Renny Harlin is director that showed great talent for action scenes, but, unlike John Woo, he was never considered to be grand master of the genre. The reason can be found in great inconsistency in quality of his work, which included hits like Cliffhanger, but also dreadful misses like Cutthroat Island. Furthermore, Harlin wasn’t liked by critics and one example can be found in their reaction towards his 1999 action horror film Deep Blue Sea, which was often characterised as uninspired copy of Steven Spielberg’s work in Jaws and Jurassic Park.
The plot begins when scientist Dr. Susan McCallister (played by Saffron Burrows) arrives to headquarters of corporation to explain how their shark has managed to escape marine lab when they used it for research that could have brough cure for Alzheimer’s disease. Unpleasant incident cause value of shares to fall, so the corporate bosses are inclined to shut down the project. McAlester tries to change their mind by inviting one of them, Russell Franklin (played by Samuel L. Jackson) to visit the lab, built on artificial island called Acquatica, and see the whole process is actually safe and that the precious enzymes can be extracted from sharks’ brains. What Franklin doesn’t know is that the scientists had, in order to get more enzymes, increased sharks’ brains through genetic engineering. Carter Blake (played by Thomas Jane), professional shark hunter brought to handle them, becomes concerned about sharks’ strange behaviour that suggest increased intelligence. Despite that, McAlester is determined to continue with experiments, even after tropical storm makes evacuation impossible. Experiments goes wrong, storm hits and whole structure becomes flooded and few survivors, who are trapped below surface, must deal with sharks that are quite ingenious in the ways they hunt their former masters.
Deep Blue Sea is one of those films that are indigestible if someone attempts to take them seriously. Harlin, aware that he can’t compete with Spielberg, even with large budget and CGI at his disposal, imagined his film as some sort of homage and light parody of Jaws and Jurassic Park. He, however, added some originality and actually manage to surprise audience by straying from genre conventions. That includes opening scene which inverts horror film cliches about horny teenagers being stalked by a monster and the ending when survival of certain category of characters doesn’t follow Hollywood rules. The plot, on the other hand, isn’t convincing and most of the characters are one-dimensional.
What makes this film solid is solid and diverse cast, which, in case of Jane, Jackson and LL Cool J gives impression that it had good time at the set. Their relaxed performances help a film a lot, although Stellan Skarsgård and Jacqueline MacKenzie can’t do much with their underwritten characters. Harlin mixes a lot of action with black humour which includes one of the most ironic death scenes in history of 1990s Hollywood. Eveb the scene in which former model Saffron Burrows has to wear wet underwear before showdown with a shark looks believable in the context of the film. Deep Blue Sea also has quick tempo and audience often doesn’t have time to notice some of its flaws. Despite not being too deep, this film succeeds in entertaining the audience. Two direct-to-video sequels were made - Deep Blue Sea 2 in 2018 and Deep Blue Sea 3 in 2020.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
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