MONSTER MOVIE OF THE WEEK: DEEP BLUE SEA (1999)

DEEP BLUE SEA (1999)

Directed by: Renny Harlin

Genre: Survival/Action

THE MOVIE

Deep Blue Sea is one of those really enjoyable and unpretentious movies that knows exactly what it is and doesn’t take itself too seriously. I mean, this is a movie about super intelligent killer sharks. It was directed by the always-competent Finnish director Renny Harlin who gave us such not-brilliant but good movies like A Nightmare on Elm St. 4, Die Hard 2, and Cliffhanger as well as many others. He’s such a go-to-guy for studios that he was even given the task of reshooting much of the Exorcist prequel a few years back. If you haven’t seen it you should check them both out, Harlin’s version, Exorcist: The Beginning and the Barbet Schroeder version, Dominion: Prequel to The Exorcist. Neither movie is really great, but this is a rare chance to see two very different directors take on the same basic script with considerable budgets. What we end up with is a fascinating exercise in filmmaking and a great lesson about what it is that a director actually does.

Renny Harlin strikes me as the kind of guy who has watched a ton of Hollywood movies and knows the language of popular cinema very well and he can use it to great effect and often to surprise us. There are many moments in Deep Blue Sea where you think you are a step ahead of the movie (You’re thinking something like: “God, this is so predictable!”) and it does something fun to surprise you because Harlin knows perfectly well what you are expecting. It’s particularly notable in a movie like this because, let’s face it, monster movies are very formulaic.

Deep Blue Sea is set on a remote ocean outpost where scientists are breeding super-intelligent sharks which supposedly will have some applications for curing human diseases, or maybe its just that scientists in movies are always doing stupid shit. Samuel Jackson plays a bigwig sent to check on the status of the station When All Hell Breaks Loose. Invariably, whenever a bigwig is sent to a remote, creature-filled research station there is a huge and terrible storm, as though to remind us that nature is unpredictable. The researchers are trapped in the partially flooded station and are hunted by the now supercharged sharks.

Mama Said Eat You Up.

THE MONSTERS

Sadly, the monsters are just sharks. They didn’t do anything cool to jazz them up. You just have to take the movie’s word that they have been made super intelligent. They don’t wear glasses or talk or anything.

Um, dude. How bout you not do that?

MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE

This movie features one of the great Samuel L. Jackson moments in movie history. I won’t spoil it for you if you haven’t seen the movie but it is part of the man’s legend. Needless to say, add sharks to the list of things Samuel L. needs to avoid that already includes velociraptors and Sith Lords.

Mace Windu wonders, "Does this constitute going out like a punk?"

SEQUELS

None. But this movie screams straight to DVD sequel.

SEE ALSO

Deep Rising, Deep Star Six, The Deep, Deep Throat, etc.

TRAILER