Warning: the following contains one MAJOR spoiler. I'm not kidding , folks. Read this and you will not be able to properly enjoy Deep Blue Sea's most effective sequence. I'm talking about one of those "straight out of the left field , never saw that one coming , holy shit where the hell did that come from" moments. Really. Trust me on this , this is one of those scenes that only comes around once or twice per year. One of those scenes that you will never be able to see coming even if I freeze frame the film a second before it happens and you sit there trying to imagine what will happen next for the several hours. Oh yeah , it's a doozy. If you don't want to know what I am talking about then don't ( please please please ) read any further because I would hate to ruin this scene for you. Okay , enough of this. Read on if you have already seen the movie , simply think that I am blowing things out of proportions or just don't care.
Spoiler Space.
= = = = =
The sharks eat Samuel L. Jackson.
I know what you are thinking. "Oh but Matthew , he just gets eaten during the movie's last five minutes while saving the lives of the other survivors." Bite me. You are wayyyy off if that is what you think happens to Sam.
The sharks eat Samuel L. Jackson. They eat him somewhere around thirty minutes into the movie. He's only the second person to die in the movie. Whoah. Nothing quite says "Nyahahaha , you thought this was just going to be another lame monster movie...well kiss my ass cuz from now on all bets are off!" like a flick's only big name star getting chewed into itty bitty little pieces with about an hour and a half left to the movie.
Deep Blue Sea takes every familiar monster movie cliche you can think of and quite gleefully throws them to the sharks to play with. In other words , place bets on which group of characters you think are going to live or die during the course of this movie and be prepared to lose a whole lot of money. If you still think that you know who will make it out alive after reading the above paragraphs then you must have read the script or have psychic powers.
In a summer strangely empty of , well , summer movies , Deep Blue Sea is like a breath of fresh air , or a refreshing swim in the pool , we might as well stay nautical. Altough a swim will be the last thing on your mind after seing this movie , at least bring your annoying kid brother with you into the water. Might as well have him wear bright colored swimming trunks while you are at it. Anyway...
It's not a typical summer when most movies are either romantic comedies , cartoons , small budget pictures and a lot of movies with little to no big name stars ( where the hell are Nicolas cage , Sly , Ahnuld , Jim Carrey , Bruce Willis and Mel Gibson this summer anyway? ) and the only true summer movies either coming out before the season's official start ( The Matrix ) , right at it's very beginning ( The Mummy ) or were surefire hits even they opened during the olympic games or the recent JFK jr. fiasco. ( The Phantom Menace )
DBS is not far , by far , the smartest written movie of the summer but since this is a popcorn movie that kind of goes without saying. This is not a movie that you can criticize , it was conceived as a fun filled way to spend two hours and it had no intentions of being a work of art.
It's fun. Can you dig it?
Now I like to be intelectually stimulated as much as the next guy but once in a while it feels good to leave your brain at the door. It feels even better when the movie you are going to see is not a effects filled unscary bore like The Haunting but a movie with good , earnest performances , fantastic effects ( a DBS topic that movie critics are now waging war on , half of them say the effects are flawless , the other half say they look fake. ) and several genuinely scary scenes , something that The Haunting cannot boast to contain.
Granted , director Renny Harlin rips HIMSELF off with a ladder scene that any Cliffhanger fan will recognize , complete with the very same camera angles , but the movie cannot be accused of ripping off or copying jaws in any way , another theme that movie critics are obsessing about. Aside from a clear homage , it can't really be called a rip off , of Jaws during the opening sequence the movie stays carefully clear of that well worn path.
Overall , this is the second best movie I have seen this summer and , quite frankly , the last movie that I really really really wanted to see this summer. You know it's not a good summer when your must-see list of movies is about 10 movies short of last year's.
Deep Blue Sea: 8.5 out of 10 for the ultimate no-smoking advertisement , a shark "arming" itself ( nyehehe! ) , a shark with a very clear attitude towards long speeches , overall good acting and a new twist on the guess the next victim game.
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