Dead Calm is a thriller from director Phillip Noyce, who followed this film with 'Patriot Games', 'Clear And Present Danger' and 'The Bone Collector'. It is a 1989 film with a good cast, and itsx running time is an easy to watch 93 minutes. The director is a specialist of the thriller genre, so you expect a good yarn here. The Plot Joe and Rae Ingram are a couple who embark on a trip in their yacht for a few days of rest and relaxation as a couple - a bit of privacy. Shortly into their trip, they encounter Hughie Warriner, stranded at sea on a vessel that is not functioning. The Ingrams do the right thing and invite Warriner aboard, not knowing the ...  Read the complete review

The first time I was watching Dead Calm, I remember that I was completely engrossed by this menacing thriller. Although I was familiar with Sam Neill at the time, mostly from crap performance of Damien in Omen III: The Final Conflict, Dead Calm was the movie that really brought Nicole Kidman and Billy Zane to my attention for the first time. Any feature film that boasts a cast of only three characters invariably falls and rises entirely with the quality of the cast. The fact that Dead Calm had me in its grip until its final seconds was proof enough for me that I had not heard the last thing of these actors. And as time should prove, I was correct. All three stars of the .  Read the complete review

I have seen this a few times now and each time I happily sit through it, even though I know what's going to happen. Somehow it still manages to get me everytime though and there's always part of me that thinks it might suddenly change mid way through! Setting a film totally at sea is a risky business, you have to have a tight screenplay and a strong cast if you're going to set your film on a yacht for an hour and a half. Luckily, director Phillip Noyce carries the film off with aplomb and allows the slow burning tension to unfold at a brilliantly leisurely pace. There was a danger the action could have come too quickly, but he lets the characters develop for ...  Read the complete review

Once you get the situation set up, with Sam Neill marooned on a doomed, battered corpse-strewn boat, and Nicole Kidman (in one of her first big roles) trapped on another boat with ranting loony Billy Zane, this is a white-knuckles suspenser, filled with moments of pure Hitchcock. But getting there involves one of the great "WHAT IN GOD'S NAME ARE YOU THINKING OF, MAN?" sequences. Only in the movies would a suspicious chap leave his wife alone on a boat with a man who he thinks is a bit dubious, and go to another boat to find out what's what. Either he'd stay, or he's take wifey with her. And what's more, either she would insist he ...  Read the complete review

RELEASED: 1989, Cert. 15 RUNNING TIME: Approx. 95 mins DIRECTOR: Phillip Noyce PRODUCERS: Terry Hayes, George Miller & Doug Mitchell SCREENPLAY: Terry Hayes MUSIC: Graeme Revell MAIN CAST:- Nicole Kidman as Rae Ingram Sam Neill as John Ingram Billy Zane as Hughie Benji the dog, as himself ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FILM ONLY REVIEW Based on the novel by Charles Williams, Dead Calm begins when Australian couple John (who is an Officer in the Navy) and Rae Ingram decide to take their large, luxury yacht on a cruise, in order to help ...  Read the complete review