“It came up, up, up from the Bermuda Depths”—original movie poster

Many people out there will have haunting memories of a film they once saw about a giant turtle and a girl with glowing green eyes. The film was The Bermuda Depths, a made-for-TV movie released in 1978. It was directed by Shusei Kotani (aka Tom Kotani) and stars Leigh McCloskey, Connie Sallecca, Carl Weathers and Burl Ives. This film has since become a minor cult hit with good reason.

The film follows Magnus Dens (McCloskey) on his return to Bermuda to find the truth to his father’s mysterious death years earlier. Once there, Magnus joins his father’s former colleague Dr Paulis (Ives) and old friend Eric (Weathers) in their search for gigantic sea creatures. He also reconnects with his only childhood friend, Jennie Haniver (Sallecca). Magnus learns through Dr Paulis’s housekeeper some local folklore that casts an ominous cloud over Jennie’s enigmatic past. He is told that, two centuries earlier, Jennie was on a doomed boat on its way to Bermuda and to escape alive she sold her soul to “the one below”, the devil that lives in the Bermuda Triangle. So now she lives forever young in the Bermuda depths and appears sometimes as a girl, sometimes as a young woman, to men who are about to drown. When giant tracks measuring forty feet across turn up on the beach, the researchers along with Magnus set out to capture the creature, which Dr Paulis believes is a giant sea turtle. This leads to the climactic confrontation with the beast.

The characters make the film all the more likeable. Although at times melodramatic (and corny), the simplicity of the characters allows the audience to connect with them. Magnus and Jennie complement each other very well. There’s an underlying sense of innocence when these two interact, as if they are calling upon their childhood encounters. There’s a clear parallel between Magnus’s tortured past and Jennie’s unfortunate deal, which sort of makes them a perfect match and we want them to be together. And therein lays the tragedy because that can never be.

Eric and Dr Paulis also add their own bit of magic to the story. Both men play very different types of researchers. Eric is the ambitious young man eager to make his mark, while Dr Paulis takes on the role of the patient and wise older man. As the film develops, Eric’s ambition makes him reminiscent of Moby Dick’s Captain Ahab in his relentless pursuit of the great beast.

Filmed on location, this low budget film has some provocative imagery particularly in the opening sequence where Jennie finds Magnus asleep. The use of double framing to bring focus to the two characters has an art house air to it. The 1970s special effects add to the innocence in the same way Japanese horror movies such as Gamera does. The most sophisticated special effect is probably the glowing eyes of Jennie and the giant turtle. But even so, the film has a certain charm that resonates with the audience.

Many saw this film only once when they were young and as time went by it erased everything but a couple of key scenes and its impact on them. To most, it was years or even decades later before they discovered its name again. Some would have never found their way back to it and lived only with its romanticised memory.

Whether it was the idea of a Faustian pact, or the giant turtle and girl with glowing eyes, or the romance that could never be, The Bermuda Depths has left a big impression on those who saw it. The Bermuda Depths may not be the most notable or technically impressive piece of cinema but it is definitely one for the ages.

Entertaining killer croc movie directed by Greg McLean, the director of Wolf Creek (2004) starring Rhada Mitchell (Pitch Black), Sam Worthington (Terminator Salvation) and Michael Vartan (Alias).

Chicago based travel writer Pete McKell (Vartan) is sent to Australia’s Northern Territory for an assignment. More used to reporting on luxurious hotels and fancy restaurants he is less than pleased to find himself in the middle of nowhere. Still he makes the best of it and after seeing newspaper clippings in a bar about crocodile attacks he joins a tourist group on a river trip run by Kate (Rhada Mitchell). Along for the ride are a likeable American with a neurotic wife, a hoity-toity English couple with their young daughter, an Australian photographer, a middle-aged widower intending to spread his wife’s ashes, and an Irish woman.

During the trip the boat’s progress is impeded by Neil (Sam Worthington) and his beer-swilling buddy. There is clearly a little history between Kate and Neil and things threaten get out of hand before she forces their speedboat out of the way. At the end of the tour and just as they are about to return to town the Americans spot a flare. Kate insists they have no choice but to respond and they head into an area considered sacred by the aborigines. There they find evidence of a recently sunk boat, but before they can investigate further their vessel is smashed by an unseen force and also begins to sink.

The group find themselves stranded on an island, but the tide is rising and eventually they are going to have to cross the river. Worthington and disposable best friend in a horror movie stop by and taunt the tourists. Unfortunately for them they don’t realise the group are waving to warn them about the huge crocodile whose hobbies include smashing boats and eating their crew. Disposable best friend never resurfaces, but Neil joins the survivors on the temporary island.

Rogue follows the formula handed down from other water-based horror films like Spielberg’s Jaws (1975), Piranha (1978) and more recently Anaconda (Luis Llosa 1997) in which a group of people are menaced by unusually large natural predators. There is nothing original here, but that’s part of the fun. We know the group are in trouble as soon as Kate says no crocodile has ever attacked her boat as crocs never attack anything bigger than them.

McLean toys efficiently with stereotypes and audience expectations. Who will get eaten first? Who will turn out to bet the most cowardly in the group? Most importantly we wonder who will survive as there are three main heroes, the spirited Kate, the rough, but brave Neil, and the handsome Vartan. McLean keeps us guessing right to the end and with the help of cinematographer Will Gibson makes wonderful use of the Northern Territory’s scenery. Unfortunately for McLean there was another killer croc movie out in 2007, Black Water (Andrew Traucki, David Nerlich) and it bagged a UK cinema release while Dimension have yet to give Rogue even the DVD release it deserves. Region 1 versions are available on import though and are worth thinking about.

Kevin Sturton

There is arguably nothing more satisfying in a modern action thriller than when a hero or anti-hero gets out his gun or twin hand guns and goes about messing up someone who is giving him some grief or who is just in his way. This is perhaps even more satisfying than in a zombie movie when someone revs up a chainsaw. Now I'm not one to advocate violence of any sort and you should in no way take this article as some sort of condoning of going in a shooting spree. This list is simply the ten most satisfying scenes of well choreographed bullet ballet's I have seen in my thirty years of film watching.

If you feel there is something that is not on this list that should be then please let me know. Inevitably someone will bring up The Wild Bunch and they are probably right, but I have only seen that film once and I was about 12 so did not fully appreciate that at the time. Please don't say Equilibrium though as that is just silly.

10. Rambo (2008)

Okay its not much of a gunfight truth be told but I'm pretty sure the Burmese soldiers do at least get a couple of shots off before their heads explode in a shower of gore. The scene is towards the end of the film where John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) and a team of mercenaries have nearly got the hostage charity workers to the river. Suddenly the Burmese turn up en masse in their boats, jeeps and trucks. The situation is desperate and John Rambo finally does what he has threatened to do for four films, Unleash Hell!! after turning the driver of a jeep into Burmese curry paste he turns the large machine gun mounted on the back towards the approaching army and kills around 100 people. Its the highlight of an otherwise average movie which is only good for the reason that Rambo finally does give someone 'A war they won't believe'

9. The Crow (1994)

Eric Draven (Brandon Lee) has been brought back to life to set right the things that went wrong, namely get revenge for his and his fiancees brutal murder. He has killed everyone involved except Skank and Skank is holed up in the lair of local crime lord Top Dollar (Michael Wincott) . Draven walks in to a meeting of all of Detroit's local mobsters talking about how they are going to burn the city to the ground. The gentleman do not take kindly to this and fill Draven full of bullets. What they don't realize is Draven is already dead and he turns the guns on their owners taking them out with twin pistols whilst a strobe light flashes in the club below and thrash metal plays over the soundtrack. Brandon Lee's last movie is now 14 years old and its hard to believe there is a remake in the works, how will they top the gothic brilliance of the original, let alone this scene?

8. Shoot Em Up (2007)

Not an excellent movie in all honesty, but undeniably fun in a Crank kind of way. The best scene is the first where the movies mission statement is laid out loud and clear: Guns are cool and we are going to rock for 80 minutes. Clive Owen's drifter comes across a thug pursuing a lady about to give birth and intervenes killing the man with a carrot. Armed goons turn up and pursue them into a building. Here Clive delivers the baby, dives through a glass window and shoots a ponytail off an ageing henchmen. He then escapes over the rooftops with the baby but not before giving a final FU to Paul Giamatti's hired mobster. You could also mention here the skydiving scene or the scene where Clive Owen dives out of a car into the back of a van filled with baddies and takes them all out, truth be told though it gets a bit repetitive after the first scene. Would have been better if a movie billed as John Woo's wet dream were actually directed by the man himself.

7. Full Contact (1992)

Ringo Lam's movie from 1992 is little seen on these shores but beloved by Hong Kong movie fans as a brilliant movie in the Heroic bloodshed subgenre. Chow Yun Fat plays against type as Gou Fei a badass riding a motorcycle into Hong Kong to seek revenge on psychotic Judge played by Simon Yam. He tracks Judge and his gang to a nightclub and bullets fly back and forth and we get to see what the bullets sees. This has been done a few times now but in 1992 this was amazing, we see bullets leave the weapons of these bad bad people and we follow them into their intended targets. The movie has been ripped off a few times but is well worth seeking out especially for the final classic put down ' Go Masturbate in Hell' as Gou Fei kills his pervy nemesis.

6. Breaking News (2004)

I'm only now catching up with the work of Johnny To who is to some, the most exciting director working today, picking up where John Woo left off and making the heroic bloodshed genre his own as well as breathing new life into Hong Kong gangster movies. Election, Mad Detective and Exiled are all brilliant movies worth seeking out. I could have put the scene in Exiled with the red bull can tossed in the air as a load of badasses shoot each other below in this slot but then I saw Breaking News. The opening scene of this outstanding movie involves an attempted police raid on some local mobsters and the fallout of their escape. This is all done in one long revolving take on a street as the mobsters shoot at the police and try and make their getaway. Cars are riddled with bullets, grenades are tossed and people lose their lives. None of this is done in slow-motion, its all loud, quick and desperate. This climaxes in a scene where a police officer surrenders in fear which is captured on camera and kicks off the films plot. Its a wonder that this sequence isn't more celebrated, its easily as good as the Children of Men car sequence or the Oldboy hammer fight.

5. The Untouchables (1987)

Time has luckily been very kind to Brian De Palma's 1987 remake of the old TV series and it still stands as a classy tale of good vs evil and a classic gangster tale in its own right. The Train station steps sequence came out before any mainstream audiences had even heard of John Woo and is an all time classic scene. Elliot Ness (Kevin Costner) and George Stone (Andy Garcia) have been tipped off by Malone (Sean Connery) that Al Capone's book keeper is going to be on a train heading out of Chicago. If the get the book keeper then they get Capone. Malone died for this information so Ness is pretty pissed off. They get to the station and Ness stands at the top of the steps, Stone goes off to search the station. Some time passes and it doesn't look like the accountant will show up so Ness kindly helps a lady who is struggling with her baby in a pram to the top of the steps. The goons then file in and Ness notices a mobster he punched out earlier by his busted nose, before the guy can even reach into his jacket Ness has raised his shotgun and BLAM, the man flies back into a glass door. The sequence then slows down as the pram is knocked down the stairs and bounces away whilst sailors on leave are shot in the crossfire and bullets ricochet off the pram. Ness manages to take out most of the bad guys and then Stone slides in at the last minute to save the falling pram and take out the one remaining desperate criminal. The battle is won and they get their man.

4. The Matrix (1999)

Everybody knows this scene, its the one that makes you wish you were Keanu Reeves and also the one that was blamed for the Columbine tragedy back in 99. The original Matrix is a bona fide classic movie and the lobby gun battle kicks off the final breathtaking series of action scenes. Neo (Keanu Reeves)  and Trinity ( Carrie Anne-Moss) are on a suicide mission to rescue Morpheus from the agents of the Matrix. Neo has just been told he isn't 'the one' but something inside him has told him that he can rescue Morpheus so in they go, with guns lots of guns. When the security guards realize how much heat Neo is packing he doesn't hesitate and takes them all out with twin machine guns. The swat cops then enter and Neo and Trinity take them all out whilst somersaulting off walls and performing kung fu kicks. The sequels may have diminished its impact somewhat but this is still a scene that gets the blood pumping like few others from the 90's.

3. Hard Boiled (1992)

You can argue that Red Cliff and Face Off are great movies but John Woo has never been as good since he left Hong Kong in 1992. Sure Hard Target has some great gun fights and so does Face Off but neither had the utter coolness that is the trio of Chow Yun-Fat, Tony Leung and Antony Wong all at the top of their game. In a film full of stand out examples of choreographed mayhem I would have to pick the warehouse sequence from the middle of the movie. Following a coup by Johnny Wong (Anthony Wong), undercover cop Alan (Tony Leung) has just murdered Uncle Hoi and his men. Hard Boiled cop Tequila (Chow Yun-Fat) sits on the roof loading his guns and awaiting his moment. Using smoke bombs to confuse his targets he swings in and sets about taking out the mass of triad scum like a one man army. Triads on motorcycles are killed in great balls of fire and Tequila evades grenades whilst diving through cars in glorious slow motion. The sequence climaxes as Johnny Wong escapes and Tequila comes face to pistol with Alan in the smoke and realizes that maybe this guy isn't all he seems. There is supposedly a sequel/prequel to this on the way with only John Woo involved in a producer capacity. Please Mr Woo get Johnny To to direct this!

2. The Way of The Gun (2000)

Christopher McQuarries underseen directorial debut features gun battles choreographed by his brother Doug, a former navy seal. As a result the battles display a degree of realism like the ones seen in my number one choice below. If you imagine the number one scene in this list crossed with the tortilla western sleaziness of Desperado then you get a sense of the awesomeness of the climax to this brilliant film. Small time bandits Parker (Ryan Philippe) and Longbaugh (Benicio Del Toro) descend on a Mexican brothel where surrogate mother Robin (Juliette Lewis) is about to give birth to the spawn of mobster Hale Chiddick. Robin is guarded by ruthless bodyguard Jeffers (Taye Diggs) who has his own agenda and rapidly approaching are a whole mess of middle aged 'Bagmen' led by Joe Sarno (James Caan). Parker and Longbaugh are there for the money, or are they? The battle commences very very loudly as Parker and Longbaugh fire machine guns and rifles through the flimsy walls and through the chests of the people who get in their way. Parker unfortunately dives for cover in the wrong fountain leading to a wince inducing scene of him pulling a sliver of glass out of his arm. They almost make it away with the money too but those pesky bagmen are just too good.

1. Heat (1995)

Here it is, my favorite gun battle of all time. Way back in early 1996 I was sitting in Acton Vue watching Michael Mann's masterful crime saga and I was gripped. We had already had the classic coffee shop scene where Pacino and De Niro face off for the first time. Then out of the blue comes this scene so loud and so long and so thrilling that the seats were vibrating in the theatre. It looks as though Neil McCauley's (De Niro) criminal crew have almost gotten away with the robbery of their lives but the evil disgruntled Waingro has tipped off Vincent Hanna (Pacino) and his robbery homicide crew. They turn up just the last member of the crew is about to get in the getaway car. Chris Shiherlis (Val Kilmer) gives his crew a little smile as he approaches the car, his expression drops however as he sees a cop across the road. he lifts his M16 and so begins one of the loudest scenes in history. The battle spills out into the road on to an intersection in a busy area of the city as the driver is shot and McCauleys crew desperately try and escape. The battle concludes after McCauley and a wounded Chris escape and Hanna shoots Michael Cherito (Tom Sizemore) dead in a parking lot saving the hostage he took. Its a breathless scene given added realism from input by former SAS man Andy McNab. Never bettered in 14 years since it came out.

Chris Holt (Chris_Holt8@hotmail.com)