A group of mercenaries led by Hanover (Wes Studi) hires Captain John Finnegan (Treat Williams) and his crew to pilot their boat across the South China Sea so that they can loot a luxury cruise ship on its maiden voyage. The ship has been sabotaged by its owner, Simon Canton (Anthony Heald), who is hoping to collect a big insurance payment after Hanover and his men sink the boat. But before Finnegan, Hanover, and everyone else arrives, an undersea monster attacks the cruise ship and most of the crew and passeners end up dead. Finnegan, his crew, the mercenaries, Canton, and professional thief Trillian St. James (Famke Janssen) find themselves trapped on the ship and fighting to survive the chaos.

A B-movie that was made with an A-budget, Deep Rising never gets enough respect for being an enjoyable if mindless monster film. When it was released, it was dismissed as just being another Alien rip-off. While it does have some Alien DNA, the film really has more in common with the monster movies of the 50s and 60s. Treat Williams even looks like a leading man from that era, and his performance suggests that he was in on the joke. Famke Janssen is incredibly sexy as the incredibly named Trillian St. James. Anthony Heald and Wes Studi play two very different villains, and Studi gets a great final scene. There are also plenty of disposable characters who get picked off one by one. Some people will be disappointed that Finnegan’s comic relief sidekick (played by Kevin J. O’Connor) was not one of those characters, but these films always need an annoying sidekick. Someone has to make the audience laugh before the monster jumps out of nowhere.

Deep Rising is a entertainingly simple monster movie that doesn’t ask too much of its audience and delivers an entertaining 106 minutes of creature mayhem.