Deep Blue Sea (1999)
Starring: Samuel L Jackson, Saffron Burrows, LL Cool J, Thomas Jane,
Director: Renny Harlin
Synopsis: Jaws meets Jurassic Park
Reviewed by: Omar Khan

 

Following two resounding box-office disasters in Cutthroat Island and The Long Kiss Goodnight, Renny Harlin appears to have rediscovered his touch with Deep Blue Sea. This exhilarating, action-packed fright-fest shamelessly borrows elements from Jaws, Jurassic Park, Alien and even Titanic, blending them into a thoroughly entertaining piece of popcorn cinema.

The plot revolves around scientific research being conducted by the ice-cold Dr. Susan McAlester (Saffron Burrows), who, in her desperate search for a cure for Alzheimer's disease, has been tampering rather recklessly with Mother Nature. Giant sharks have been genetically engineered in order to harvest enzymes from their enlarged brains—enzymes believed capable of regenerating brain cells damaged by Alzheimer's. Naturally, the larger the shark's brain, the more effective the treatment.

There is, however, one rather obvious drawback.

By pumping the sharks full of experimental chemicals, Dr. McAlester has inadvertently created creatures that are, as the film's advertising proudly proclaimed, "bigger, stronger, faster and meaner."

Predictably, everything goes catastrophically wrong.

When a violent storm devastates the isolated ocean laboratory, the genetically enhanced sharks escape and begin stalking the surviving scientists and crew, including an entertainingly Bible-thumping cook played by LL Cool J.

The sharks are suitably ferocious and proceed to terrorise their human prey with gleeful efficiency. The spectacular death scenes had the Times Square audience I watched the film with cheering in unrestrained delight. Harlin's genetically enhanced monsters make poor old Bruce from Jaws look like a timid goldfish by comparison. These beasts are genuinely frightening and responsible for some of the most spectacular screen deaths seen in a mainstream Hollywood thriller.

The acting is perfectly competent throughout, with LL Cool J handling the obligatory comic-relief "brother" role without ever becoming irritating. Saffron Burrows makes an effective, emotionally detached scientist whose questionable ethics ultimately unleash the nightmare.

Deep Blue Sea offers very little that could honestly be described as original. At heart, it is simply another summer popcorn movie.

Fortunately, it understands exactly what it wants to be.

Harlin keeps the action moving at a relentless pace, the suspense rarely lets up, and the film delivers enough genuine shocks, inventive set-pieces and spectacular mayhem to keep audiences thoroughly entertained from beginning to end.

It is loud, ridiculous, gruesome and completely implausible.

And it is tremendous fun.

This is exactly the sort of film that gives mindless entertainment a good name.