I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Simply Perfect

One of my all time favorites.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

On the outside this film is just fine. It has an okay plot, albeit very predictable and unoriginal. However it lacks the excitement, shocking moments, tension and claustrophobic atmosphere of similar films, such as Misery.The film is very boring. It does not have enough twists and moments of excitement to merit being a feature length film. The film also lacks energy and actually feels very tiring to watch. It also lacks atmosphere. Altough the entire film has a feeling of tension, largely due to its score, it does not have enough moments of sudden action to really engrose the viewer. The characters are poorly presented and lack any sort of motivation. The relationship between Nicole Kidman as nd hi sd husbdnd is not given enough time at the start and as a result the viewer never really cares asbout what happens at the end. The villain isnt introduced properly either and he does not seem to have any clear motivation.The actors are lazy and unconvincing. None of them are in any well memorable. All in all, this film is a terrific bore. Do not watch.

Fear of isolation has been a staple element in film since the beginning. A quiet, shrouded forest. A damp, derelict back alley. The endless waters of earth's oceans, which is where Philip Noyce's nightmarish psychosexual shocker Dead Calm takes place. The key is not in projecting fear of being isolated, which is bad enough, but instilling the unnerving notion that you're not actually alone after all, and be it human, supernatural or the forces of nature, something is out there with you. This is what vacationing couple Sam Neill and Nicole Kidman discover, only in this case it's no creature or ghost, but Billy Zane instead. I know what you're thinking, that perennial goofball Zane is the farthest thing from fearsome you could find, but he's actually one of the most memorable and shit-scary movie villains out there. Neill and Kidman are a couple with enough issues to begin with, sailing their schooner somewhere way out there trying to forget past tragedy, until Zane brings new trouble onto their horizon. After they rescue him half dead floating on the waves, he tells them of a capsized ocean liner, and claims to be it's only survivor. Neill isn't quite bought and sold on his story and ventured off to see for himself, unwisely leaving his wife behind with this strange dude, which is loose thriller plotting 101, but oh well, inciting incidents have to come from somewhere, don't they. Zane turns out to be an unstable maniac of the highest order, and steers the schooner off on his own course with Kidman in tow, and Neill left in the wake, trying to find them out there and save her. The scary thing about this villain is that he has no plan, no goals, no endgame or reason for doin this, he's simply certifiably out of his fucking head, and there's an unpredictability to that which I found immensely freaky. The scenes aboard the boat with him and Nicole on their own are charged with a tangible danger and crazed frenzy, a canary in a cage circled by a thoroughly crazy cat. The acting sells it there, with Kidman's raw terror and Zane's oddball sociopathy walking a narrow, rigid tightrope that could snap any second, and does. When the action comes it's fierce, R rated mayhem as Neill vengefully charges back into the picture, and although not as intimately scary as the horror bits, still holds our gaze. Zane also gets one of the coolest villain deaths ever seen, shot in full gory detail as well. A chamber piece at sea, a glowing example of effective filmmaking in the thriller genre, and scary in spades.

I saw "Dead Calm" on video when it was first released, I remembered I liked it, but the only think I actually remembered was Billy Zane was the bad guy and Nicole Kidman got her bum out during a sex scene (and I liked her pert bum a lot) so when I saw it was starting on TV I decided to revisit it.Plot In A Paragraph: John Ingram (Sam Neil) and his wife Rae (Nicole Kidman) who's recovering from a car accident, are on their sailboat somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. Their tranquil and blissful environment is changed when they rescue Hughie (Billy Zane) the lone survivor of a sinking ship they spot one morning. This is still an entertaining if slightly predictable movie, but I can not help but wonder what happened to the career of Sam Neil (who met his wife, Noriko Watanabe, in the making of this film) as he is a very talented actor with a great every man quality to him. He would go on to great success with "Jurassic Park" and "Event Horizon" both of which I love, before almost disappearing from mainstream movies. Last time I seen him he had a small role in "Escape Plan" opposite Sly Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger. He deserves better. Oh and I still really liked the pert bum of Nicole Kidman.

After tragically losing their son in a car accident, wealthy Australian Sam Neill (as John Ingram) and his exceptionally beautiful young wife Nicole Kidman (as Rae) take their dog "Benji" and set sail for a hopefully restful vacation on their yacht. Out on the "Dead Calm" Pacific Ocean waters, they find handsome Billy Zane (as Hughie Warriner) in distress. He claims his boat is sinking and everyone else on board has died from food poisoning. As this seems a likely story, they rescue the attractively shirtless and suspicious-looking Mr. Zane. This leads to the problems you'd expect, under these circumstances. This situation, probably done best by Roman Polanski in "Knife in the Water" (1962), is built on the supposition that the handsome newcomer may be dangerous and will reveal an aggressive sexual interest in the pretty woman. The cast is attractive, the formula works and the photography (by Dean Semler) is beautiful.****** Dead Calm (4/7/89) Phillip Noyce ~ Nicole Kidman, Billy Zane, Sam Neill, Rod Mullinar