urbpan | Mini review of "Deep Blue Sea"

The first third or so of any horror movie is bound to be its weakest act. Its job is to introduce the setting and especially the characters; the peril that the characters suffer is more compelling the better we know them. In Deep Blue Sea, the first third nearly sinks the rest of the movie. The inane dialogue and stiff performances place the movie squarely among B movies, despite the money spent on millions of gallons of water and mechanical sharks. But once the character introductions are finally over, the fun begins. The first attacks are genuinely surprising--which is good, since the suspense can not depend on us caring about the characters. Interestingly, for a horror movie about sharks, DBS steals more from Jurassic Park than it does from Jaws. One scene, in a stainless steel kitchen half-flooded with sea water, treads the line between homage and plagiarism. That scene is one of the most effective, and relies on LL Cool J--who must not only rise above being cast as a novelty player, but perform what is essentially a monologue delivered to his parrot, God, and the mechanical sharks. The best of the DVD extras was the footage showing how dangerous the 8000 pound radio controlled sharks were to work with. The worst extra was the director gloating over the special effects; he unwisely challenges the viewer to tell which scenes use a robot shark and which scenes use CGI. Sorry, Mr. Harlin, we can tell.