Deep Blue Sea (1999)

With a voracious trio of mako sharks wreaking havoc, Deep Blue Sea dares to up the ante on Jaws, but director Renny Harlin trades the nuanced suspense of Spielberg's 1975 blockbuster for the trickery of the digital age. In other words, why build genuine terror when you can show ill-fated humans getting torn into bloody chunks? The aforementioned makos have been lab rats in an effort to harvest a miracle cure for Alzheimer's disease from the brains of sharks, but the research has an unfortunate side effect: the sharks get smarter, and they're determined to break out of Aquatica, the deep-sea complex where they've been penned.

Model-actress Saffron Burrows plays the researcher; Thomas Jane pulls double-duty as shark expert and action hunk; Samuel L. Jackson's the corporate sponsor who chooses the worst time for an Aquatica tour; and rapper LL Cool J is nicely cast as Aquatica's cook and comic relief. Michael Rapaport, Jacqueline McKenzie, and Stellan Skarsgård round out the cast, most of whom are turned into shark food as the makos turn Aquatica into a floating junkyard. Harlin takes devilish pleasure in providing sudden, unexpected shocks--no small feat in such a derivative thriller--and as a series of action set-pieces, Deep Blue Sea never disappoints. It's inevitable that Burrows should end up in her underwear like Sigourney Weaver in Alien, but even then the movie offers a credible reason for the strip-down; that Deep Blue Sea can be simultaneously ridiculous and sensible is just another one of its shlocky charms. --Jeff Shannon Amazon.com

Strong enough to stand on its own.

Is Deep Blue Sea a Jaws rip off?
I would have to say no.
I think it puts an interesting enough spin on things to make it fresh.
Granted the acting is kind of corny, but folks, seriously.
If you're looking for drama go somewhere else.
One of the best popcorn movies out there, yes the sharks look phony but who cares.
I watched this again a few weeks ago and I wasn't expecting to like it again as these kinds of movies usually don't age well.
I watched it again, and liked it again.
And thank you Hollywood for not making any sequels, FOR ONCE!!!!
Stop milking every franchise till it's worthless. One Deep Blue Sea was enough.
Highly recommended for fans of action, horror, or.......if your just bored, rent it.
You might actually like it.
June 17, 2008

A great underappreciated film

Look, im not ripping on Jaws here in any way. Jaws is great, it literally caused mass panic people believed what they see. Here not so much, However, this movie is amazing. The acting is superb, and not cheesy, the storyline flows together, and its action packed. This movie constantly suprised me, and in my opinion its the best shark movie ever made. I love Jaws, but at times its too slow, plus this film has the best scene of all time, with Samuel L. jackson June 4, 2008

Not your best shark movie ever

Genetically engineered sharks make a meal to go out of their keepers.
This movie even has the skinny English actress star disrobe to shock a shark. I suppose some people like this kind of movie,
but actually drug companies are more into killing chimps than
sharks. Anyway every body thinks they may have been paying for
bad experimental science. As far as I know very few scientific
projects get out of hand like this
and the ones that do are government ones and they are covered up good?
Drug companies are more into frog skins, tree bark and native herbs,
than genetically engineering the sea equivalent to
tigers. June 1, 2008

deep blue sea

This is a shark movie to add with the other shark movies,what action, realy likeness of bruce from Jaws. January 29, 2008

Best "monster"-movie in a long time

After "jaws" there was long time nothing in cinema in this genre of shark or monster movies with an interesting story and enough suspense.
I am a big fan of Samuel L. Jackson, who is once again outstanding in this movie. I also liked the performance of Thomas Jane, who gave his character enough credibility.
The movie is not 100% realistic, but which one of these movies is?
4 stars for suspense and interesting story. August 23, 2007

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