Review“Now you see how that works? She screwed with the sharks, and now the sharks, they're screwing with us. “ – TomThe name of the game amongst Critics currently is to put the boot into each and every movie with the name Renny Harlin attached to it. I decided enough was enough – surely the dude couldn’t be making crap movie after crap movie? – so fired up the coffee pot and went with two Harlin films over the weekend. One, this one, was quite good in a guilty pleasure sort of a way, but the other was indescribably dreadful in a lacking any decent plot sort of a way; review of The Covenant coming up next. Dr Susan McCallister is researching a cure for Alzheimer’s disease that apparently involves breeding super-large sharks with giant forebrains, all the better to get the cranium fluid needed for the cure. One of the experimental sharks jumps the fence – couldn’t quite turn a Fonz joke there – and goes after two young couples in the middle of nowhere on a catamaran. This doesn’t make Dr Sue flavour of the month with her corporate sponsors, and rich dude Russell Franklin is threatening to close down her genetics operations. In a development which should in no way be compared to Spielberg’s Jurassic Park, Dr Sue convinces Franklin to spend a weekend at her remote former submarine-refuelling station to check on developments and to see where his millions are going. Naturally, during the start of the weekend a violent storm disrupts things and cuts off contact with the outside world – this should not be compared to Spielberg’s Jurassic Pack – and to make matters worse, a shark attack on a rescue helicopter – oh, that shouldn’t be compared to Jaws 2 or Lake Placid – takes out the communications room. Left to their own devices, the skeleton crew of maverick scientists, a Chef, and one rich bastard are in for a shock; the sharks are intelligent and are going to invite themselves inside the rapidly sinking researching facility. A surprisingly fun-filled, but completely illogical movie ensues. Harlin opens his film with perhaps the best sequence of the entire show as the credits roll. We get an overhead shot of the ocean from quite some height and rapidly focus in on a catamaran. A party is underway with four teens showing the flesh, with the rock and roll music blaring, and the alcohol flowing. All the ingredients are there for a quick start to the victim count. To enforce this, Harlin goes underwater with the tried and true Jaws shark POV. We next get something banging into the boat, and I was already guessing this wasn’t likely to be Jason Voorhees having lost his way somewhere between Crystal Lake and the New York sewers. In a great scene, Harlin has a bottle of red wine tipping over and the contents pouring into the ocean. This of course is all plot foreshadow, and the audience is expecting some real blood to be spilt shortly. The shark increases its attack ferocity and we end up with all four teens in the drink, whereupon we get our first good look at the gnarly shark – that’s one ferocious looking beastie – as it heads on in for dinner. At the last moment, some dude harpoons the big fish just as it was about to munch on down. Guess Harlin could have made more of the ending of the sequence in terms of impact, but the whole thing gets the movie underway in strong style and I was a happy camper, folks. The director doesn’t let up from this point on, and I could find exactly zero problems with his camera work. We get some epic scenes during the copter trip to the research facility (not going to mention Jurassic Park again), and some decent switches to close-up, before the whole thing heads into a claustrophobic’s nightmare of narrow passages and enclosed spaces as the facility starts to sink. Strong stuff, and with a decent script Harlin could be working himself toward an Oscar. Guess everyones first question is going to be how do the sharks look. Well, Harlin went for some live shots of real ones, some animatronics which were pretty good, and some half-arsed CGI for shots he couldn’t pull off otherwise. On the bonus interview that came with the film, Harlin thinks audiences won’t be able to tell the CGI shots from the animatronic ones. Guess he was right for those viewing the movie after a day of heavy drinking and while currently spewing up their guts in the lounge room. Everyone else will be able to tick them off. Where Deep Blue Sea falls apart is with the illogical plot points which had even a non-scientist type like myself rolling my eyes. Liz over at “And You Call Yourself a Scientist” must have been grinding her teeth over this movie. In short order, a few of the more implausible facts: - The escaped shark jumped an eight foot fence; the Kings should sign it up asap. - Second generation female! Hopefully they aren’t implying here that the two first generation super-smart sharks breed. - The sharks only eat other sharks. WTF was that about, the super-smart ones cutting down on the opposition before heading off to Amity Island? - Sharks can swim backwards! No they can’t, their gill configuration precludes that behaviour. - The sharks have an in-depth knowledge of air breathing environments and how to make those full up with water. Well, guess something had to have intelligence in this movie as it sure as shit wasn’t the humans. - Giant man-eating sharks can hide in relatively shallow water and fit through narrow doorways. Be careful where you go in this movie, as thug sharks are hiding out on dark street corners. - A black dude survives to the end. Come on, this is a horror movie for Pete’s sake. It would be like a Latino member of a Star Trek away team surviving to the end credits. Okay, I know the above makes Deep Blue Sea sound like the most abysmally conceived “B” schlock outing, but Harlin won me over with his visuals and action-paced happenings. I’m happy with a shark movie, regardless of plot fubar developments, as long as we get cool beasties and lots of action. Harlin does have a couple of things happening with the film which help lift it far above the normal substandard Jaws rip off. At one point we get the hero type making a prolonged statement about how if they stick together and stop arguing they will all get out of the situation alive. Right in the middle of this heartfelt entreaty to the innate goodness of the human condition, a shark cuts the dude off in the best way possible. Brought a smile to my face, anyways. As mentioned, a black dude survives to the end credits, which unfortunately is a surprising development in a horror flick. Excellent stuff Mr Harlin, and I can kind of forgive LL Cool J’s performance, which can best be described as what a white-bread writer thinks a smart-talking black dude would sound like. Thomas Jane (Carter Blake) does the action hero role and gets a passing mark. The character simply didn’t have much depth besides a few throwaway background details, but Jane delivered so I was happy. Saffron Burrows (Dr. Susan McCallister) was able to convince me she was a scientist, but once again the role doesn’t require rocket science, another passing mark. LL Cool J (Sherman 'Preacher' Dudley) was the odious comic relief for the evening, gets the best lines, and looks like he was enjoying himself on set. A reasonable performance that didn’t sing out a Will Smith in the making. And finally, my man Samuel L. Jackson (Russell Franklin) is once again on his game. T&A sees Saffron Burrows down to her knicker and bra outfit in one scene, totally illogical as she was already wearing like rubber shoe things, but at least we get some perv action. Unfort Ms Burrows looks like she needs a decent feed, bit on the scrawny side for mine. The gals get naked sharks galore, who ordered the fish? Trevor Rabin turned in a score which is trying its level best to make the movie sound like an action outing. Slightly too dramatic would be my call, and a couple of songs were begging to be let off the leash to round out our audio experience. Deep Blue Sea is a big cookie cutter movie with great visuals, well-conceived sharks, and a few surprises to be going on with. The film is noticeably illogical in parts, but then who dials into a movie about genetically-engineered intelligent sharks expecting anything else? I had some fun with the whole fandango and have it entered on my guilty pleasures list, but then I rather enjoy a good shark movie now and again. The worst crime that the movie commits from my list of things to go up against the wall come the revolution is the use of CGI that takes the viewer out on occasion. End of day, had a fun time with the big fish, and have a whole sequel script already formulated. In my movie, the super-intelligent sharks escape, take over a nuclear submarine, and threaten to nuke parts of America unless the Brody clans are removed from Amity Island immediately. Coming to civilisation’s rescue is Jack Bauer, and even a super-intelligent shark knows you don’t mess around with Jack! I would also recast big bad Sam as the sub commander who of course says “get these mofo sharks off my submarine!” Sorry for the digression, let’s round up this pound puppy and head into Harlin’s other movie I watched over the weekend. This film made $164,648,142 worldwide off a budget of $60 million, so that’s a win for Warner Bros. North American domestic was $73.6, putting it under a breakout hit, but doing enough to have warranted a sequel. Anyone from Warner Bros reading this should give me a call, I have the next movie already plotted out, will be able to shoehorn in the Titanic if required. Roadshow distributed downunder and got a $2.8 result, which isn’t bad but nothing to write home about. For trivia buffs, and in my never-ending quest to ensure readers will do well at pub quizzes, the licence plate pulled from the tiger shark’s jaws has the same details as the one used in Jaws, Harlin’s native Finland gets lots of references, and the yellow mini sub was also used in Sphere, which also stared Sam Jackson. A worthwhile flick if you want to catch something on a rainy Saturday afternoon. Don’t think about it while watching, and have some fun. Harlin delivers an action-packed experience with enough happening to keep everyone entertained, and most importantly isn’t going all serious with things. Make sure you have a bowl of hot chips ready, cause then you can have fish and chips.
ScaryMinds Rates this movie as ... Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the research facility.
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