Down Periscope [1996] [DVD]

Having sampled this DVD myself and thoroughly enjoyed the experience, I bought a number of copies for family and friends. The film is a submarine movie with a difference featuring some great characters in the cast with a quirky captain and a quirky crew in a quirky submarine performing the quirkiest mission imaginable. Highly recommended for an entertaining jaunt and...don't miss the musical credits at the end.

I have seen this twice now, the second time out of boredom with nothing worthwhile on telly. This is one film where almost every character is amusing in his /her own way, and genuinely making me laugh several times throughout the film. It starts off with a funny ruse to the viewer, making you think for a moment that they are assessing the range and direction of an enemy ship, then the captain Tom Dodge (Kelsey Grammar) whacks the golf ball from the submarine's top deck perfectly onto the green ashore! haha. Damn that cook! He almost "blew it" in giving away the Stingray's location to the Orlando silently hunting for them, literally above them, requiring absolute silence ("it...sounds like an explosion" haha). Admiral Winslow's son onboard was trying his best to get himself kicked off by deliberate troublemaking and laziness, but became the saviour of the sub when he bravely stopped up the leaks. Sonar has incredible hearing, and got to hilariously improvise his whales impression to fool the listening Orlando that their target were two whales. When Admiral Graham (Bruce Dern) boards the Orlando, Captain Knox says to him "Welcome aboard, sir", quite innocently not realizing that that is the tattoo on Dodge's weenie that the Admiral so despises. The electrics of the old sub are old and partially broken so the "mentally incomplete" electrician improvised a make-do connection for the phone(!) Then there's the irascible and annoying "do you come with a volume control?" Marty Pascal slipping on silicone lubricant and eventually getting to "walk the plank" for attempted mutiny. Kelsey Grammar has his own natural warmth that he displays in his character as Tom Dodge who desires to become the captain of a new modern sub, whom the Navy put to the test in a war game. I do not understand what is wrong with those 1-star guys who say that that "this is awful", who must lack a sense of humour and have a personality defect (glad that they are not my dour, miserable false friends). What criteria are they using to judge this? Do they have preconceived expectations resulting in blind or blinkered bias? This film is genuinely funny with a lot of jokes throughout, brightening your day with its good humour. That this film has an overwhelming majority of 5 stars is so for a very good reason.

..expected an "Airplane" type wacko movie parody of the Navy, but got an Old School film of the type you used to get just after WW2, but with modern humour.... (Cary Grant didn't have a tattoo saying "Welcome Aboard" on his ****!) I loved it. Funny but not silly. "Stingray" is a star in its own right and whoever did this, did her proud. Look out for the short sequence as she leaves harbour to the choir singing "Anchors Away"...truly beautiful.......

Bought this on instinct after reading the back cover blurb. A story of a hapless crew of misfits dumped on a misfit retired submarine under an ambitious commander considering himself worthy of better things - like the US Navy's latest nuclear-powered craft. But, as Bruce Derns character says, would you entrust that to a man with "Welcome aboard" tattooed somewhere intimate?Some classic cliches and some classic lines make up a nice little knock-about comedy (Bruce Dern: "I would remind you that I am your superior officer." Kelsey Grammer: "No, sir; merely a higher ranking one.") that sees the misfits come good (even the admirals (Rip Torn) wayward son) in an exercise to sneak the old diesel sub past the cream of the nuclear navy that sees tactics such as the sonar operators whale impressions and rigging lights on the periscope whilst the crew sing "Louie Louie" like drunken fishermen to achieve their aims. Rob Schneider does brilliantly as the obnoxious, by-the-book, narrow thinking, bullying Pascoe, the subs No.1, and receives a suitably apt disposal as the plot, such as it is, thickens.I'd have given it 5 stars but when I originally bought this on VHS I had to take it back three times because the audio track very quickly fell out of sync' with the picture and after the third return I gave up. When I got on the DVD bandwagon and replaced my VHS collection with the more compact and better quality DVD versions I found the same problem - obviously the studio messed up the master that was used to run off all the formats. If anyone's bought this recently from a new pressing that doesn't have this problem, please tell me so I can buy a pukka copy!That said, it's only a minor distraction and I can and do watch this several times a year.

A dream come true is turned into a nightmare for the new captain participating in a submarine war game. The crew he ends up with are hilariously disappointing. The characters are brilliantly funny and the story is very entertaining. The humour is silly and far out. Just right for me. Film contains 'dirty' language, so maybe not to be viewed with younger children. No violence or nudity. Everything is fine with the DVD. Delivery was fine.

A decent little known 90s daft comedy movie. Good watch of you want to just sit down and turn your brain off for 90 mins and giggle. Sonar and nitro are my favourite characters. Kelsey Grammer does a cracking job playing a less uptight version of frasier and great supporting roles from Bruce Dern, William H. Massey, Rip Torn, Harry Dean Stanton and Rob Schneider. By no means an Award Winner, but definitely worth a watch 👌👍

Brilliant, it is one of the better comedy films that involves life in a submarine. Such a small cast and yet has you laughing from start to finish. Will everyone find is a good as I did? I hope so. Could it really happen? I truly hope not, else we are in serious trouble. Just lay back and enjoy an hour or so of humour.