Deep Blue Sea (1999) – Film Review

Director: Renny Harlin
Cast:Thomas Jane, Saffron Burrows, Samuel L Jackson
Certificate: 15

By Roger Crow

Hard to believe that more than 26 years have gone by since director Renny Harlin gave us this mash-up of Jaws and Frankenstein. When I first saw it circa 2000, DVD was relatively new, and the glory of having a film with director and cast commentary as well as assorted making of features was intoxicating. And yes, I did sit through the entire movie with that yack track revealing how the movie was made. Trivia: one of Samuel L Jackson’s criteria for making the film, aside from the pay of course, was the fact he could play golf without too much hassle.

The joy of this movie, and it is often a lot of fun, is the fact that Harlin knows it’s following in the enormous wake of Jaws, so best to get that homage out of the way early. And naturally the cast of super fit, super gorgeous twentysomethings look like they’ve just stepped from a catalogue shoot with perfect teeth. Once we get that obvious tribute out of the way, the meat of the story takes place at an isolated research facility in the middle of the ocean. There a team of scientists, led by Susan McAlester (Saffron Burrows), are working on a cure for Alzheimer’s by genetically altering the brains of sharks.

“Turn the tables”

As a side note, I can’t help but smile at the name of the hi-tech facility, as ‘Aquatica’ (which opened in 2008) is one of my favourite water parks in Orlando, and thankfully shark free.

Anyway, when one of the creatures escapes and attacks a pleasure boat, the company sponsoring the research threatens to pull its funding and sends corporate executive Russell Franklin (Samuel L Jackson) to investigate. Franklin is the obligatory character who acts as a proxy audience member, asking questions like: “What is this, how does this work, what sort of sharks are they? and so on. Like cops in thrillers, McAlester has just 48 hours to prove the value of her work, but her experiments have made the sharks smarter. No longer happy to be injected, prodded, and caged, they begin to turn the tables.

As a freak storm causes chaos on the surface, making it impossible to leave, the facility is flooded and the scientists must fight to survive against the rising water and the hungry sharks that now swim freely through the corridors.

“Shock demise”

So yes, it is a clever spin on Jaws, with added Jurassic Park for good measure. The set pieces are epic; there’s a glorious shock demise for one character (which also demands repeating about five times), and some comical moments involving LL Cool J and a parrot. An added bonus is the presence of Stellan Skarsgard at the point when he made the crossover from arthouse to blockbuster cinema.

Harlin has made a handful of cracking adventure thrillers in his time, and while this isn’t as good as The Long Kiss Goodnight, thankfully it’s a lot better than his megabucks flop Cutthroat Island, which tanked circa 1996.

For fans of the original DBS DVD release, there is the archive audio commentary by director Harlin and Samuel L Jackson, but there’s enough goodies on the new disc to make it worthwhile for fans, including new audio commentary by screenwriter Duncan Kennedy, and critic Rebekah McKendry. Picture quality is pretty good, though some of the shots look surprisingly grainy and dark in places, so you may want to fiddle with your TV settings.

Roger Crow( Writer )

Adopted Yorkshireman Roger Crow developed a passion for film and TV in the 1970s and 1980s. He has been a published film and TV reviewer since the 1990s; a world travel and restaurant critic since the noughties, and for the past decade has assessed the pros and cons of live gigs and theatre productions around the UK. His ideal day would involve reviewing a performance of Bat Out of Hell, followed by a Pad Thai while being serenaded by Texas on a cruise around Europe.
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