1996 comedy flop Kelsey Grammer is still worth watching

Down the Periscope was one of the silly comedies of the 1990s. The film stars many of the stars of the decade, such as Frasier star Kelsey Grammer, Lauren Holly and Rob Schneider. The cast even included classic character actors such as Harry Dean Stanton, Bruce Dern and Rip Torn. In addition, he noted the early roles of some of today’s popular actors such as Patton Oswalt and Toby Huss. With all these stars involved in the movie, it’s no surprise that moviegoers are looking for the movie and rewatching it.

Down Periscope follows U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander Thomas Dodge (Kelsey Grammer) who is sent to a broken-down old submarine with a crew of crazy misfits to play a war game hosted by Dodge’s nemesis (Bruce Dern). in an attempt to tarnish his reputation. The film parodies popular submarine films such as The Hunt for Red October and its title is a play on the classic drama Up the Periscope.

Released in the spring of 1996, the parody ensemble was box office failuredespite opening number 2 the first weekend after release. Critics didn’t like the film very much either. It currently holds a Rotten rating of 11% on rotten tomatoes. Like many forgotten box office failures of the time, the Internet rediscovered it, seeing the merit in its jokes and deciding it was worth revisiting.