Deep Blue Sea (1999) Review by Brian Matherly *** out of *****
Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, Saffron Burrows, Thomas Jane, Stellan Skarsgard, LL Cool J, Michael Rapaport Written by: Duncan Kennedy, Wayne Powers and Donna Powers Directed by: Renny Harlin Running Time: 105 minutes Date Reviewed: July 31, 1999
The second movie to come down the pike this year involving killer animals (the other being Lake Placid), Deep Blue Sea is definitely better than the other film but still seems flawed. When a research shark escapes from an offshore lab built inside an old German submarine base and attacks a boat, the corporation funding the shark project threatens to shut the scientist's lab down due to negative press. It turns out that the sharks are being harvested to help combat Alzheimer's Disease, and one of the head scientists (Saffron Burrows) makes a desperate plea to let the research continue. She is given the weekend to show results, and a liaison (played by Samuel L. Jackson) is sent along with her to report the findings. What he finds are sharks with genetically enhanced intelligence and a terrible storm that seals off the scientists in the lab with the rampaging creatures.
I wish every scene in this movie could have been as cool as the scene where the shark propels the guy in the stretcher into the front glass of the lab, smashing the glass and flooding the room. Unfortunately, the movie ceases to become inventive after that. Sure there are a couple of plot twists that one doesn't see coming, but overall the film seems to be contrived. Scream 2 already brought up the point that African American cast members always seem to die early on in horror films, so do we really need to hear the same sentiment echoed by LL Cool J midway through this film?
Renny Harlin's direction is okay during the action scenes, but the editing of some of the comedic moments is poor. I'm not sure I would have laughed had they been edited better, but as they stand some of the jokes come off as awkward and stilted. We are supposed to find comic relief in LL Cool J's relationship with his insult spouting parrot, but one finds the parrot's demise in the maws of a shark funnier than any scene the parrot appears alive in.
Most of the film's filler cast is given the standard "I'm gonna die soon, so don't get too attached to me" characterization, so there's really no one to care about in the film. A relationship that forms between Burrows and her swarthy handyman/head diver/shark wrangler rings false, and Samuel L. Jackson's role (which I'm assuming was designed to be the "unknowledgeable new guy" character through which we, the audience, learn all the exposition) is relegated to being in awe of everything going on around him.
Thankfully, there is one redeeming scene (for me, anyway) where Burrows must remove her wet suit and use it to stand on, in her underwear, so she can avoid the electrical surge she is about to cause by throwing a live wire into the water in front of an advancing shark in order to kill it. Too bad there were no scenes involving the use of jet skis in the water flooded hallways of the undersea lab though. That's another sure-fire way to get on my good side. [R]
Brian Matherly -- bmath2000@hotmail.com The Jacksonville Film Journal URL:http://users.southeast.net/~chuckd21/
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