Deep Blue Sea I came into this movie with very low expectations. I figured it would be good for a quasi-decent laugh, some bad special effects, and the ability to leave the movie saying "you know, it was ok I guess..."

Well, I wasn't totally right, but not totally wrong either. While the movie was your standard plot line, harkening right back to Frankenstein (man plays with nature, nature fights back and kicks man's ass), it was more than your standard action flick on a Tuesday night.

First, the basic plot line: at a secret research facility, with the aim of curing mentally deteriorating diseases, scientists (and a few studly guys who swim with sharks) have found that shark brain matter will do the trick. So they grow a couple of sharks with bigger brains so they can harvest more brain matter, the completely unexpected result being the sharks get smarter. Sharks decide they want revenge, and go about eating people.

Pretty simple huh?

The actors are pretty good, and a couple of familiar faces will show up, one being Samuel L. Jackson, the other being someone who I could have sworn played "switch" in The Matrix (the imdb proved me wrong however).

The special effects are very good. The sharks are mostly very convincing, and the underwater scenes are very good. There were a few sharks-ripping-things-apart scenes shown from far out that were kinda cheesy, but for the most part the FX rocked.

The movie itself is fun. A standard action thriller yes, but with a few twists and turns. I didn't expect it to end like it did. I was able to tell you exactly what was going to happen at other times. And sometimes I just thought to myself "I didn't see that coming!" The movie is engineered to give the audience a start now and again, and the movie does this perfectly. The pace is well set, and there is nary a boring moment. I guess I went in with pretty low expectations and came out with a pretty good movie, which is why I give a 4/5 (and I'm a hard marker).

A word of caution though. As this is a movie about man eating sharks, they don't spare the gore when the sharks do eat people. There's blood, guts, and bodies being ripped in two. Not completely un-needed violence, but something to keep in mind. Don't say I didn't warn you :)

You can find the official site here. Posted by Arcterex at August 31, 1999 03:46 PM