Down Periscope Movie Review 1996

Tom Dodge (Grammer) dreams of commanding a nuclear sub, but gets stuck with an out-of-mothballs, rusting WWII vintage tub with the usual goof-off crew. In order for Dodge to get his dream assignment, he and his losers must beat the nuclear subs of generic mean authority figure Admiral Graham (Dern), in a war game. Predictable comedy is kept afloat by amusing cast, especially Schneider as the weaselly Executive Officer Pascal. Many jokes revolve around Dodge's tattoo, which is on a body part that is normally private first-class. Denied cooperation from the U.S. Navy, the shipyard scenes were filmed on three barges tied together in the San Francisco Bay area, with empty discarded frigates and destroyers belonging to the U.S. Department of Transportation playing the fleet.

Distribution

Fox Home Entertainment, PO Box 900, Beverly Hills, CA 90213, Phone: (310)369-3900, Toll-free: 888-223-4FOX, Fax: (310)369-5811, URL: http://www.foxmovies.com/index1.html, Remarks: Also known as Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment

Available on VHS
Running time 92 minutes.

Cast and Crew

Genres

Military Comedy, Submarines, Sail Away, Military: Navy, Tattoos

Screenplay

Hugh Wilson, Andrew Kurtzman, Eliot Wald

Cast

Kelsey Grammer, Lauren Holly, Bruce Dern, Rob Schneider, Rip Torn, Harry Dean Stanton, William H. Macy, Ken H. Campbell, Toby Huss, Duane Martin, Jonathan Penner, Bradford Tatum, Harland Williams

Cinematography

Victor Hammer

Director

David S. Ward

Music

Randy Edelman

Producer

Robert Lawrence, Jack Cummins, 20th Century-Fox