User reviews

This take on the classic literary masterpiece Moby-Dick does not deserve to be even mentioned in the same sentence. Herman Melville is turning in his grave right now. Just about the only thing that's related to the book are the names of the characters. The story is set in a present day submarine, features some of the worst acting imaginable, grade school quality production, and just about the worst script.

And the worst part about it is that it takes itself seriously. I am sure it will quickly make it's way to IMDb's bottom 100. I am just happy I didn't waste any money on this pile of crap.

This is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. I am so shocked half-way through it- that I had to stop- and go back and look over reviews- to make sure- super sure- that maybe what I am seeing is a comedy. No- it's just that bad. The cgi is so tragically bad- that in one scene- you see a closeup of a whale's eye and see the wiremesh show up because of low polycount. Wow.

I think this is a treasure of a movie for film students- It must be mindblowing to them how it is possible that these fools got funded to make this crap- and then it actually got distributed- amazing. If I had made this movie- I would not have distributed it- out of sheer shame. I think the actors probably looked at this movie afterwards in its entirety and walked out before it ended.

I have no idea HOW they got the cast to do this hokum. It was frakking unbelievably awful.

I have no idea how they got the cast to sign on, I have no idea. Blackmail? Threats of torture? Kidnapping? But they were just wasted. They looked like they couldn't believe they had been forced to do such awful drivel.

What killed it was the story. The original was a wonderful novel. It has been done quite well at least three times before, with Gregory Peck, Patrick Stewart or Jack Aranson as Ahab. Orson Welles made a short of it. A new version is coming out with William Hurt as Ahab, and I look forward to it. Even if the script had been decent, I think Barry Bostwick would have been out of his league playing Ahab.

The special effects aren't that bad, but it takes so little to do that these days. What was AWFUL was how they used them. The whale looks to be the size of an island, simply bigger than any animal has ever been found to be.

I could go on and on and on. The only pleasure from it was like that of watching an airplane about to crash. You know it's a disaster in progress and it will be famously horrible.

Lets make make something clear, this is low budget. Whats worse is that any technical aspect that could possibly be wrong, IS wrong. A low budget is no excuse for not doing some basic research on the internet before you being production, its free after all.

We have navy officers wearing army field uniforms, we have have a one legged submarine captain and and helicopter attacking a submerged nuclear submarine with a machine gun, and doing enough damage to make the 400feet sub shake like it was being depth charged!

All the special effects and animations looks like they transfered in from the eighties and and most of the sets are awful as well. The ultramodern submarine looks like a run down Russian factory on the inside, and the instrumentation seems borrowed from a lesser Sci-Fi production.

So why did I still give it a 4? Well I managed to sit through the movie. I'll admit that I was desperately bored, but still. The acting is not as horrible as you might expect, but still far from anything memorable. And the basic story is not hopeless either, with a large studio this might have become an OK film on par with godzilla or king kong. However any similarities with the original book are nowhere to be seen, besides the big whale and the obsessed captain that is.

The 4 I gave it is being generous, but I have seen movies that are worse, and still scored higher on IMDb.

I am sorry I wasted my money on buying such a poor movie, this has got to be one of the most ridiculous and poorly made movies on record. Very poor acting, nothing life like at all, I am sure this movie was made in some child's bathtub using his play whale and toy submarine. I wouldn't give this a one out of ten, how can anyone take credit for this kind of rubbish, it is truly an insult to the first Moby Dick movie. The whale Moby Dick looked like a big rubber toy and the waves created by computer graphics were obscene. I am sure they could have done better at a sea side "Punch and Judy" show.

They should take the camera's back to where you got them until they know how to use them, was this some kind of "Your on Candid Camera" stunt?

Don't waste your money or time watching this, I'd rather go down to the lake and feed the ducks!!

When I came across this DVD I thought, why not, this could not be that bad. I have seen flicks like Mega-Piranha and I enjoyed it a bit. And here we have Trey Stokes directing, a man who knows his stuff as a visual effects man, he worked for Species and Starship Troopers and be honest, not bad at all. But here in Moby Dick, it's one with a lot of yawning and this can't be happening. If you are even a fan of those SyFy trash flicks you will have your doubts of this one. The CGI is one of the worst I have seen. The script is written in two lines, line one, we have to kill Moby dick, line two, he can't be killed. Some scene's did indeed remind me of Mega Piranha, for example the helicopter scene but that must be the best part. On the DVD you have some gag reel and I enjoyed that part more than the flick itself. There are really some stupid things going on like the torpedo story at the end with two soldiers just waiting for impact and others trying to kill Moby with a shotgun. No I didn't enjoy it and I have seen creature features from all era's. Moby Dick was just a teaser to attract fans of the original one and the sleeve is influenced by Jaws but for the rest it was utterly a Moby Turkey, what a Dick he is.

Well, you already know what kind of movie this was going to be. A bad one, and it turned out to be just that. It is the kind of movie that is similar to a car crash, you know you shouldn't look, but you can't help it.

Lets start with the story, it was sort of a re-take on the classic tale, though oddly twisted and warped in a sense. And it was actually not really necessary for the world to have another Moby Dick movie, at least not of this caliber.

The special effects in the movie were, well, special! They were hilarious, and I was wondering how come in this day when we write 2010, that these type of fake effects and cheesy CGI's still take place. If you can't make it look believable, don't make it at all. Half-hearted attempts do not please the viewers.

There were two familiar faces in this movie, those being Barry Bostwick (playing captain Ahab) and Renée O'Connor (playing Dr. Michelle Herman). Now why they agreed to do this movie is beyond me, but hey, who am I to question Hollywood celebrities? Usually Bostwick and O'Connor appear in sort-of-alright movies and TV series, but this? ... The cast in the movie was actually decent enough, despite the lack of any major blockbuster names. And most people also put on adequate performances, though there was a lot of times where you could see that the people didn't fully have their hearts in the movie.

As for the dialogue, well it was adequate, though at times kind of strained to witness.

This take on the Moby Dick story is one that should be bagged and tagged and not really talked about again. It was not a good attempt at it, in my honest opinion. And truthfully, then I didn't even make it halfway through the movie. I couldn't stand the effects (or rather lack thereof) and the weak storyline. I gave up. But hats off to those actually managing to sit through the movie in its entire length.

I am just glad that Herman Melville is not alive to see what they have done to his immortal tale of Ahab and his White Whale. I thought the film went over the top when they were using names like Ahab and Moby Dick, but when they added the character names of Starbuck, Queg Qheg, what really got me was the name of the submarine, U.S. S. Pequod, now that is just a little much. I am just glad that Herman Melville has been dead for over 100 years or he may come back from the grave and let us know what he thinks. At least they didn't have a character named Ishmael.

Still, as bad as that is, I find the film compelling, maybe that's because I have such a craving for a stupid horror film. It's worth a watch if you don't expect too much from the film.

Other than Renee O'Connor in a bikini top, this movie has no redeeming qualities. The entire cast and crew throw all their SAG cards into one pile, tie Barry Bostwick and the director to a stake, and burn the whole lot. I know this kind of movie requires a suspension of disbelief, but this stuff will give you brain cancer !! Other than the first 10 minutes where Renee is parading the bikini top, this movie should be avoided !! How does Bostwick get work?? He has pics of movies execs in the hot tub with some underage action?? And they give Melville a nod as contributing writer. Btw, he has returned from the dead, and he looks mighty mad !!

Starring : Barry Bostwick and Renee O'Connor. OK,This movie is really good & satisfying to the genre. Renee O'Connor is the only female in cast and what other film would have an establishing shot of a scientist character in a bikini top ? Barry Bostwick as Sub Commander AHAB gets dialogue like he is breathing the words of the novel: Scientist: " You would attack an animal ?" Ahab: " Madam,I'd strike the Sun,If it insulted me !" " Moby Dick will feel the sting of our hate !" " May GOD hunt us all,If we don't hunt Moby Dick !" "It (MD) took my leg,I don't intend to give it my ass !" …And the finale of quotable quotes: Scientist: " Why would a whale act like this ? " Ahab: " Why do babies die in their sleep ?" Come,On ASYLUM skeptics,Those words rock your ears and beg for Bumper Sticker Stardom. This Trey Stokes directed opus lifts the bar of all those Mega-ish monster flicks and says (Raspberry noise) .

When I first heard people criticizing this movie, I wrote them off as the typical whiners that accompany the release of any outrageously far-fetched monster movie. Of course whales can't grow to the size 2 football stadiums, and of course they can't snatch helicopters out of the air--that's why it's fiction! It's precisely this outrageous scale and the novelty of seeing the impossible that makes these films so entertaining and thrilling. However, this time the criticism proved to be 100% deserved.

Sci-fi B movies have their place in my heart. And I actually quite enjoyed Peter Benchley's "The Beast" and its epic portrayal of a giant man-eating squid. That was a made-for-TV movie from 1996; fourteen years later, we have "2010: Moby Dick". But although CGI has made huge leaps in the intervening years and no doubt costs far less these days, Moby Dick's special effects are still laughably bad in comparison. They simply come off as cheap and very rushed.

To be fair, the whale itself, although a bit too shark-like IMO (as seen in the movie poster), isn't all that bad. It's not the best CG ever, but it's respectable for a low-budget movie. However, much of the supporting special effects used throughout the movie is very poorly done, with no attention to detail.

For example, we've all seen underwater explosions on TV and in movies. When something blows up under water, the explosion has a very distinct look: there's cavitation, a bright flash, and lots of gas bubbles. Not in Moby Dick though... In Moby Dick, the underwater explosions are simply dry explosions taken from stock footage sloppily overlaid on top of a poorly rendered underwater scene. The result is an entirely unrealistic effect that precludes audience engagement in the story. I mean, there are Xbox games that have more convincing underwater action sequences.

Another example of the sloppy effects in this movie involves a scene in which a dead "school of squid" are supposedly being shown floating to the ocean surface--that's what is described in the dialog at least. But instead we're shown a shot of the ocean overlaid with blurry blown-up photos of 2 enormous-sized squids. And not only are the squids very poorly pasted into the scene (imagine a really bad Photoshop job), but as the camera pans (being shot from a moving helicopter), the squid cut- outs move completely out of sync with the background (the ocean surface). No attempt is made to synchronize the squid overlays with the camera movements or the corresponding perspective changes. And it's scenes like these that make the film look so amateurish and cheesy. You might expect this from a local cable access program or a Conan O'Brien skit, but not a feature film.

Sadly, as the movie intensifies and the stunts get ever more outrageous, the effort made by the filmmakers and special effects team seem to decrease. By the end of the movie, when the audience ought to be sitting on the edge of their seats, gripped by the explosive action as they approach the big finale, they're instead completely detached from the on-screen action, the sloppiness of the film having worn away any suspension of disbelief they had. So when the big finale does come, they're no longer emotionally invested in the characters or plot enough to care.

Although Barry Bostwick delivers an impassioned performance as Captain Ahab, Renee O'Connor (Gabrielle from TV's Xena), the female lead, is unconvincing in her role as a marine biologist. And for good measure, a few peripheral military characters also deliver some spectacularly bad acting during their few seconds on screen.

This is just a really shoddily made movie. There's no other way to put it. It would have been better had they cast Jack Black as Ahab and turned it into an intentionally cheesy comedy/spoof. However, this movie tries to take itself seriously and aims to be a big action monster movie, but the production team clearly weren't willing to make the effort for it to work.

I don't believe in such a thing as being untalented, just laziness and sloppiness. And that's what killed this movie. The sad part is, most of the problems don't seem to be budget related, and the individuals involved are clearly capable of producing quality work if they simply paid more attention to detail and set higher standards.

The movie begins much earlier in Ahab's navy career to show his first encounter with the giant whale. This occurred while on some kind of intelligence gathering mission in Russian waters on a submarine where he was then a lowly sonar operator or something. The movie then jumps from there to the present where a much older captain Ahab has ditched the old ship of yore for a sleek black state of the art sub called the Pequod with all the bells and whistles which he designed himself. Apparently the navy knew nothing about his hidden agenda when they allowed him to do this and give him command of it.

Later they become concerned when Ahab stops checking in and is spotted where he's not supposed to be based on the orders he was given. Coupled with this are reported incidents of ships being sunk and people killed. The navy conclude that Ahab has somehow flipped and gone rogue and is responsible for these incidents. Orders are issued to find him and stop him. In the mean time, Ahab is underwater in the Pequod with a serious hard-on for Moby Dick (har, har, me mateys) and oblivious --for the time being-- that the navy is after him. Joining him and his crew aboard the sub, are a female scientist specializing in whales and her assistant whom, while out testing the effects of some recorded whale cries, Ahab "commandeered" for the purpose of helping him track Moby.

The movie is a middle budget-to-low budget movie (seems to me) because the whale and the effects in general could have been better though it was passable. The continuity didn't seem too good near the end, either. Seems like they were short-cutting. Observe also the classic use of one well-known old time actor and a whole bunch you never heard of. But money by itself doesn't necessarily make a good movie and we've all seen examples of this truth. The script and the ability to creatively make the most of what you got is what counts. So what about the script? --Not great; slightly below average; as well, needed more imagination or innovation in it. --Or at least more laughs, intentional or unintentional. For instance, Ahab did make me chuckle once or twice near the end where he came off as not only insane but "ridiculously" insane. Was this because of good acting or bad acting? --You tell me. Finally, nothing exceptional here; wouldn't rush to see it. It would make a bigger splash (har, har) on TV watching in your underwear with your favorite snacks on one side and your favorite person on the other. Love, Boloxxxi.

For many years I believed "Megaforce" was THE absolute worst movie I have ever seen ... I was wrong.

This "whale" was literally walking on land, he climbed a cliff, he flew.

This whale was walking on water on only his tail.

The whale ate entire submarines in half.

The whale ate a helicopter.

The submarine literally flew out of the water over 100 feet and landed unharmed. It dove to nearly 4,000 feet, which no US "boomer" can do.

The finale had three nuclear torpedoes striking an atoll, utterly destroying it, yet one woman survived from ground zero? Do NOT watch this movie. Even if you are bored. This is THE worst movie ever filmed.

At this point in time, Asylum movies are among the worst in all of creation. You don't get to be this bad without effort.

Anyone watching this movie in the hopes that it will be anything more than a cheap sucker-punch at the classic novel Moby Dick will be disappointed in the worst way. If you were expecting a remotely plausible story with reasonably capable actors and even some worthwhile special effects, then you should have never watched a movie made by Asylum. You are very behind on the times if you don't know that Asylum doesn't do that sort of thing.

It is soul-crushingly bad. It's like watching despair. So much so that I'm beginning to suspect that they are doing it on purpose. Nothing else could possibly explain how they can relentlessly churn out terrible movie after terrible movie, with absolutely no shame. I'm truly starting to believe that Asylum is in fact dedicated to the less-than-noble cause of making their mark as the worst movie making company in history. All of the things that a good movie needs will never be found in an Asylum motion picture. They need a trophy for epic failure in movie making.

But it's not all bad. Asylum is definitely good at one thing: Making movies so bad that they mysteriously 180-themselves into something good. This movie didn't really succeed at that, but it did have some very entertaining moments. The "special effects" are notably radical; certain scenes with the whale literally caused me to slip out of my chair laughing, and the look on the doctor's face nearly caused me to have a stroke (watch it and you'll see what I mean). For that reason alone I'm giving the movie a 2 instead of a 1.

This was one of the worst films I have seen in a long time. The acting was bad, the plot was thin, and the effects were laughable and the CGI must have been done at an elementary school. The continuity was lacking big style. Why even bother making such an awful film. All the special effects and animations looks like they were straight from the eighties and and most of the sets are cheap and nasty as well. There is one scene when the submarine has to do an emergency surface and shoots hundreds of feet out of the water, totally believable!. Towards the end, Moby Dick comes out of the water, climbs the island, then throws itself off the top of the island and lands on a poor seaman. Poor, Poor Poor. Don't really know why I sat to the end of the film.

Not just as an adaptation(the absolute worst adaptation to do with Herman Mellville's masterpiece) but on its own terms. The basic story is there, but the way it is structured and executed is horrible. The pace is constantly uneven being pedestrian one minute and rushed the next, several scenes such as the ending never ring true and the film is completely devoid of suspense and tension.

To make things worse, the dialogue is deplorable. Instead of the intelligent, complex and thoughtful prose of the book, it is cheesy, contrived and forced, in short the complete opposite of what it should have been. Then again, it is an Asylum production, I should have known better, I have yet to see a film of theirs that I would deem better than average. The direction is also a major part of the problem, there are times where it feels that Moby Dick doesn't have any direction.

The less said about the production values the better. The sets, costumes and submarine(yes this film updates the story) interiors are unimaginative and the effects are distractingly bad, even on Moby Dick who is laughable in alternative to menacing. The acting is poor, Barry Bostwick and Renee O'Connor are decent actors but the terrible dialogue, amateurish direction and badly written and explored characters- Ahab especially never once comes close to his novelistic counterpart's complexity and demonic presence- disallows them to do anything with their roles. Nobody is talentless or bad as such, it's just that other elements of the film severely hamper them.

All in all, an abomination adaptation wise and on its own merits. 1/10 Bethany Cox

When I came upon this movie I was looking for something that would just be good fun for an hour or two,and I am glad that I found 2010:Moby Dick. Sure their are plot holes,bad acting, and cheesy effects- but looking past all of that, this film's just plain fun! I have always enjoyed submarine films, throw in a giant monster and well...I found myself talking to the screen and shouting when Moby would make a sudden appearance. A sequel would be a good idea, I'd watch it!

I agree with other reviews that the whale was unrealistic, but so what? It's like the old Godzilla movies-they were very unrealistic, but we still loved them because they were so much fun! I thought that it was very imaginative to retell the story in this way,it may make some of these kids nowadays take an interest in and appreciate the original book and maybe even other classics.

This is one of those films that are so bad that you have to watch it. The special effects are pretty rank and the acting is so bad that I can only assume that it was done on purpose. My attention was first focused after seven and a half minutes of the film when a Newspaper dated Monday 13 Feb 1992 is shown entitled 'Fishing Boats continue to disappear'. For a start 13 Feb 1992 was a Thursday and the story directly below tell of Frank Lampard (a Chelsea footballer) splitting up from the mother of his two children.

It's worth watching just to count how many times the whale changes size during the film.