Rish Outfield's reviews
Stephen Sommers, the writer/director, would follow this up with 1999's The Mummy, a movie with a lot in common with this one. Both are Action-oriented, but very much Horror films. Both are clever and a lot of fun. Both have computer-generated creatures. Both have Kevin J. O'Connor in them. I saw them both this week. I liked them both a lot.
It had a rather unoriginal plot, but worked nonetheless. Famke Janssen is radiant and captivating as usual (with Lord of Illusions and The Faculty on her resume, she may be on her way to being a Scream Queen). Treat Williams is pretty great too. He should get more work. Hey, isn't that Djimon Hondsou? It also featured an incredible CGI monster unlike anything I have ever seen before.
This film did not do well, as it came out very soon after a slightly more successful doomed ocean liner film and there were inevitable unfavourable comparisons. But it is very worth checking out, and was a very pleasant surprise.

The tyranist's thoughts
I normally don't like sea monster movies (The Abyss is probably the major exception), but this one was a lot of fun. It followed the traditional sea monster plot pretty closely, but it added some very smart humor, the somewhat charismatic Treat Williams and the always luscious Xenia Ono . . . oh, I mean, Famke Janssen. The design of the monsters was particularly good and the effects work to make them alive was fantastic. If you are looking for a dense rich plot with lots of human interest elements you should probably skip this one. On the other hand, if you just want to see a monster shoot-em-up then you will have the time of your life. Enjoy.