Dead Calm
Date Read Dead Calm by Charles Williams

After a tragedy, John Ingram and his wife Rae are spending some time isolated at sea, when they come across a stranger who has abandoned a sinking ship.

On New Year’s most people watch the ball drop, but not me, I watched Dead Calm. Unfortunately, it was as much as a letdown as most New Year’s Eve parties. I remember this movie scaring the bejesus out of me, this time around I was just annoyed by Nicole Kidman and Sam Neil’s stupidity.

Breakdown of Stupidity

• Mistake number one was that they let Billy Zane on the boat to begin with.  Sure, he looks good shirtless but Rae, (Nicole Kidman) really should have listened to the warning signs going off in her head.
• The second bad decision was when John (Sam Neil) leaves to investigate the shipwrecked boat that Hughie Warriner (Billy Zane) fled.  Leaving your wife alone with a guy you just met and are getting bad vibes from to follow a hunch was ridiculous, particularly since he immediately regretted it.  Also, considering he was a Navy man he came off as pretty incompetent and I wouldn’t wanted him sailing my ship.
• The rest of the movie consisted of Rae and John trying to get in contact with each other, (because of course John gets stuck on the sinking boat) and Nicole Kidman’s feeble attempts to kill Billy Zane.  I just wanted to smack Nicole Kidman and use the crossbow and/or gun on shirtless Billy Zane.
• Finally Billy Zane gets thrown off the boat and John and Rae reconnect.  Okay fine, but despite their lives being in jeopardy and Rae getting raped they just continue on their boat trip like nothing happened.  It was infuriating to say the least.

Billy Zane’s portrayal of a psychopath was the shinning point of the film but he will never be able to hold a candle next to Robert Mitchum in Cape Fear.

Overall, I was clearly disappointed with Dead Calm and felt that while it was scary at the time and would describe it as the 1990s Cape Fear it isn’t as timeless and walked away with my eyes rolling.

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