The Abyss (Special Edition)
starring: Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Michael Biehn, Leo Burmester, Todd Graff
directed by: James Cameron
directed by: James Cameron
List Price: $14.98
Prices subject to change.
Price: $9.99
You Save: $4.99 (33%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Product Description:
Movie DVD
Amazon.com essential video:
Meticulously crafted but also ponderous and predictable, James Cameron's 1989 deep-sea close-encounter epic reaffirms one of the oldest first principles of cinema: everything moves a lot more slowly underwater. Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, as formerly married petroleum engineers who still have some "issues" to work out, are drafted to assist a gung-ho Navy SEAL (Michael Biehn) with atop-secret recovery operation: a nuclear sub has been ambushed and sunk, under mysterious circumstances, in some of the deepest waters on earth, and the petro-techies have the only submersible craft capable of diving down that far. Every image and every performance is painstakingly sharp and detailed (and the computerized water creatures are lovely) but the movie's lumbering pace is ultimately lethal. It's the audience that ends up feeling waterlogged. For a guy who likes guns as much as Cameron (his next film after all, was the body-count masterpiece Terminator 2: Judgment Day), it's interestingthat the moral balance here is weighted heavily in favor of the can-do engineers; the military types are end-justifies-the-means amoralists, just like the weasely government bureaucrats in Aliens. --David Chute
Movie DVD
Amazon.com essential video:
Meticulously crafted but also ponderous and predictable, James Cameron's 1989 deep-sea close-encounter epic reaffirms one of the oldest first principles of cinema: everything moves a lot more slowly underwater. Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, as formerly married petroleum engineers who still have some "issues" to work out, are drafted to assist a gung-ho Navy SEAL (Michael Biehn) with atop-secret recovery operation: a nuclear sub has been ambushed and sunk, under mysterious circumstances, in some of the deepest waters on earth, and the petro-techies have the only submersible craft capable of diving down that far. Every image and every performance is painstakingly sharp and detailed (and the computerized water creatures are lovely) but the movie's lumbering pace is ultimately lethal. It's the audience that ends up feeling waterlogged. For a guy who likes guns as much as Cameron (his next film after all, was the body-count masterpiece Terminator 2: Judgment Day), it's interestingthat the moral balance here is weighted heavily in favor of the can-do engineers; the military types are end-justifies-the-means amoralists, just like the weasely government bureaucrats in Aliens. --David Chute
Browse for similar items by category:
- VHS » DVD » Genres » Action & Adventure » General
- VHS » DVD » Genres » Action & Adventure » Action Directors » James Cameron
- VHS » DVD » Genres » Science Fiction & Fantasy » General
- VHS » DVD » Genres » Science Fiction & Fantasy » Science Fiction » Aliens
- VHS » DVD » Genres » Science Fiction & Fantasy » Science Fiction » By Theme » Disaster Films
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: 
- country boy tech
i enjoyed this movie great actors very interesting check it out if you like underwater adventure
Rating: - Fantastic
The Abyss is a wonderful movie.
If you like suspense, and sitting on pins and needles then you need to see this movie.
Rating: 
- Wrong format- screen
Again, this movie is on the wrong format.Theback cover show widescreen, but not.Still it is 4:3.
A great movie, but todays standards are not acceptable.
Do not buy it, until "another" new edition will come with true 16:9.
Rating: - Cheesy and Stale
Abyss / B00005V9IL
*Spoilers*
I really cannot understand how this movie can have an average 4 star rating, and that after *most* of the 1 star reviews have to do with the formatting of the Special Edition and not with the actual content. I realize that 80's movies have to be held to a different standard than current movies, but having watched this for the first time a few days ago, I was blown away by how incredibly cheesy the writing for this movie is. I'm afraid, however, ... Read More
Rating: - This piece of solid sci-fi/adventure comes to DVD
A solid cast of characters and an interesting premis drive this sci-fi offering.Ed Harris is the tool pusher, the #1 man on an oil rig, except that this rig is located on the ocean floor. When a US Navy submarine sinks in the vicinity Harris and his crew are caught up in the middle of an international drama.Things get take a turn for the grim when a team of Navy SEALS arrive at the undersea rig and take over...you'll have to watch to see what I mean.
Likes:
1) I like the setting ... Read More
- country boy techi enjoyed this movie great actors very interesting check it out if you like underwater adventure
- FantasticThe Abyss is a wonderful movie.
If you like suspense, and sitting on pins and needles then you need to see this movie.
- Wrong format- screenAgain, this movie is on the wrong format.Theback cover show widescreen, but not.Still it is 4:3.
A great movie, but todays standards are not acceptable.
Do not buy it, until "another" new edition will come with true 16:9.
- Cheesy and StaleAbyss / B00005V9IL
*Spoilers*
I really cannot understand how this movie can have an average 4 star rating, and that after *most* of the 1 star reviews have to do with the formatting of the Special Edition and not with the actual content. I realize that 80's movies have to be held to a different standard than current movies, but having watched this for the first time a few days ago, I was blown away by how incredibly cheesy the writing for this movie is. I'm afraid, however, ... Read More
- This piece of solid sci-fi/adventure comes to DVDA solid cast of characters and an interesting premis drive this sci-fi offering.Ed Harris is the tool pusher, the #1 man on an oil rig, except that this rig is located on the ocean floor. When a US Navy submarine sinks in the vicinity Harris and his crew are caught up in the middle of an international drama.Things get take a turn for the grim when a team of Navy SEALS arrive at the undersea rig and take over...you'll have to watch to see what I mean.
Likes:
1) I like the setting ... Read More
