2010: Moby Dick

Plot synopsis:
The film begins in November 20, 1969, 50 miles off Soviet waters. When the USS Acushnet dives under the ice, a young Ahab listens for enemy subs when suddenly he detects an unknown target. When the captain listens, he hears nothing, but Ahab insists in the presence of an emptiness. The target dives into a trench, but the captain abandons his search in favor of photographing the target. The target attacks the submarine as Ahab hears a roar. The sub is brought to the icy surface, and the target identifies itself as a gigantic, white, whale-like creature. Ahab survives, but loses his left leg to the beast when it hauls the other half of the sub back underwater.
In the present day, Dr. Michelle Herman (Renée O'Connor) and her assistant Pip (Derrick Scott) test a whale song generator when the USS Pequod surfaces behind them and Lieutenant Commander Starbuck (Adam Grimes), the executive officer, persuades them to come aboard. In the sub, Starbuck tells them about several attacks in which eyewitnesses all report seeing an enormous whale. Although Michelle explains that the whale song generator needs a recorded whale vocalization, Captain Ahab (Barry Bostwick) comes to the deck and gives her the recording he took of Moby Dick back in 1969. Although Michelle disagrees on joining a Navy sub with the intent of killing an animal, she has no choice.
In San Diego, Captain Boomer (another survivor of the attack of '69) is told by his superiors of suspicious activity revolving around the Pequod. He is assigned to investigate, and thanks to a survivor from a recent attack by the White Whale, he comes to the conclusion that Ahab is on the hunt for Moby Dick.
Meanwhile, the USS Essex is searching for the Pequod off Hawaii. When they go to active sonar, it attracts the attention of the wandering Moby Dick. The Essex engages what appears to be the sub they were searching for, but realizes too late that their adversary is biological just before the sub is destroyed by a torpedo it shot. Later the Pequod comes to their location with no sign of the whale, but encounter the corpses of Essex crew. Rousing his crew with a speech, Ahab moves on to search for the beast.
A helicopter in search of the Pequod encounters it while the sub is following a 600-foot target. As the helicopter engages them, the sub fires a nuke at the unknown target, but the confused helicopter crew tell them they shot a school of giant squid just before they are swallowed alive by Moby Dick.
The whale then attacks the S.S. Rachel, a cruise liner, when the Pequod intervenes with Michelle's whalesong generator. This, however, causes the whale to attack them, subsequently destroying a fin on the Pequod. The sub fires a harpoon made from the Acushnet's hull on top of Moby Dick's eye, which forces him to dive deeper, dragging the Pequod with it. As the water pressure begins to damage the hull, the line snaps and Starbuck forces the ship to surface.
Moby-Dick surfaces too, and the Pequod, along with the help of Boomer in a helicopter, forces the whale into an atoll. The sub gets trapped in shallow water, and three boats are sent out to face the whale with guns and Ahab's harpoon. Moby-Dick destroys two of the boats and forces the survivors onto the island's shores. The whale attacks them again, resulting in the death of Queequeg (Michael Teh). Ahab takes the last boat and fires his harpoon at the whale's other eye. Moby Dick destroys the boat, killing Ahab. The remaining crew of the Pequod, including Starbuck, and Pip, follow Ahab's orders and fire nukes at the island. Moby Dick dodges the nukes and crushes the Pequod just as the island explodes. The film ends with the White Whale surviving to wreak havoc another day, and with Michelle swimming to the surface just as a rescue helicopter arrives.

Tags: insanity

Review:
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.
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.
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!!.
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!
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..
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
The movie begins much earlier in Ahab's navy career to show his first encounter with the giant whale.
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.
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.
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.
Ask yourself folks: A direct-to-video movie about Moby Dick starring Barry "I played George Washington once but now I'll do anything to pay for my Malibu beach house" Bostwick and Renee "I'm not lesbian but I'll let you believe I'm lesbian if it will pay for my collagen injections" O'Connor, and you're expecting Cannes Film Festival quality here?
If you compare Barry Bostwick in this to Raymond Burr in the first "Godzilla" movie, and Renee O'Connor to, well, I guess anything Jennifer Aniston has done, including the original "Leprechaun" movie, you're on the right wavelength for "2010: Moby Dick" and you'll enjoy it just fine.It seems everyone else here would compare "Citizen Kane" to any random "Chucky" movie and that's just not fair.Bad movies need love too!
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.
A modern age Moby dick movie which unfortunately does not do justice to either the original book or the modern ages..
A modern age Moby dick movie which unfortunately does not do justice to either the original book or the modern ages.I suppose that if you enjoy sub-par acting and cheesy special effects you might enjoy this flick but assuming you don't then don't bother.
The whale is extremely unrealistic which makes it hard to fear and honestly they didn't merge the old with the new as seamlessly as one would assume.'Parts of it actually reminded me of those old movies where you can see the actors are responding to something on a green screen, like they weren't even looking in the right direction.
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.
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 ?
Simply to warn other movie lovers, to avoid this at any cost, and I watched it on boxing day, so you can imagine how I felt after wasting almost 2 hours.
The story of Moby Dick is well known, and the portrayal of characters in the film is less than captivating, direction is bleak, effects are non-existent unless you liked Mega Shark vs.
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..
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.
Asylum is definitely good at one thing: Making movies so bad that they mysteriously 180-themselves into something good.
eerm sorry I guess they did't.Now I don't hand out a 1 rating easily,but in this case I will make an exception.How I managed to watch this movie in it's entirety is a mystery to me.Perhaps it's so you don't have to.For those of you brave enough to give it a look,you have been warned.The acting is terrible,the special effects laughable and the story is the ultimate insult to an absolutely classic book.The heirs of Melville should sue these people.If you are interested in a real Moby Dick movie watch the 1956 version with Gregory Peck or the 1998 mini-series with Patrick Stewart..
It's one the actors, writers, directors, production crew, script writers, and everyone and anyone who had anything to do with this movie, if you can call it a movie, should save for their friends and families to watch because someone ought to have the courage to tell them its really really really bad.Score of one out of ten is too generous, considering it was 2010 and not 1910 that this movie was made.I rather watch the BLOB or Killer Tomatoes any day.WTF were they thinking?.
A modern version of the legendary story about Moby Dick and Captain Ahab.
Sorry Barry Bostwick plays captain Ahab in a modern version of the classic about Moby Dick, a white killer sperm whale.
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!
Its also weird how people can produce movies with such bad special effects, I mean we live in 2010..Im not familiar with the actors and we're probably not going to see them in any academy awards the near future.To be honest I didn't even see the whole movie, I know how important the ending of a movie is but there's no way I'm wasting more of my unprecious lifetime to see it..
The acting was a little mediocre at times and the computer animation department obviously had a low budget but the storyline and directing was believable and extremely well done for an Asylum film.
Beyond Bad. Probably the worst movie I've ever seen.
The movie has some bad seens of animation, but the Story was okay and iy was full of easter eggs and references to the origainal Moby Dick book.
The Asylum V's Herman Melville in the Moby Dick Re-Dux.This is where I start to wave the B-Movie flag above my head and scream "Yeah!" There's a lot I like about this film...
Though I really did like the whale watchers tour scene, you know what's coming, but hey, you're still gonna love it.The acting, for the most part, is decent.
She is underused in this film and I don't believe that her character was meaty enough to compete with or complement that of Ahab.The other good part of the film is Moby Dick itself.
The scene where Moby has a couple trapped behind a rock on the beach is one of the worst green screens I've seen.This isn't the best Asylum film I've watched, though it isn't the worst either.
Moby Dick (1930) is a good movie.
While this SyFy movie is possibly the worst the network has ever produced, casting Barry Bostwick was brilliant and by accepting the role of Ahab, he has defined great acting in a piece of true artistry that will be forever remembered by those who appreciate an actor at the peak of his magnificence..
The CGI effects are primitive.Regarding allegiance to Melville's famous novel: Perhaps the script writer(s) actually read the "Cliff Notes" for Melville's novel, as evidenced by the character and ship names, and the use of a few quotes by "Captain Ahab".As another reviewer wrote, this monstrosity should be viewed by film students as an example of awfulness.Outside chance: Maybe some young viewers would be inspired to READ THE ACTUAL BOOK?!?.
Both actors really showed of their skills as they took on this epic story.At times the special effects are lacking and there is a scene in the end of the movie where you scratch your head because of Moby Dicks very, in lack of a better word, weird actions.
The final fight in the island cove also works pretty well, but the film does suffer from the same old thing regarding the Sci-Fi Channel originals, the lame CGI that rarely matches the action presented as well as the fact that this one has a lot of extraneous subplots to stretch the running time out which are pretty silly, but the CGI is the main thing holding this down and keeping it fairly mediocre.Rated Unrated/R: Language and Violence..
And actually LIKING an Asylum movie isn't cool, is it.
I loved Qui-qui, if I've gotten his name right, and I thought the historical atmosphere matched many of the old-time Hollywood movies this was clearly an homage to.Asylum's scripts/dialogue have always been good and this was no exception.
It dragged a LITTLE bit on the ship when they were getting to know each other, but that's my only real gripe.I wasn't expecting a historical film when I sat down to watch this, I thought they'd have updated it like they updated their Titanic or Sinbad movies - but no, they kept it creditably in period.
2010:Moby Dick is one of the most illogical movies I've ever seen.
This is truly abysmal, but if you can mentally switch off to the embarrassingly terrible dialogue, acting, special effects, make up, set design, camera work and generally everything else to do with the movie, then it's not that bad.What's good:(1) The score.
Generic action movie background music, but it works quite effectively, helping distract from the general awfulness of what's happening on screen.(2) The basic premise of the story is good.
Particularly liked the moment when a Russian survivor of a whale attack, who "only speaks Russian", immediately answers her interrogator's questions in English.(4) The actor playing Ahab is enjoyable, treading a fine line between Gregory Peck and Commandant Lassard in his portrayal of the submarine captain.
Who wouldn't like to see Moby Dick in movies battling nuclear submarines?
This one is none of these things, its mainly a joke.After this its only a personal choice of: A) Watch it with a comedy/worst-movie-ever mood going ; B) Stay clear of this if you want to keep the beautiful original Moby Dick story untarnished in your brain.
Almost unbelievably, it was far worse than expected.This movie has not even one redeeming quality.As a rework of the Moby Dick story, it is asinine.
(I won't attempt to describe it here, since no one who hasn't seen the movie would believe it anyway)Originally I had no intention of watching the whole thing.
Barry Bostwick, apparently being picked up at the same bar where Asylum finds other out of work leading men, mutilates Melville's original dialog in the worst over the top acting since Ricardo Montalban in Star Trek II.Hey, let's look at the fun inconsistencies, shall we.A part of the plot involves a OV-22 Osprey, without understanding how an Osprey works.
Too bad nothing like that actually happens in the movie..
OK, so this film is no work of art, but bad CGI aside (what did you expect) its got a lot going for it.
Decent acting, and a surprisingly decent adaptation of the Melville classic; you'd be forgiven for thinking that any Moby Dick adaptation would be cheesy, but the setup and development is actually pretty convincing, with the side plot of the Navy thinking they have a rogue sub captain on their hands an interesting addition.
This is an Asylum production, known for bad films.
She manages to do some decent acting amidst a sea of bad actors and stolen lines from the original "Moby Dick".
Ahab is obsessed with finding the white whale that took his leg while he was an enlisted man and goes rogue.There are worse film out there, and most are produced by Asylum..
As a film it's a completely worthless production, lacking the required norms of plotting, pacing, and characterisation, and coming across as completely laughable when it doesn't intend to be.Old-timer Barry Bostwick plays the Captain Ahab role, obsessed with killing the gigantic whale responsible for the loss of his leg.
I just watched this today and I must say that I am really disappointed in the level of standards for this film, I mean the CGI looked like a 10 year old took over while the pro slept in the corner.
The CGI is 1950's quality, the script is insane, the sets are cardboard - I could go on and on.If you liked director Ed Wood's efforts, you will LOVE this movie!!
If you like *really* bad movies, this one is for you.
(Spoiler!) Greenpeace wouldn't like this one because the whale gets whacked in the end.If you're the type who watched Killer Tomatoes three times and cried during Plan Nine from Outer Space, you'll *love* this movie.
The special effects are comparable.Comparable as bad as these in the latter movies.
Like most other reviewer I agree that it is a very bad film.