Alrighty folks, this review of DEEP BLUE SEA is filled with spoilers... but.. well, Abe Sapien sent it in, and gosh... I figure he really knows about things that swim. The review really doesn't like the film. In fact, I'd go so far as to say they really really didn't like the movie. But hey... I just want to see good shots of sharks chowing down on people. Lots and lots of people. And... well, it doesn't sound like I'm gonna get that.... sigh... Well, I'm still up for seeing it. Usually, for me, Renny Harlin makes half movies. Films that don't quite cut the mustard, but usually has a sequence or two that are pretty cool. Yeah... I know. That's pretty sad, I keep praying he'll pull the whole show together... perhaps.. Some day.
Saw a preview of DEEP BLUE SEA last night in Glendale, CA. Disappointing isn't the worst word I can use to describe it. Renny Harlin strikes (out) again.
Some tidbits:
Okay, so this group of scientists are out in the middle of the ocean on the retooled high-tech version of that floating atoll from Waterworld trying to find a cure for Alzheimer's Disease by harvesting some nutrient from sharks' frontal brain lobe (or something). Well, the head hottie scientist apparently broke some scientific drug research rule and genetically tampered with the sharks (Makos). The sharks get smart. All hell breaks lose.
The sharks, however, are the smartest things in the movie (if not the most believable).
The story becomes very run-of-the-mill very quickly. The characters are all your standard action science flick crew...the hero, the babe, the whiner, the tech head, the suit, etc. etc. The acting is pretty abyssmal at times and you know it's bad when the best and most enjoyable actor in the flick is LL Cool J. The only time anyone will enjoy the actors is when they're being beautifully ripped in half by one of the sharks.
The sharks were a mixed bag of puppets and CG. If there were any real sharks, I couldn't tell. The puppets were great and the CG sharks were adequate. I thought they moved way too fast at times, to the point where they didn't look like they were underwater.
Sam Jackson continues his sub-par acting (overflow from his Phantom Menace work)as the financier of the project. His death was the best. In the middle of a big musical building hero speech, the sharks sense the audience getting bored with his diatribe and promptly pluck him from his soapbox and rip him in two.
The weirdest thing. The babe scientist (pardon these descriptions, I don't remember their names nor the actors who played them) finally fesses up that she genetically enhanced the sharks that have flooded their facility and have been killing them all. After the audience instantly hates her for the rest of the movie, she is one of three survivors. What the??? Her not dying was the final insult.
If you feel like you have to see this movie, sneak into it in the middle and watch the phenomenal 'it wouldn't be a Renny Harlin picture without the' giant explosion. Otherwise, save your cash for Lake Placid (I hope that doesn't suck). :)
Oh yeah...Renny Harlin was in the audience with us. I wonder how he felt when that guy yelled "THAT SUCKED" at the end of the flick.
Signed,
ABE SAPIEN
