DVDs in Review

Deep Blue Sea (Renny Harlin, 1999)

Title: Deep Blue Sea (Renny Harlin, 1999)

Release date: August 9 2010

Certificate: 15

Format: Blu-ray

RRP: £17.99

Rating: 3/5

Reviewed by Dave Lancaster

‘Deep Blue Sea’ is one of those guilty pleasures that takes itself seriously, blowing up the conventions of the disaster/survival genre but doing it with a straight face, unlike, for example, ‘Mars Attacks!’, ‘Lake Placid’ or ‘Snakes on a Plane’. This time it’s super intelligent sharks (who can swim backwards and figure out how to breach rooms packed with scared humans) who hunt a ragtag crew in an underwater research lab.

The sharks have adapted to accentuate their brain power as scientists think that they can then extract the data and use it to cure Alzheimer’s which in the realm of dodgy film plots isn’t all that ridiculous. The film’s rock solid direction is by Renny Harlin who mastered the one man army thriller with ‘Die Hard 2’, ‘Long Kiss Goodnight’ and ‘Cliffhanger’.

Here he’s given an ensemble cast to munch through including Samuel L Jackson, Thomas Jane, Saffron Burrows, LL Cool J, Michael Rapaport and Stellan Skarsgard. Working with such a large central base of diverse actors, Harlin doesn’t lose his focus or his insatiable appetite for having his stars killed off quickly and spectacularly.

As is the case with most of Harlin’s films, this is a ride. He’s an audience’s director, editing his scenes for maximum impact. Pacing in a film as thin on plot as this is essential and ‘Deep Blue Sea’ rarely lets up. Because the behind the camera production is tight, you forgive the nonsense going on before your eyes such as a shark baking one of the characters in an oven.

Much like ‘The Poseidon Adventure’ we follow desperate characters bonded together and then split apart, being picked off one at a time, never getting to know anyone particularly well. Characterisation is replaced by quips, looks, the opportunity to strip off and display other winning traits of film fodder to a point where we can relate to them by their colourful actions and think things like “I hope the bible quoting cook with a parrot on his shoulder isn’t on the shark menu”.

‘Deep Blue Sea’ isn’t a masterpiece and it was never going to be, but it works and throws in a few surprises for good measure. If you didn’t catch it first time around, Warner’s Blu-ray is a great place to start.