Deep Blue Sea (1999) User Reviews (758)

The only decent shark film since the original Jaws.

[drawlife · 6/10 · 30 March 2015]

The problem with shark films is that, once you hear about it, people immediately think of Steven Spielberg's masterpiece Jaws. So how do you approach a shark film without repeating Jaws? The answer is Deep Blue Sea.

Researchers and scientists harvest brain fluids from sharks for a cure for Alzheimer's disease, but unknown to the other scientists, Dr. Susan McAlester(Saffron Burrows) and Dr. Jim Whitlock(Stellan Skarsgard) violated the code of ethics and genetically engineered the sharks to increase their brain size, with the side effect of the sharks getting smarter and bigger.

In a genre full of clichés, this film at least keeps you guessing here and there. What director Renny Harlin establishes is that anyone can die, the whole cast is expendable, and ultimately fodder. However, in doing so he at least allows you to get to know the characters before they're shark food, some more than others. One can understand why Dr. McAlester is so driven for a cure, but ultimately it's all her fault for the events that take place in the film. Thomas Jane is good in the role Carter Blake, who is a shark wrangler. He also somehow magically dodges every shark that comes towards him and rides on their fins like Aquaman. Almost unrealistic, but the movie is so fun you just kinda go along with it and Jane handles the actions scenes quite well. Plus he holds his breath under water like no human can which can be impressive, but again a bit of a stretch. LL Cool J and Michael Rapaport provide sharp wisecracks and provide the film's humor. Samuel L. Jackson also has a decent supporting role as Russell Frankin, the research team's financial backer.

The shark deaths are brutal and unforgiving and may make some uneasy. The problem with this film is that, although the shark attacks are effective, it tries a lot to make you uncomfortable and it becomes too one-noted. Of course in a film like this it's expected. The whole time you have no idea who is going to die next, and those sharks are relentless and a lot more vicious. Director Renny Harlin effectively uses the timing, suspense and the element of surprise so kudos to him. The shark puppets look great, but the same cannot be said for the cgi shark effects, it's dated and doesn't hold up.

Deep Blue Sea is pure popcorn entertainment. The film doesn't necessarily bring anything new to the table, but again it keeps you guessing and at times it keeps you on the edge of your seat. It's an effective shark film, and it tires to be a good film. That's something I can appreciate.

6.5/10

Just when you thought it was safe to go into the video store.

[communistgodzilla · 7/10 · 27 July 2005]

If 'Jaws' and 'Alien' had a baby, that baby would probably look a lot like Deep Blue Sea', a big, loud, dumb action movie that doesn't try to pretend to be anything else. It's short on logic, the dialog is dumb, most of the actors don't seem to be trying very hard, and the science is dubious at best, but despite all that, 'Deep Blue Sea' manages to entertain.

The plot of the movie is simple: a group of scientists at an undersea research facility are on the verge of discovering a cure for Alhzheimer's disease. How? By meddling about with the brains of live sharks (don't ask). Things are going swimmingly, until Mother Nature grows tired of having some of her creations tampered with. One typhoon and several gratuitous explosions later, the scientists find themselves cut off from the surface of the facility and at the mercy of a group of sharks that are smarter than the average fish. It seems that those meddling scientists made the sharks smart, and they're about to pay for their folly. With the base flooding and sharks roaming the corridors, the survivors find themselves in a race for survival.

For the most part, 'Deep Blue Sea' works fairly well, and there are some good jolts and action sequences, but at the same there's nothing here that's particularly fresh. However, there is one death that is so unexpected and surprising, you might find yourself hitting the 'back' button on the DVD remote to make sure you weren't seeing things.

'Deep Blue Sea' is not an actor's movie, but most of the cast acquits itself fairly well. Rapper LL Cool J does a good job with what could be a clichéd character (the religious man who struggles with his faith under dire circumstances), and injects the role with humanity and humor. He also has a very memorable encounter with a shark in a kitchen. Thomas Jane has the 'action hero' part, and he's solid, but unspectacular. Saffron Burrowes is okay as the lead scientist, and she's not above stripping down to her undies if the situation calls for it. But once again, no one will be watching 'Deep Blue Sea' for the acting. The sharks are the stars, and everyone involved with the movie knows that.

'Deep Blue Sea' is not a classic movie, but it delivers in its own modest way. If you can't get enough movies about people and the sharks that eat them, you can do much worse than this.

The Sharks ate the plot

[mjw2305 · 6/10 · 30 December 2006]

Deep Blue Sea is one of those films that you simply cannot take seriously or you will go out of your mind with annoyance. It seems like the film makers thought about having a plot, but then they found they could have way more fun playing with the CGI Sharks (which are pretty good actually) The conversation between the film makers probably went something like this.

'Hey i have a great idea for a story, we can breed super sharks with oversize brain capacity in the quest to find a cure for Altziemers disease'

'That sounds good, then we can have the sharks get out of control and add some action sequences'

'Yeah good idea, but lets show the scientific side first while we build the characters'

'Yeah of course we have to build the characters and set the scene, wow what's that over there; come and take a look what the special effects team have done it's brilliant'

'Wow that's really cool, lets have lots of that.'

'But what about the story and character depth'

'We could always show the sexy female lead in her underwear, i reckon that and loads of sharks and death will distract the audience enough and they'll never notice'

And so Deep Blue Sea was born, and guess what? It's actually a good laugh and has wall to wall action, sharks and blood; and oh yeah! The female lead gets down to her underwear too, SHOCKER!

Please accept my apologies for the rather corny review, but i felt it was very fitting for this movie.

6/10 By the way Yes i did enjoy it, just in case you were wondering.

Fun and entertaining

[Polter-Cow · 6 June 2001]

After the opening scene of *Deep Blue Sea*, in which (predictably) a shark terrorizes a quartet of partying teenagers on a boat, I decided I was in for a crappy movie. A crappy movie that would contain basically every movie AND horror movie cliche I could think of. I was right. And wrong.

I will say that the premise for this movie is great: super-intelligent sharks. Sharks are bad enough, but...smart sharks? Immediately you have terrifying possibilities running through your mind. The sad fact, though, is that this is one of those movies where the screenwriters (and I can't believe it took three people to come up with this) threw some dice and picked which character was going to die next. That's what the plot boils down to: things go wrong; someone dies. More things go wrong; someone else dies. And so on. People whom you couldn't care less about die. People who you really don't want to see die die.

The people are an interesting band of characters. The female scientist, pleasing to the eye and the ear (I'm a sucker for accents), is utterly consumed by her research. (And for all you testosterone-driven males, she does strip down to her underwear in one scene.) Samuel L. Jackson goes about saying his lines as president of a pharmaceutical company. I just love the way Michael Rapaport talks: he's welcome in any movie. LL Cool J deftly provides the comic relief and was clearly the audience favorite. Sure, there are some other characters, but pretty much everyone's one-dimensional, as expected.

I think I've bashed this movie enough. It's time to get to the crux of the argument: this is an entertaining movie. As soon as the movie entered the lab facility, I became completely immersed in the film. As the movie progressed, I didn't think about how long it had gone on and mentally calculate how much was left. Once the trouble started, the movie grabbed me and never let go. I was not perhaps literally on the edge of my seat, but no outside thoughts penetrated my mind. It's not that the movie is scary or anything; it's that it's suspenseful. Predictably suspenseful, but suspenseful nonetheless. There is one scene in the film (I cannot conclusively tell whether it falls nearer or the beginning or the middle because, as I said, I lost track of time) during which I sensed the ENTIRE AUDIENCE jumping out of their seats. At the risk of getting off on a tangent, the sharks were believable. And the speed at which they moved unnerved me. They did succeed at their purpose: to keep a continual shudder running through my body. Let's just say you couldn't get me within ten miles of that facility. Oh, look, I did get off on a tangent, just great. At times I of course found myself wondering why some of these characters were so unbelievably stupid in their actions, but it's all part of the fun. And that's what I ended up deciding about this movie: it was fun. Blood-soaked, cringe-inducing fun.

Better than SOME People think

[sanghouse · 7/10 · 29 July 2005]

This is a lot better than people seem to think. Its a good shark movie, but completely different then the more sedate Jaws and some of the scenes are actually quite scary. When i first watched this i must have been 9 years old and i WAS scared. It has humour, shocks, action what more could you possibly ask for? Who cares about a complicated plot, this is a popcorn blockbuster which you will enjoy for 1 1/2 hours. The simple plot works (scientist finds cure for Alzeimers in sharks brains, unfortunately sharks brains are too small for the drug to be widely produced so the scientists create genetically modified sharks that are bigger so therefore have bigger brains. Unfortunately (again) the sharks get smarter and etc. Also this gets 5.5 out of 10 and Deathwatch gets 5.6 out of 10, no way is that very poor excuse for a horror film is better then this shark infested tale

Hidden Pleasure

[terryfoskett · 7/10 · 16 September 2011]

Im going to keep it short.

This movie should be awful, but actually it is really entertaining, whenever it is on TV I watch it without hesitation. Not the best special affects or acting for that matter. LL Cool J's acting is like the movie, poor but entertaining.

Overall the movie isn't the best, but it is definitely watchable and thoroughly entertaining, it keeps you wanting to watch more because its very action packed.

If first time watchers are reading this, I would say definitely watch it. :)

DBS vs JAWS

[monsterzero · 1/10 · 2 August 1999]

A "critic" proclaims this movie "better than JAWS"

I proclaim it "WORSE than JAWS:THE REVENGE" ......

Good laughs make up for its lack of terror.

[TOMASBBloodhound · 6/10 · 7 March 2006]

Deep Blue Sea is really more of a satire than anything else, despite the frightening image on the DVD cover. As you view this film, you will notice the tendency of the better actors to become shark food before the lesser ones. This actually leads to some pretty good surprises along the way.

The plot centers around a group of scientists trying to genetically engineer the brains of sharks to help find a cure for Alzheimer's Disease. All they end up doing is making a trio of hungry sharks smart enough to hunt in packs and wipe out most of the humans in the underwater facility. The film has plenty of stomach-churning gore, but the humor of the film makes it easier to take. The film was directed by Renny Harlin who usually knows how to pace his films, and his skill is on display here with this one.

The acting is not very memorable since basically all those who can act are gone before the end of the first hour. Thomas Jane (Boogie Nights) and LL Cool J are pretty much the heroes, and they do as well as they can within the limitations of the script. The film could have used a better title, in my humble opinion. "Deep Blue Sea" sounds almost like some romance film you might find on Lifetime or some women's network.

BIG SPOILER: As far as the biggest highlight of the film is concerned..... well, let's just say I have nothing at all against Samuel L. Jackson. I could, however, count on one hand the number of times I've laughed harder at something in a movie than I did after his death scene. That was unexpected, and hilarious. Anyone who claims they saw that coming is full of it.

Deep Blue Sea is a fun movie. It's well-paced, has some thrills, and may keep you guessing. It's certainly no classic, and you won't remember much the next day after seeing it, but you could do much worse for a night of movie-watching.

6 of 10 stars.

The Hound.

Like Jaws, only lacking all quality

[Amsterdamonkey · 1/10 · 7 November 2001]

***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** A movie about sharks, very interesting. Immediately Jaws comes to mind. Well this movie is a bit like Jaws, there's some pi**ed off, smarter than average sharks after humans... The only thing is, Jaws had quality, Jaws is a classic. This movie has no quality what so ever, and it's only a classical example of how not to do it. The story is total nonsense, and only there as an excuse for showing the audience sharks eating people. The actors... well... this might be a spoiler, but the best actor dies after about 30 minutes, and with him dies the only reason to keep watching the movie. I assure you, LL Cool J is not that actor. He was put in this movie as the clown, for the people who can't understand the 'difficult plot'. Well, for a clown he's doing a very bad job, because he is not funny at all. And his acting... that was even worse than his jokes. If you look at the scenes removed from the movie that are somewhere on the DVD, and if you listen to the comments of the director, you see that some weird things in the plot would have been much clearer if the director would have just left those specific scenes in. But it also makes very clear that the director had hardly any idea what he was doing while making this movie.

My advice, do NOT go to see this movie. If you are bored out of your mind, go read a book. If you want to see sharks, go see Jaws or the Discovery Channel. If your girlfriend ever rents this for you cause she thinks it was a great movie, break up with her. This movie was pure hell all the time it lasted.

really good shark movie

[total_sweetheart · 7/10 · 24 January 2005]

i'm no professional, but i thought deep blue sea was an excellent shark movie. the sharks were scary, surprising and fast. i thought the casting was excellent ("carter" was a cutie and the cook was funny) and i really liked the ending...no matter what anybody says. i thought the plot was good and simple enough that you didn't have to do any deep thinking really. and there really wasn't enough time during attacks for my stomach to untense. the girl scientist's accent got annoying at times, but she was a believable character. i wasn't crazy about samuel l jackson's character, but he made it work...and did i add that the shark attacks were scary and GOOD!! i'll admit it...i JUMPED!!

Another lame "special effects"-only movie...

[jnorman1 · 1/10 · 10 August 2000]

Deep Blue Sea had some pretty good special effects, but had one of the worst & implausible stories since Twister. They had a couple of big name stars and wasted their talent. This is another production that shoots its wad on special effects and ignored plot & character development. This is unfortunately becoming typical fare for big-budget scifi movies. This movie and several others like it leave me wondering if Hollywood really thinks that the target audience (males 20s) can only comprehend special effects and have no interest in plot & characters. Come on! Can't the major studios do better than this?

If you like shark movies, this is a great 90s classic.

[ThomDerd · 8/10 · 9 August 2020]

Fun film with a good story, great pace and action. One of the best shark "tales" you will encounter. Its not Jaws, but it's pretty high up there. 8/10

Good action movie

[jaberwokyconrad · 7/10 · 19 February 2020]

But just that - nothing else. The film is all about people being killed by genetically enhanced sharks. Very shallow. Shallow Blue Sea. Heh.

Exciting, but in a dumb way.

[barnabyrudge · 5/10 · 12 October 2005]

A very short summary of Deep Blue Sea might go something like: "dumb plot, dumb dialogue, dumb characters, dumb situations, pretty good suspense". And that would more-or-less be that. If you like being jolted out of your seat, this movie contains five or six moments that genuinely deliver. That said, if you like movies with a certain level of intelligence and credibility, you might just as well watch an episode of Road Runner (which would be twice as believable and ten times shorter!) It's a fair comment to say that Deep Blue Sea is the very epitome of the no-brainer popcorn flick.

A team of scientists working on a cure for Alzheimer's disease have tampered with the genetics of Mako sharks in an effort to speed up their research. Team leader Dr. Susan McCallister (Saffron Burrows) is horrified to learn that her project is about to be shut down so, in an effort to buy more time, she invites one of the main financial backers, Russell Franklin (Samuel L. Jackson), to her oceanic research facility Aquatica to see for himself how close she is to a breakthrough. It quickly becomes apparent that Dr. McCallister's meddling has had an unusual effect upon the three Mako sharks at the facility. She herself admits that: "as a side-effect, the sharks got smarter". Before long, Franklin, Dr. McCallister and the rest of the research team - chef Sherman Dudley (LL Cool J), Jim Whitlock (Stellan Skarsgaard), diver Carter Blake (Thomas Jane), Tom Scoggins (Michael Rappaport) and Janice Higgins (Jacqueline Mackenzie) - find themselves being hunted by the three hyper-intelligent sharks. And, following an accident which submerges almost the entire research centre, their chances of survival look slim to say the least.... as the sharks smash into the place and glide ominously through the waterlogged corridors in search of human prey.

Deep Blue Sea is a very contrived film. The script team of Duncan Kennedy, Donna Powers and Wayne Powers have gone significantly out of their way to devise a sequence of events that manoeuvres the protagonists into danger. The problem is that the whole chain of incident that leads to the submergence of the research facility, and the extra threat posed by the sharks, is too artificially engineered and too low on credibility. No-one seriously buys the idea of accelerating a shark's brain power to cure Alzheimer's. No-one seriously buys the idea that the sharks would consequently develop a desire to kill victims in a pre-meditated manner. Yet the film asks us to take these plot developments oh-so-very seriously (or, at least, there's not enough evidence to suggest that a tongue-in-cheek approach is being employed). Performance-wise, the film asks little of its cast and that's exactly what they give it. There's a little macho posturing, and a few bravura speeches, and that is more-or-less it. The special effects vary in quality, with some good explosions and shark shots, while the actual shark attacks/killings look laughably fake. The one department where Deep Blue Sea IS effective is in its ability to generate sudden moments of shock. The death of one character after delivering a rousing heroic speech is particularly well-disguised (I'm not saying who, but I'll wager that it'll jolt you pretty good on your first viewing of the movie!) Throughout the film there are similar moments where suspense is nicely created and the pay-off - the scream-out-loud-moment - is well timed. Deep Blue Sea is good for a few scares, but fairly mediocre on other levels.

Not that "Deep", Just fun

[EdRooney · 27 July 1999]

"Deep Blue Sea"

With "Die Hard 2", "Cliffhanger", the misunderstood "Cutthroat Island", the underrated "Long Kiss Goodnight" and guilty pleasure (but pretty damn good) "Adventures Of Ford Fairlane", Renny Harlin has proven himself time and again as one of the most visually competent action directors around. I've always stood behind his work, I sincerely love most of his movies. With "Deep Blue Sea", Harlin is in the midst of trying to keep his career going due to the low box office take of his previous films. The result is a movie that's on autopilot. An attempt to reclaim the respect of the studios and the audience with a slam-bang summer film that gets the job done easily, you just won't respect it in the morning.

Maybe the largest problem in "Deep Blue" is the casting. Saffron Burrows and Thomas Jane lead the cast that also includes Samuel L. Jackson, LL Cool J, and Michael Rapaport. Both Burrows and Jane give what can only be described as seriously lacking performances. As the members of a science and research team in a state-of-the-art ocean facility off the coast of Baja, Mexico, the crew is in the midst of a study on sharks. The sharks hold the key to a possible cure for Alzheimer's disease and other brain dysfunctions(explained more thoroughly in the trailer for the film than in the actual film). The scientists have enlarged the brain of the beasts, making them smarter and faster. When a corporate executive (Jackson) arrives for a tour of the facility, the sharks begin an uprising that threatens the crew's very existence. Out in the middle of nowhere, the team tries to survive both the sharks and the sinking structure.

Saffron Burrows is just the wrong choice for the lead scientist role. Her British monotone ruined a bad film ("Wing Commander") and brought down a good one ("The Loss Of Sexual Innocence"). I don't believe she has that much talent besides her beauty, and her lethargic presence here directly conflicts with the high-octane action that surrounds her. Thomas Jane on the other hand, was good in the role of Dirk Diggler's drug-dealing friend in "Boogie Nights". He seemed more alive in 30 minutes of screen time in that film than all 95 minutes of "Deep Blue Sea". I'm a bit surprised that nobody mentioned the lack of enthusiasm during filming. For the lead role, the film needed someone who can burst off the screen with fury and charm. Jane has neither. He leaves the film all wet.

Saying that "Deep Blue Sea" needed better acting might be stretching it a bit. This is a action film with plenty of thrills and many explosions. You cannot expect Shakespeare when you buy a ticket to this. Still, the script credited to three writers is very weak(I assume large parts of the story were cut for time) and the score by Trevor Rabin is the blandest, most perfunctory music to hit the ears in a long time. Hopes were really high for this, but all the bad parts add up quickly.

Harlin's specialty is the action sequence. He's one of the few directors left who knows how to squeeze the audience just right. "Deep Blue" is filled with wonderful suspense sequences and a genuine amount of anxiety. The computer-generated sharks move with alarming speed and dexterity. They keep the patrons on their toes. I cannot remember the last time I heard an audience scream with fear. Harlin milks every moment for the most thrills. I was very tense throughout the film. Rare for a guy as jaded as me.

The comparison to "Jaws" is very unfortunate. Just because the film features sharks doesn't immediately suggest a "Jaws" ripoff. We have had about 10 high school films with interchangeable plots and identical climaxes, yet nobody bats an eye over that. "Deep Blue Sea" stands alone with it's rousing thrills and deeply undernourished script. "Jaws" it ain't.

It's hot and the summer is about 3/4 of the way through. Escapism with "Eyes Wide Shut" or "Blair Witch Project" is impossible. "Deep Blue Sea" feeds the good old need of action, action, and more action. It's summer entertainment in the highest order, and damn it, the thing works. Hopefully Harlin can rebound in the future with better material. For now, this is the best source of thrills for the summer. ---------- 7

Deep Blue Sea

[allmoviesfan · 7/10 · 22 July 2023]

Comparing every shark movie made to Jaws - the undisputed GOAT of shark films - is a bad idea, considering that none of these films will ever come close. That being said, there are plenty of other good ones out there. I enjoyed Jason Statham in The Meg, for example, and I enjoyed Samuel L. Jackson and the decent cast around him in Deep Blue Sea.

Nothing particularly complicated here: sharks go crazy (for reasons I won't divulge here, to avoid tagging this review as one with spoilers) and assault a laboratory out in the middle of the watery nowhere. People die, sharks terrify, and things explode. There are some good one-liners, the acting is decent enough, and though far-fetched, it's a fun story. Above all else: entertaining. Sometimes - as I often say in my reviews - all you need or want is entertaining. Deep Blue Sea is indeed that.

Monstrous fun

[hellholehorror · 6/10 · 26 December 2018]

This is so cheesy. The story is pathetic and the excuses for the experimentation on the sharks are poor. The dude that swims with them is so annoying. It is so bad that it is funny. The sharks are not believable and if they were then it would not have been as good. The action is not that exciting but the whole film is fun and very unchallenging. So bad that it is good type of movie. It didn't look great but it is funny and monstrous.

This film makes no sense

[dalebennion · 1/10 · 26 August 2001]

This movie is bad! These are super sharks who seem to know everything down to how CCTV systems work.

In the film they are super strength sharks with the power to break down a sea door to enter the complex. But, later on have trouble breaking an oven door.

I could go on but I would be here all day. The only fun thing about watching this film was listing all the mistakes.

Illogical fun.

[SamJamie · 6/10 · 1 February 2020]

Deep Blue Sea is a 1999 American science fiction horror film directed by Renny Harlin. It stars Saffron Burrows, Thomas Jane, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Rapaport, and rapper LL Cool J. Set in an isolated underwater facility, the film follows a team of scientists and their research on mako sharks to help fight Alzheimer's disease. The situation plunges into chaos when multiple genetically engineered sharks go on a rampage and flood the facility.

This movie is always, I repeat, always broadcasted on UK television, I mean literally several days in a row. The plot of the film is silly beyond belief and some of the performances are laughably bad but it's decent for a shark movie. It has some thrilling and intense moments and is enjoyable even on rewatch. It's clear the Meg from last year took some ideas from the film also.

How bad can a movie get?

[Eilifant · 1/10 · 2 December 2002]

***SLIGHT SPOILERS*** I can't remember a single scene in the entire movie that were even slightly believable. Smart sharks? OK. But how were they able to change their size(to get through the doors) and break those doors which can take tons of weight? How could they "throw" the stretcher, with the armless still breathing and fully awake professor 20m below the surface, about 10 meters trough water to break a underwater window. And why didn't the water flow faster through the completely broken 2x10 meter window? The room would have been filled in less than a second. I complete my frustrations by commenting the stupidity of the last surviving woman who were smart enough to kill one shark by electricution but had to sacrifice herself to lure the "supersmart" shark back to be shot by an well aimed shot. The shooter? A cook who had just survived a 20 second "ride" in the jaws of a shark resulting in the only visible injury of a small fleshwound. The chef who earlier had killed one shark by igniting some gas from an oven in the underwater kitchen. Coursing an enormous explosion which he himself of course survived. Finally, the other survivor had a last rendezvous with death by surviving another explosion caused by selfmade dynamite(gunpowder from signalflares). The shark was of course killed by this which could have sunk a russian submarine. The humanoid swam to shore almost unharmed. "Some" research and simple logic could have been useful in this movie to get it to some degree plausible. Last question: How can Samuel L. Jackson appear in such a bad movie? If you want to see a festival of impossibilities, see this movie!

A CGI Masterpiece

[alexkolokotronis · 6/10 · 19 April 2008]

This is true but that doesn't mean it was a great movie. The effects were just simply great, especially for a shark movie. Definitely ahead of the Jaws series and almost everything else in terms of effects.

The directing was not great but it was not bad. Harlin does enough to keep you entertained the whole movie but that is about it. Don't expect some Spielberg Jaws masterpiece. What pushed it to above average was the one kill scene that you will never see coming. His directing probably made it more funny than scary. That is not horrible though. I won't say who though. The acting was average. This is not a superb cast but that shouldn't be too shocking if you look at the storyline. Nothing else is really worth talking about in the technical aspects.

Just watch it and you will see why it is just a CGI masterpiece.

Like a 50s B-movie, except really bad

[frosty-26 · 1/10 · 16 July 2000]

This is the worst, most insulting film I've seen a long time. I don't particularly mind that no scientific advice whatsoever has been given to the scriptwriters, but I'm really appalled that the makers of this movie have such a low opinion of our intelligence. Even a dumb effects movie should have some respect for its audience. The dialogue is consistently pathetic, and every single character is one-dimensional and unlikeable. LL Cool J's character, in particular, is a disgraceful pander to the audience - a stereotype black guy who uses the word 'ass' in every other sentence and acts like some kind of evangelical lecher most of the time(crucifixes kill sharks, apparently - because sharks are the devil, you see. Because they eat other creatures. Unlike man, who of course doesn't). He explains physics through sexy woman analogies. Oh good, something our thick, penile brains can understand. Naturally, it's up to him to provide all the cheap laughs and atrocious oneliners (and even those are underdeveloped).

One woman commits the double crime of being both a scientist AND British. I'll leave it to you to guess whether she survives to the end or not. The surly he-man anti-hero character does, of course. He's harpooned through the leg, slammed at turbo speed into a big metal gate, and then exploded. But he survives. What the hell, we're all idiots, right? We'll accept that.

Definitely the best Shark movie since Jaws.

[oldman007 · 8/10 · 3 October 2012]

I've always enjoyed Deep Blue Sea since I was 9 years old. It's just so much to watch.

Basically, in the middle of the ocean..hundreds of miles away from anything..you have a special scientist lab to experiment on sharks. You have people doing experiments on them to change the way their brain cells think. Trying to make sharks think differently and make them smarter etc. For example, the whole plan was to make the sharks smarter, meaning, they wouldn't mistake seals for humans and wouldn't come near humans ever again. But, unfortunately, instead, it was the opposite, the sharks got smarter on how to catch and kill the human. The whole plan backfired.

Now, in the middle of the sea, in the middle of nowhere. These sharks break into the scientist lab and the whole lab is now flooded with water and they are all now racing to stay one step ahead of these 3 sharks.

The acting (especially from LL Cool J) is really good. Not the best acting ever, but definitely real and incredibly down to earth.

And I have to say this now, it had the most original ending i've possible ever seen. Finally, a film where all the women die and a film where a black man survives! That, to me, is just fantastic, cause you hardly ever see that. I give Deep Blue Sea 8/10.

A surprise!

[BandSAboutMovies · 6/10 · 22 December 2018]

A lot of people talk down on Renny Harlin. But with his films - Prison, A Nightmare on Elm Street part 4: The Dream Master, Die Hard 2 and more - you know exactly what you're getting. A popcorn movie with no brain ready to entertain you until you can't take it any more.

Witness his take on shark movies. He gets what works and then makes the movie fly so it doesn't feel like even half of its 1 hour, 45-minute length. This is lean, mean and ready to bite.

Shot in the same tanks that James Cameron used for Titanic, the idea of this movie is absolutely ridiculous. In a deep sea facility, a team of scientists is using mako sharks to reactivate dead brain cells within patients with Alzheimer's disease. One of those sharks has already escaped and attacked a boat full of partying teens, so the company behind it all sends Russell Franklin (Samuel Jackson) to investigate.

Doctors Susan McAlester and Jim Whitlock (Saffron Burrows and Stellan Skarsgård) prove their research to Franklin by removing protein complexes from the brain of their biggest shark. Bad idea - one shark is all it takes to mess everything up. It eats up Whitlock's arm and as he's being evacuated, inclement weather fouls up everything. His stretcher goes into the shark pen and as one of the sharks grabs it, it pulls the helicopter into the tower, killing anyone who could get the word out that things have gone wrong.

Susan, Russell, shark wrangler Carter Blake (Thomas Jane), marine biologist Janice Higgins and engineer Tom Scoggins (Michael Rapaport) then watch a shark use that very same stretcher to smash its way into the lab, flooding the entire base. Susan then confesses that she and Jim had genetically engineered the brain size of the sharks, which let them harvest more protein. It also made them smarter and deadlier. This is why this movie is wonderful; dumb lapses in science and logic that are glossed over so that more people can be devoured by sharks.

Meanwhile, cook Sherman "Preacher" Dudley (LL Cool J) may have lost his parrot to a shark and almost got cooked in an oven, but he knows the shark's natural movie predator: explosions. He blows one shark up real good and goes to find the rest of the crew.

When we find the crew, they're arguing and Russell gives a speech about how everyone has to work together. In any other movie, this is where people would pull it through. Here, a shark emerges and decimates the executive. It's a moment that will make you stand up on your couch and scream your head off in glee.

What I love about this one is that no one is safe. The people you expect to survive - and the ones you don't - get killed horribly. If you love watching sharks eat people, good news. This one has it all.

There are a lot of cues to Jaws here: the license plate they find in a shark's mouth is the same as that movie. And the ways the three sharks are killed - blown up, electrocuted and incinerated - exactly play back the way the shark is killed in Jaws, Jaws 2 and Jaws 3D.

You should totally check this one out. I was actually surprised by how much I loved it. That's after more than twenty shark movies in a few weeks, so that's really saying something.

Deep Blue "See it at your own risk".

[asmodai · 1/10 · 2 August 1999]

A rowdy clan of cartoon sharks meets the castaways of Gilligan's Island in a Jurrasic Park / Jaws in a "titanic" of a flop! The movie drags not only its income to Davy Jone's Locker but unfortunatly the carreer of Samuel L Jackson as well! Shiver me timbers! Sam made about the same impact as Mace Windu, and was chomped in half in the first 30 minutes, leaving Capin' Cool J to take over the scene in his dynamic blockbuster debut. Parrot on shoulder and cooking vinager in hand he diverts the sharks and helps the castaways to the surface only to be eaten by more cartoon sharks. In the end there is some fire, a lot of intrails, and a bucket of chummy one-liners. If you like Sharkies, Carreer Mistakes, and a whole lot of "Chum"s then this flick is for you. What am I saying this flick AINT for you no matter what! RUN *Jaws theme* The movie is right behind you! Aaaaaaarg!