Deep Blue Sea

Deep Blue Sea (1999)

Image From IMDB

Making a shark smarter so we can harvest its brain juice in order to cure Alzheimers is a plot I can get behind. Add Saffron Burrows, The Punisher, and a super cool set then I’m more than willing to over look some janky CGI and a bunch of jokes which missed by a mile. Deep Blue Sea is far from a masterpiece, but it’s much better than I remembered raising my Letterboxd from one star to three.

I must admit, I miss these kinds of movies. I was never a fan of it when it was released, but that was because there was plenty of others in a similar vein to enjoy, and the CGI and LL Cool J annoyed me. Watching it again, I still find LL annoying, but I can forgive the CGI as there’s plenty of practical work on display too, including the shark at times––which they just have made fully practical.

The set is incredible, and the water tank work insane. I don’t know how none of the cast drowned. Everyone is game with Thomas Jane in particular throwing himself all around the set, and Saffron Burrows being her normal brilliant self––she really is underrated. Sam Jackson is obviously super cool, and Michael Rapport delivers every line like a coked up child which is weirdly endearing.

Like many movies of its time, Deep Blue Sea doesn’t rush into the disaster element as quickly as you remember. There’s plenty of set up and character building first which I always enjoy. You get to watch them play God with sharks, and stare dumbfounded knowing this is all going to go horribly wrong.

Stellan Skarsgard death is absolutely amazing, and everyone who’s watched the film always remembers what happened to Sam, but there’s plenty more going on as well. Renny’s camera work is exactly what it needs to be, and the atmosphere can be claustrophobic and tense.

The movie feels chaotic and messy at times as we switch between the different survivors and different floors of the underwater base, but it’s always entertaining, whether that’s Jane slipping down every hallway, Saffrons massive eyes, wet hair, and guilty as fuck look, or Michael Rapport constantly jabbering about nothing. The movie just wants to be fun.

It’s not a masterpiece, but… there is something about it. It is a reminder of how entertaining cinema can be, and the crazy characters you can have inhabiting any fucked up situation. You could easily watch this movie at any point and find something enjoyable within it. Probably shouldn’t be studied for its science, but it’s an entertaining laugh.