Deep Blue Sea (1999, R)

Directed by Renny Harlin

Written by Duncan Kennedy, Donna Powers, and Wayne Powers

Starring Samuel L. Jackson, Saffron Burrows, Thomas Jane, Stellan Skarsgard, LL Cool J, Michael Rappaport, and Jaqueline McKenzie

As Reviewed by James Brundage (MovieKritic2000)

All right. I have almost forgiven Village Roadshow for their fiasco of Practical Magic. After Analyze This and The Matrix, they were starting to get on my good side. Of course, when I started seeing previews for Deep Blue Sea, I assumed that it would be a complete Jaws rip off and, because of that, Village Roadshow would be back to bad in my book.

Deep Blue Sea is, in fact, a complete Jaws rip off. From start to finish, it has not an original bone in its body. But technically sharks don't have bone, they have cartilage, so I guess originality doesn't have to matter as much with this one. Scientific explanations of why this movie can be so technically bad (mediocre F/Xs, bad performances, no plot) and yet be so incredibly fun aside, Deep Blue Sea is a nice fun-in-the-sun movie to watch during the summer of 99.

Renny Harlin, director of The Long Kiss Goodnight and Cliffhanger handles action as well as he always did: nearly perfect. He knows how to handle his actors, he knows how to work with a terrible script, and he knows when it's good to be over the top and when it's good to stick to your guns. In sync with Harlin's usual directorial style, we have a lot of the old fashioned action scenes (swim from sharks, shoot at sharks, have sharks bite body parts off) thrown at you along with some not so traditional ones (watch sharks swim backwards, watch shark trap man in oven, watch shark make clever use of a human body as a way to break glass). Why is all of this? Because, in Deep Blue Sea, we have sharks that are as smart as human beings (and, as shown by most of the idiots we see in everyday life, probably smarter).

Deep Blue Sea's plot, if you can call it a plot, concerns an obsessed scientist (Saffron Burrows), an investor that survived an avalanche in the Himalayas (Samuel L. Jackson), various research scientists (Stellan Skarsgard, Michael Rappaport, and Jacqueline McKenzie), a shark-wrangler (Thomas Jane) and a wise-ass cook (LL Cool J), all of whom are being hunted by genetically altered sharks who have larger brains than normal and are as smart as humans. With all of the dark glee of a B-horror film, we watch as the sharks devour everyone in sight, manipulate the humans, and try to outsmart them.

And, of course, we root for the sharks more than we care about the humans. Of course the humans win anyways, and of course we have an oh so politically correct ending. But hey, that's not really the point of the film. It's summer, and the point is to have fun, no matter how idiotic the fun is.

Deep Blue Sea is worlds past the horror/comedy Lake Placid, the other monster film involving a natural creature with unnatural characteristics, actually going so far as to make you do more than chuckle a couple of times. Along with my dark sense of humor, I ended up laughing as one of the people was chomped right in the middle of a highly esoteric and idiotic speech.

Forewarnings, however, that go along with this film are that it is both highly stupid and highly predictable. Those in the mood for plot twists or intelligence should seek elsewhere. It has no literary value or qualifications whatsoever. It is not just not high art; it isn't even low art. What Deep Blue Sea undeniably is would be fun. Take everything else away, and Deep Blue Sea is and still will be fun.