FATHER GEEK gives his thoughts on the DEEP BLUE SEA.

Well folks, Father Geek caught the sharks of DEEP BLUE SEA this evening at a giant Mega-plex in a small landlocked town a few miles north of Austin and a good hundred miles from the closest real shark down at San Antonio’s Sea World. However my day started much closer to the real thing’s habitat, much much closer, about 2 feet away to be exact.

5:45 am CST... July 27, 1999... Father Geek and Texas watercolorist Walter Falk are cautiously inching our way out the dark, wet, narrow (4 feet), rickety old (1940’s) private pier jutting 200 yards out into the shark infested Gulf of Mexico. This ill-kept unlit construction was a few yards from the door of The Surf Court’s cabin #7 where we had spent the night listening to the lapping of the gulf’s waters just a few feet away after spending all day Monday shoveling through the ashes and charred remains of the house that stored 5 generations of the seagoing (2 Admirals) Falk family treasures. We were searching for carved Chinese Jade and Ivory pieces, 17th century Philadelphia silver, primative art from Java, Hawaii, and all the islands in between; lifetimes of truly irreplaceable objects. 200 + years of family history destroyed in a burst of lightning and the resulting BACKDRAFT-like 2000 degree flash fire. After 10 hours we had found nothing to speak of, Zeus’ finger had done its job too well. We retreated up an alley to a small seaman’s bar, The Rutter, to drown our disappointments in 85 cent Lone Star and several orders of greasy coastal Tex-Mex. After 8 or so longnecks apiece we stumbled the half block to our late 1930’s bungalow, past pickups from Idaho and North Dakota, and fell mercifully into a deep sleep at 9:30 pm.

The old pier shook with the gentle push of the water in this protected fishing cove as the two experienced travelers sat there in the moonless dark exchanging tales of adventures in the oceans we had visited and staring out at the offshore oil rig on the horizon; looming there like some mad scientist Bond villian’s futuristic sea headquarters as the sun broke the surface of the water slightly to its right. We stayed a while longer till the sun cleared the water, extinquisting the blaze that had engulfed the sea lab, and climbed behind a low cloudbank, it was breath-taking and suddenly in the distance there where 25 or more shrimpers heading out to sea, a parade of ghost ships in the dawn’s half light. Father Geek and The Falk re-entered the here and now. We rose to our feet and returned reluctantly to shore. It was a 4 1/2 hour drive back to Austin. We wanted to make some stops along the way, and I had to get back in time to catch the free preview screening of DEEP BLUE SEA.

I love giant and/or super-smart creature movies! Ol’ Father Geek grew up in the 50’s. I saw THEM, THE GIANT GILA MONSTER, THE DEADLY MANTIS, THE BEGINNING OF THE END, TARANTULA, THE KILLER SHREWS, and dozens of others just like them as a pre-teen. I cut my film going teeth on these flicks, and later on I would haul Harry out to see movies like EMPIRE OF THE ANTS, FOOD OF THE GODS, BUGS, PIRANHA & PIRANHA II, ALLIGATOR, ORCA, and of course all the JAWS films. He loved them too! More recently we’ve seen MIMIC, DEEP RISING, LAKE PLACID, TREMORS & TREMORS II, and a host of others together. When I left for the Texas coast in the pre-dawn hours Monday I left Harry a note: “Will be back Tuesday before 5pm, DON’T leave for DEEP BLUE SEA without me!!!”

Father Geek also loves escape/survival movies! ANDROMEDA STRAIN, THE GREAT ESCAPE, THE POSIDEON ADVENTURE, WESTWORLD, ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, RUNAWAY TRAIN, PURSUIT, THX 1138, THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY, SPHERE, LOGAN’S RUN, ALIENS, SURVIVE, ABYSS, JURASSIC PARK, just way too many to list.

I had a great time at DEEP BLUE SEA! It is not a great motion picture, but then few are. That’s why they’re called GREAT. It is however a hell of alot of fun. Not fun as in ED WOOD bad film fun. Not fun as in the LAKE PLACID wink wink we’re really a comedy type of fun. It is fun in the sense of a serious (not tongue in cheek) escape from a giant/smart creature who has you caught between a rock and a hard place kind of film. Is it the best of these ever filmed? Probably not, but it is a very good one. Its very like ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, if New York was sinking and A#1 was a 20 foot shark. Its ANDROMEDA STRAIN combined with TREMORS. Its FOOD OF THE GODS acted out on the set of THE POSIDEON ADVENTURE. Its LOGAN running from THE GIANT GILA MONSTER, or better yet THX1138 running from JAWS. Its like THE TOWERING INFERNO, but the water pouring down the stairwells and elevator shafts is populated with PIRANHA. You know, it feels alot like JURASSIC PARK, but just not as visually stimulating. And I like all these movies, sure some alot more than others.

DEEP BLUE SEA is not JAWS, or THE ABYSS, or THEM, or ALIEN, but in my opinion it is not too many notches below them. It is better than nearly all the giant/smart creature movies I listed a couple of paragraphs back and most of the escape/survive flicks I mentioned are a shade better than DBS, so if you like the films I’ve covered here you should get a kick out of the film. One more thing, don’t wait for the DVD to come out, this one is meant to be seen big and loud. If you don’t want to spend $7.50 on it catch a matinee because its well worth $3.75.