Release Date: July 28, 1999
Starring: Thomas Jane, Saffron Burrows, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Rappaport, Stellan Skarsgard, LL Cool J, Jacqueline McKenzie
Directed by: Renny Harlin
Distributed by: Warner Bros.
MPAA Rating: R (graphic shark attacks, language)
Sit up, pay attention, and raise your hand when any of this gets familiar: scientists attempt to cage dangerous beasts with little foresight. Wary game warden complies knowing better. Bigwig corporate sponsor(s) visits test site on the eve of approaching storm. Storm knocks out power, isolates setting. Fences prove useless, man and beast engage in steel-cage match.
Yes, indeed, surprisingly like Jurassic Park in the middle of an ocean.
There are those among us who would look at the premise of scientists messing with nature and ask, "When are they going to learn? This sort of thing never turns out well!" At least, not for the supporting characters, anyway, because conventional wisdom says that the fewer lines you have, the sooner you're going to get eaten. But for everyone else, including the most jaded members of the audience, it should be a lot of fun, because Deep Blue Sea is a thankfully well-made creature movie.
Of course, screenwriters Duncan Kennedy, Wayne Powers, and Donna Powers had to choose sharks for their creatures, and considering that Jaws, the most well-known creature movie of all time, also featured the great whites, they were definitely starting out from behind the eight-ball. But in respect to that Steven Spielberg classic, Deep Blue Sea has a different approach and manages to set itself apart. Where in Jaws our people were hunting the shark, here our heroes are just trying not to get eaten by three sharks.
Our heroes include Thomas Jane as the wary game warden Carter Blake, Saffron Burrows as the meddling scientist Dr. Susan McAlester, and Samuel L. Jackson as the bigwig corporate sponsor Russell Franklin. At the movie's outset, Dr. McAlester brings Franklin to their floating research compound to introduce him to the specifics of their experiment: they're using brain tissue from sharks to help reactivate human brain cells and cure Alzheimer's disease. Unfortunately, when a helicopter collides with the compound in a severe storm, the power is knocked out and the sharks begin to invade the flooding compound.
Director Renny Harlin includes a number of well-planned action sequences to compliment this story, and although the movie tends to take on a familiar feeling with all of this and the accompanying dialogue, there's not too much to say against it when it's done with style. Harlin seems to be aware that his movie is a quasi-rip-off of every man-versus-beast movie from the last twenty years, and so crafts the product with that in mind. (Even the decision to cast LL Cool J as the compound's chef brings back memories of rapper-turned-actor Ice Cube in 1997's Anaconda.)
But overall, this is a fun movie to watch the first time around and one that ought to have a good shelf life at Blockbuster upon video release. The ever-popular betting pools for which character dies first makes this a good movie to see with friends, and its failure to disappoint makes it the prototypical summer movie.
all contents © 1999 Craig Roush