Customer Reviews

Deep Blue Sea

5 star:		(132)
4 star:		(97)
3 star:		(50)
2 star:		(42)
1 star:		(58)

 

 

"Deep Blue Sea" is one of those monster flicks that makes an attempt at being an intelligent man's horror film. The genetically-altered, Alzheimer cure-all mako shark idea was a good one, and a little more unique than most creature films, but in essence this is a man-screws-with-nature-nature-screws-back sort of tale. There are a couple of suspenseful moments, and the makos look great throughout the majority of the film. Other reviewers accuse the acting as being standard and weightless, but remember that this is a creature feature and the first rule of this genre is that the creature is the star. I found nothing terribly wrong about the acting, and much like "Anaconda," this film has a token rapper(LL Cool J) who does a good job. The rest of the cast is fairly standard, but none of their performances are that bad. Samuel L. Jackson gives "Deep Blue Sea" a solid actor, and he seemed to enjoy his time on screen in this film. Thomas Jane is another standout who plays the heroic lead, although little is left for our hero to save. Saffron Burrows does an excellent job as the good-meaning, yet slightly mad scientist who you really want to see get bit by a mako.
Overall, this is an above-average flick. It isn't as cheesy as "Lake Placid," and it doesn't make the sharks quite as smart as the raptors of "Jurassic Park" fame, but it takes parts of both of these films and combines them with a little suspense and terror a la "Jaws" and serves up a fish dinner that just about anyone can enjoy.
Also, notice the nod given to "Jaws" during Jackson's initial landing at Aquatica.(Hint: Check that license plate)

This DVD was far better than I had hoped for. The special effects were awesome! After watching this DVD I'm not so sure I want to go in the ocean again.If what you like is to watch a shark tear a person apart, then this one is for you! This has become our all time favorite .The more you watch it the better it gets. This movie will NOT disapoint the the person that likes to sit on the edge of the seat. p.s keep your feet out of the water.

This is a bad action flick. The basic plot is they (scientists) try to cure Alzheimer's and other brain diseases. There is a serum in the shark's brain, but to make adequate amounts, they break some code of ethic (it is named in the movie, but it escapes my memory). Well, in the process of doing so, it makes the sharks smarter. It is a very run of the mill action movie, bringing little invention to the genre. It's a Jaws wannabe.

One redeeming factor, however, is it will surprise you on who will live and who will die. During one scene, a character is making a good speech, and then WHAM! Everything JAWS tried, it succeeded. I've heard the sequels are terrible, but I haven't seen them.. But if you hold this against JAWS, this fails terribly. There is no suspense or terror in this movie as in JAWS. It saddens me that Jackson, a fine actor in his own right, was in this movie. He is also another redeeming factor in this movie. The cast does an alright job, bringing the script up a little - but still, a pretty dismal effort.

I came to this movie with pretty low expectations and was pleasantly surprised. Yes, the plot has major holes, some of the effects are chintzy, and the thing is just too damn long. Still, the action scenes are well choreographed (especially the terrifying helicopter crash) and any movie about killer sharks is going to press a button or two. This one pressed several. Yes, Samuel L. Jackson is terrible, just as he was in The Phantom Menace (it is rare to see an actor who is so equally capable of brilliance and bathos), and the characters played by Saffron Burrows and Thomas Jane, both gifted peformers, are as one-dimensional as LL Cool J's is stereotypical. Of the rest of the large ensemble cast, which includes indie fixtures Michael Rappaport, Jaccqlyn McKenzie and Aida Tuturro, few are allowed to do more than wait their turn to be fish bait. Of course, character development is not the main concern here, action is and, on that count, Deep Blue Sea works quite well. Just don't think too hard about it and you will find an enjoyable way to kill a couple hours.

Another film surrounded by hype - which turns into basically a stylish stalk n' splash affair. Comparisons with Jaws are to be expected, but ultimately this is a different kind of film. Sharks, for sure, and what great effects,however marred by a dodgy script. The ending is another cop-out in my opinion - but perhaps its because I always sympathise with the "monsters" - after all they are just doing what comes naturally! Overall a good action film with great sharks - bring on Deep Blue Sea II!

This film is increadible, mainly because it has no respect for it's cast. Anyone can die in this film. Someone who's the main character one minute is shark food the next. Although Renny Harlin took the 'special effects' option instead of building up real suspense, it works. There are some real shock moments in this film.

Basically it's Genetic Modification gone bazerk, super intelligent sharks, modified for the purpose of curing a disease, turn against their creators in a frenzy of snapping jaws and red-water scenes. I know, it's not the most in-depth plot review but that's it really, which doesn't matter because the great content makes up for the barely existant story.

The cast is great. Saffron Burrows shows that she is more than just cleavage as the meddling scientist who went too far, while Thomas Jane succeeds as the action hero (Even though he falls down about 50 times) and LL Cool J is surprisingly good as the comic relief/chef. Although he's playing the token 'cowardly character' Michael Rapaport gives a good performance, Stellan Skarsgard and Samuel L Jackson are both very talented actors who are good in any film and Jacqueline McKenzie gives more than just a creadible performance, watch the deleted scenes to see her at her best.

I would reccommend this film to anyone who likes a high tension thriller with plenty or guts'n'gore, but it belongs in anyone's DVD collection. It's in mine ;).

Sweek!

About a half-hour into watching "Deep Blue Sea" I gave up on asking myself what the hell the people who made this movie were thinking. Then there is a scene where Russell Franklin (Samuel L. Jackson), who once survived an avalanche, gives an inspiration speech to everybody still alive at that point in the movie. His words are punctuated in such a way that I knew we were not in Kansas any more and decided not to question anything that happened in the rest of the film. This proved to be a wise decision because what director Renny Harlin has created here is not so much a movie as an amusement park ride.

The explanation for what Harlin was thinking is provided on the special features, where it becomes clear the director wanted to make a movie where he could use modern animatronics and computer generated effects to show graphic shark attacks. The idea was to play with bigger and better toys than Steven Spielberg had when he made "Jaws." Of course, doing so sacrifices the cinematic artistry of Spielberg's film, but that is fine because Harlin is not playing in that ballpark.

There is a plot to the film. Scientist Susan McAlester (Saffron Burrows) has come up with a way of using the brain tissue of sharks to concoct a way of fighting Alzheimer's disease. The research is underwritten by Franklin's corporation at a giant deep-sea research station, where we have a shark wrangler (Thomas Jane), a cook who is a self-styled preacher (LL Cool J), and an assortment of entree items in the form of Michael Rapaport, Stellan Skarsgard, Aida Turturro, and Jacqueline McKenzie.

But all that matters is that McAlester is playing Dr. Frankenstein and in making the brains of these sharks bigger, she has also made them smarter. Her motives for doing so are quickly forgotten because these super smart sharks want to kill every human being in the station and that is what this movie is about. I bet you can guess who is actually going to survive the slaughter, but that does not detract from the enjoyment of the film either because the fun with "Deep Blue Sea" is enjoying, if that would be the proper world, the way in which the sharks put the bite on the humans.

So, if you know going into this movie that it is about a bunch of super intelligent mako sharks eating a bunch of human beings, then you can dismiss all of the scientific explanations and exposition as just prologue. You do not have to understand it and you can probably get away with even paying attention to it, because once the shark attacks begin that is all that is going to matter with this film. This is not the thinking person's shark attack film.

Apparently the nay-sayers spents hours watching and studying the Undersea World of Jaques Cousteau, thereby having complete understanding on the subject of sharks. You all "missed the boat" big time. Good effects, and okay acting considering Samuel Jackson's the only experienced cast member. You gotta love the jump-out-of-the screen surprises that jolted the audience in the theater I was in. We're not looking for Oscar-worthy material here, just a good little flick with a man-eating monster that makes Jaws look like some flounder.

Okay. The acting from Saffron Burrows in the opening scenes with Samuel.L.Jackson is shaky and that in itself can damage the movie. Get past the wobbly first five minutes however and you've got to grit your teeth and hold on for the ride of your life! Cos baby, this ride is one fast, intense helter skelter that you're gonna want to watch again, and again, and again. Believe it! Do you remember the days of brainless action movies that just didn't let up? Hell, you should do. They made Big Arnie and Sly famous. Anyway, this is what this movies like. Don't need to think. All you gotta do is prise your hands from off the cushions after the rides over.

The movie itself stays true to the action movies of old with some cheeseball lines, none better than the whole of Samuel L jackson's hero speech halfway through the movie.

Unusual for a movie of this type is that you see a lot of the sharks. This doesn't take away from the movie but instead, makes it better. It's the flipside to the coin of the shark genre. Take 'Jaws' as an example. Don't see the shark until the end and then, it looks like a bus!

If you like action movies. Get this! If you don't like action movies. Get it anyway. Just as a little test to show you the wide range of people who will enjoy this movie, I forced my mum to watch it. The experiment work, she loved it. Is that proof enough of how good this movie is? I think so!

It's always sad when a filmmaker sacrifices a promising story over a bunch of blazing action scenes, and that's exactly what Renny Harlin has done here. In his narration he admits that virtually every scene containing any kind of character development was deleted or trimmed for reasons of pacing.

What remains is an embarrassing concoction of laughable dialogue, crippled logic and the most phony looking computer animations I have seen in a film. The characters are bland, uninteresting cardboard figures, despite actors like Samuel Jackson and Stellan Skarsgård, who fights valiantly to put some credibility into a script they obviously have no faith in.

The believability of the story hits rock bottom when the sharks start to systematically herd the survivors around inside a flooded submarine re-fueling station, knocking down doors in order to undermine the structure. The swimming predators know so much about the layout of the facility, that they have actually figured out a way to sink it. Thinking sharks seemed like a silly idea in "Jaws IV", and it still does. Believe me...

The film hurries along like a runaway train. There is no time for thought, depth or character studies. Harlin is a great action director, no doubt about it, but I have my misgivings about the man when it comes to horror. You can't rush an audience into a state of fright. You need the expositional stuff and character insight to really care and feel for the people in peril. Who gives a darn if Stellan Skarsgård's character is eaten by a shark, when we don't know him any better than LL Cool J's parrot.

The quality of this DVD is good, but far from excellent. The picture is faily rich in clarity, but sometimes grainy and the sound is lacking in dynamics. For the true fans of the film (and I know there are many), the bonus material section is extensive with deleted scenes, two "Making of"-features, the theatrical trailer and a stills gallery.

Despite several homages to its obvious source of inspiration, this film never comes close of capturing the terror of "Jaws". My advice is that you go back to Spielberg's classic to experience some true Mako mayhem, and let this film sink to the bottom of the ocean like a ton of bricks.