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Deep Blue Sea
***
Cinema
Releases - October 15, 1999
Rated on a 4-star
scale. USA. Directed by Renny Harlin. Written by Duncan Kennedy, Donna Powers
and Wayne Powers. Starring Saffron Burrows, Samuel L. Jackson, Thomas Jane,
LL Cool J, Jacqueline McKenzie, Michael Rapaport, Stellan
Skarsgard.
Renny Harlin's "Deep Blue Sea" is
a lean and efficient action picture, and while some have compared it to "Jaws",
such remarks are clearly unfair. The movie doesn't attempt great suspense,
but satisfies us with boisterous sights and sounds. Filmmakers attempting
future summer blockbusters should ignore the October release date, and look
to it for tips.
Saffron Burrows stars as Dr. Susan McAlester,
a scientist researching a cure for Alzheimer's disease in an underwater research
centre off the coast of Mexico, by injecting giant mako sharks with drugs
to help their brains increase in size. Mirabile dictu, the medication
seems to be working, so McAlester invites pharmaceutical company executive
Russell Franklin (Samuel L. Jackson) to stop by, witness her genius and refrain
from cancelling her financing.
When a movie shows the backers of an expensive
project paying their enterprise a visit, we know things are going to go wrong
-- think back to "The Towering Inferno", "Jurassic Park" and "Aliens", or
even "Titanic" and "Apollo 13". "Deep Blue Sea" feels no need to stray from
this tradition, and soon after Franklin steps on deck all hell breaks loose,
as the sharks' maximised capacity for thought and movement gives them the
desire and potential to escape. And to snack on whichever crew members happen
to be around.
As Roger Ebert has been eager to point out since
the American release of "Deep Blue Sea", the plot cheerfully defies common
sense -- even though the predators' minds have been boosted, they still would
not know the intricate structural details of the rig unless they'd had
opportunity to learn them. But this stupidity is so obvious that it's rather
endearing -- a lesser movie, with a nonsensical attempt at explanation, would
have been taking itself too seriously.
Little details like these go a long way. "Deep
Blue Sea" features set-ups from such diabolical pictures as the recent
"Godzilla", but feels like it's in on the joke rather than the butt of it.
This is not the result of ironic self-referencing, but of cute spins on the
inevitable moments of cliché. The guy who's "been through this before",
for example, starts to recite his tale, and we expect the monster to creep
up behind him, and the human to scream with eyes popping out in horror as
he gets devoured. Instead, he gets snapped up mid-sentence, and the unexpected
timing of the scene proves jolting as well as comic.
The screenwriting is clear and uncomplicated,
and personalities are not bogged down by the supplied details and quirks
that almost always backfire in this type of movie, the kind so obviously
tacked on that they actually draw more attention to the characters' cardboard
natures. The actors are chosen strategically: Burrows instantly involves
us with her sex appeal; indie stars Jackson and Stellan Skarsgard bring a
touch of class and respectability to the material; muscle-bound Thomas Jane
is effective as a traditional hero; rap star LL Cool J ably serves as the
film's comic relief, a born-again Christian chef.
At times the sharks in this movie are obviously
CGI effects, and they're never very menacing. But who cares, when they cause
such beautifully orchestrated destruction as all this crushed metal, shattered
glass and broken bone? Action directors often fall into the trap of throwing
away big budgets on murky monsters, but Harlin, who also directed "Die Hard
2", knows how to buy an attractive violent spectacle. "Deep Blue Sea" is
unoriginal, excessive and silly. I liked it a lot.
COPYRIGHT© 1999 Ian
Waldron-Mantgani
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