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Tittle: GOLIATH AWAITS 1981 Emma Samms, Mark Harmon, Robert Forster Rating: ***1/2 |
Less than two-hours into the three-plus-hour GOLIATH AWAITS there's an establishing shot of the titular sunken ship that had been torpedoed by Germans at the brink of World War II, 1939... at which point most of the sci-fi mystery-genre-suspense has passively morphed into a kind of comfortably melodramatic TV-series instead of miniseries... which centers on rescuing a group of survivors still existing in the ship after forty years...
The reasons for their otherwise impossible survival is told in various tour-guided monologues... either by ship's savior Christopher Lee or his chaste daughter Emma Samms who has — after seeing diver Mark Harmon from a porthole — fallen in love with the salvaging American: himself spending the first forty-five minutes getting into the ship's hull with Robert Forster as a more even-keeled Navy man (also Harmon's ex Navy partner)... seeking an important document for military boss Eddie Albert, who randomly barks orders from above, mirroring a disaster flick inside the airport tower...
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Mark Harmon and Emma Samms in GOLIATH AWAITS
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But GOLIATH mostly takes place deep, deep down, mirroring 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA, particularly with mysterious menu items — and as the truth about the always uniquely sinister Christopher Lee, wanting to remain in charge beneath instead of being rescued above, it becomes a surprisingly basic evil-messianic thriller where the good guys have to investigate then battle a subtly evil dictator (along with shifty henchman Frank Gorhin)...
And overall what gives GOLIATH AWAITS its epic runtime are all the expository explanations of the insanely farfetched premise (including investigating doctor Alex Cord with ship's medical expert Jean Marsh)... which are actually some of the best moments, eventually leading to a banal b-story involving a group of former ship-bow-working, half-mutant rebels that stretches the already-stretched disbelief a bit too far.
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Mark Harmon in GOLIATH AWAITS |
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Mark Harmon in GOLIATH AWAITS |
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John Ratzenberger in GOLIATH AWAITS |
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Mark Harmon in GOLIATH AWAITS |
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Robert Forster in GOLIATH AWAITS |
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Robert Forster in GOLIATH AWAITS with Frank Gorshin
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Robert Forster in GOLIATH AWAITS with Christopher Lee
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Real life legendary couple John McIntire and Jeanette Nolan in GOLIATH AWAITS |
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Robert Forster in GOLIATH AWAITS with Mark Harmon
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Eddie Albert and Alan Fudge in GOLIATH AWAITS |
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Robert Forster in GOLIATH AWAITS |
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Doctors Jean Marsh and Alex Cord in GOLIATH AWAITS |
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John Carradine in GOLIATH AWAITS |
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Emma Samms in GOLIATH AWAITS |
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Lori Lethin in GOLIATH AWAITS
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Lori Lethin in GOLIATH AWAITS |
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Lori Lethin in GOLIATH AWAITS |
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