Down Periscope

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Down Periscope ★★½ 1996 (PG-13)

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. 92m/C VHS, DVD . Kel-sey 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; D: David S. Ward; W: Hugh Wilson, Andrew Kurtzman, Eliot Wald; C: Victor Hammer; M: Randy Edelman.