Going Under! (1991)

[buffalofran 3]

This movie wants so badly to be a Mel Brooks film (down to casting Bill Pullman 4 years after Spaceballs) or at the least to rival the hack parody humor of Top Secret, but somehow fails to meet that even that low bar of comedy and it seems to be parodying a film/genre that doesn't exist. This film predates the more well known and infinitely more watchable slapstick-submarine-films Mchale's Navy and Down Periscope by a full 5 years.

Relying mainly on bad puns and sight gags, the plot is a struggle to follow. Bill Pullman is a sub captain with claustrophobia. Roddy McDowell is Secretary of Defense and... an inexplicable parody of Mr. Rogers? Ned Beatty plays a corrupt Admiral. Joe Namath randomly shows up as another captain.

A crew of incompetents is sent off in the USS sub Standard (get it) and intentionally set up to fail by the Admiral (not sure if it's ever explained why) but against all odds overcomes. Add in a dash of cold war competition (they run into the USSR sub Pink November) and you have... Something.

Highlight of the film: the repeated shots of the sub in stealth mode where it's transformed into a animatronic whale just because.

I honestly think this was bankrolled as one long in-joke by the Navy since the jokes are specific yet toothless and the entire film is an utter slog to get through saved only by the fact that Bill Pullman is really trying his best to save this garbage.

 

[Ofcoursemyhorse 1043]

I would argue that Down Periscope and Mchales Navy are equally watchable as this. Maybe even less so, i'd rather watch a movie with Bill Pullman as lead over Kelsey Grammar and Tom Arnold.

[buffalofran 3]

I would 100% agree that Bill Pullman should be more watchable than those mediocre films. I love the man. But this "comedy" is like a short film you make in school that you think is hilarious and then you look back in town years and realize that it's a bunch of cringe worthy pandering to your English teacher. It's like watching that Republican version of the daily show that just hates the government, but less mean. Like it's that awful. Down Periscope at least had a plot and what some would consider "jokes"