Ratatouille
Spiderwick Chronicles
Sleeping Beauty
Star Wars Prequel Trilogy (1-3)
Star Wars Trilogy (4-6)
Terminator
Terminator 2
Top Gun
Total Recall
Transformers SE
300
Ultimate Matrix coll
Twilight
Underworld
V for Vendetta
Wall-E SE
X-Men Trilogy
Zack & Miri Make a Porno
We're Kidlet Safe
Search engine
by FreeFind
click to search site
Now in Release:
Adam Resurrected
An American Affair
Cadillac Records
Che
Confessions of a Shopaholic
Coraline
Curious Case of
Benjamin Button
Day the Earth Stood Still
Defiance
Donkey Punch
Doubt
The Express
Four Christmases
Frost/Nixon
Inkheart
The International
Milk
New in Town
Pink Panther 2
Pride and Glory
Revolutionary Road
Role Models
Sex Drive
Slumdog Millionaire
The Spirit
Taken
Two Lovers
The Uninvited
Watchmen
What Just Happened
While She Was Out
DVDs on Sale:
Alice
in Wonderland
An American in Paris
Batman
Begins
Bambi
Beauty
and the Beast
Blade
Runner
Cinderella
The Dark Knight
The Duchess
E.T.
Forrest
Gump
Gone
With the Wind
Harry
Potter yrs 1-4 set
Harry
Potter Order of Phoenix
Alfred Hitchcock set
Incredible Hulk SE
Indiana
Jones trilogy
Iron Man SE
Kung Fu Panda
The
Lion King
Lord
of Rings 12 discs
Mamma Mia! SE
Mary
Poppins 40th LE
Marx Bros set
Ultimate
Matrix set
Monty
Python - Holy Grail
Pirates of Caribbean 3
Ratatouille
Saw I - IV set
Saw III (unrated)
Saw IV (unrated)
Saw V (unrated)
Shrek Trilogy
Simpsons Movie
Sin
City
Sleeping
Beauty
South
Park Movie
Spider-Man Trilogy
Spiderwick Chronicles
Star Wars Prequel Trilogy (1-3)
Star
Wars Trilogy (4-6)
Twilight
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Wall-E SE
X-Men Trilogy
Zack & Miri make a Porno
Looney
Toons
Golden Age DVD
Volume
1
Volume
2
Volume
3
Volume 4
Volume 5
Volume 6
Rocky & Bullwinkle DVD
Season
1
Season
2
Season
3
Popeye the Sailor DVD
v.1 1933 - 1938
v.2 1938 - 1940
v.3 1941 - 1943
75th anniversary coll.ed.
Star
Trek TOS (TV)
Star
Trek TNG
Star
Trek Films
Starring Kelsey Grammar, Lauren Holly and Rob Schneider
Directed by David Ward
It is not a good sign when a movie sports no trailer and little advance advertising (neither of which Cranky has seen). It usually means that a Studio has given up the ghost before the first ticket is sold, and has decided to let the release sink like a wet sponge.
In the case of the comedy Down Periscope, not having advance word is a good thing, given Hollywood's annoying habit of promoting comedies by giving away the joke in the trailer.
Let's be honest about that. Most of the so-called "comedies" I've seen lately are one trick ponies. Frankly, like most of the audience Crankified after the showing I attended, I did not expect much from Kelsey Grammar, as Lieutenant Tom Dodge, in charge of a crew full of misfits. And I watch Frasier regularly.
And like all those Crankified, we were more than pleasantly surprised. Down Periscope is full of jokes. Lots of silly ones. One disgusting one. Two sexist ones, sort of. And all of em funny as all get out.
And, being about the Navy, the Village People (v.1996) appear to reprise their 1979 #3 hit "In The Navy". Down Periscope is all out silly; almost a laugh a minute hunk o' fun.
Of course it is. It is made by TV people. Hugh Wilson (WKRP in Cincinnati, among others) shares scripting credit with Andrew Kurtzman & Eliot Wald, providing a very simple story inhabited by supporting gagsters. Grammar is, as on television, the Eye of the Storm. His Tom Dodge is a three times over-looked candidate for promotion, finally given command of a 1958(ish) Belial class (rip-snortin', smoke belching honker of a) submarine, with instructions to infiltrate and destroy Charleston and Norfolk harbors in war games.
Rob Schneider (of Saturday Night Live) plays the veins-bursting-through-the-side-of-his-neck Executive Officer. Lauren Holly (Picket Fences) continues her run of comedic roles as the sole female member of the crew. You know where that can lead but, thankfully, it is not the center point of DP's humor.
To keep the balance, there is one very funny running gag involving a tattoo sported by Captain Dodge in a very private place. And a running rivalry between Admirals played by Rip Torn and Bruce Dern. Nuff said.
As for the crew, you could find this combo of characters in a television sitcom. The fat slob of a cook. A black athlete. A punk who wants off the boat. An electrician who always manages to electrocute himself. And so on. It may read terribly, but it's a almost giggle a minute.
On average, a first run movie ticket will run you Eight Bucks. Were Cranky able to set his own price for Down Periscope, he would have paid . . .
$5.50
Silly is good.
 |
Click to buy films starring Kelsey Grammer |
| Click to buy films starring Lauren Holly | |
| Click to buy films starring Rob Schneider |