Deep Blue Sea (Renny Harlin, 1999)

Deep Blue Sea is the Italian luxury porn of shark movies, a big bold mess with famous actors doing what they’re suppose to do (mostly scream and get wet) and lots and lots of explosions and action, yeah… and sharks. Very angry and smart fucking sharks. It’s easy to look down on Renny Harlin’s epic, but Harlin is one of those directors in the so-mainstream-it’s-silly genre (also inhabited by Paul W.S. Anderson and Stephen Sommers) that actually have an amazing visual talent and manages - most of the time - to tell an effective story in-between all special effects and gimmicky casting decisions. I’m not saying he’s a master filmmaker, but he sure knows exactly what he’s doing.

In Deep Blue Sea an experimental shark breaks free and set the whole project at risk - so Samuel L. Jackson, the rich fucker who financed the whole thing, goes out to the awesome and über-expensive underwater base to set things straight with the costly experiments. It doesn’t take long until the sharks breaks free...and kills our wonderfully plastic cast one by one… not always in the order we expect it to happen!

You know, this is an almost unbelievable corny film. If it was shot in 3D it would be the perfect cheesy popcorn film (it wouldn’t surprise me if it’s released converted to the third dimension in Germany, something that happens quite often over there), but now it’s just a masterpiece of silliness. I’m serious when I say I think it’s a great movie, not because it’s scary or well-written, but because it works as a shark movie - which is more important than anything else. I mean, why even pretend to be Jaws?

Like all films by Renny Harlin it’s very crisp and expensive-looking (even the films of him with small budgets often looks big). Harlin often works with a lot of details, which most have been a very time consuming. This is far from the Finnish way of filmmaking. The timing in the action is amazing and the editing is like a rollercoaster, it has its downs… but most of the time it’s up! Even if the film isn’t in 3D it feels you’re in it. The explosions and effects literary engulfs you as a the viewer and it just delivers what you want it to deliver. If there’s a shark attack it’s blood - the explosions are big - the chicks are sexy - the men are hunky -. the dialogue is deliciously over the top… there’s nothing subtle with Deep Blue Sea, and we should be grateful for that!

But still, Harlin loves to toy with our expectations. The famous speech by Samuel L. Jackson for example - an classic, one of the best scenes ever. Harlin really pulls something off there, without sending us one single damn signal.

If Deep Blue Sea is the luxury porn of shark movies, each shark attack and action sequence is an ejecaulation. So Deep Blue Sea is not only luxury porn of shark flicks, its luxury porn of shark movies with a bukkake twist. If you want a movie to cum in your face, this is the film for you.

Comments

[Megatron]

"Deep Blue Sea is the Italian luxury porn of sharkshark movies, a big bold mess with famous actors doing what they’re suppose to do (mostly scream and get wet) and lots and lots of explosions and action, yeah… and sharks."

Could be....but the real question is....has it been outdone by, Shark Night 3D (2011), Bait (2012) or maybe even Sand Sharks (2011)?

Anyway....it´s fun ride to watch.

"You know, this is an almost unbelievable corny film."

Supposedly there is director´s cut somewhere.....I haven´t seen it, but it boasts more character development......but I´m not sure this film needs it.

"If Deep Blue Sea is the luxury porn of shark movies, each shark attack and action sequence is an ejecaulation. So Deep Blue Sea is not only luxury porn of shark flicks, its luxury porn of shark movies with a bukkake twist. If you want a movie cum to in your face, this is the film for you."

Hmm....lots of porn references here....what did you do before writing this.....nevermind....just spare me, ok?

Good review Fred, will we be seeing a review of 2-Headed Shark Attack (2012) soon?

[Fred Anderson]

"Could be....but the real question is....has it been outdone by, Shark Night 3D (2011), Bait (2012) or maybe even Sand Sharks (2011)?"

- No :) I've seen them all, and I like Bait, but no one is close to Deep Blue Sea :)

[Megatron]

Fred: hahahhahhah....aw come on....well, we have different opinions here.....