Red Water (2003)

Louisianas black cove becomes the center of a struggle for survival when off-shore drillers a pack of criminals diving for hidden drug money & vicious bull sharks all descend upon the bayou at once. Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 10/04/2005 Starring: Lou Diamond Phillips Coolio Run time: 92 minutes Rating: R Product Description

IT WAS OK FOR THIS TYPE OF FILM

RED WATER

This film is honestly not as bad as every one makes it out to be, I mean just take it for what it is. And what is it exactly you might ask, well it is a rip off b movie, and for that it really isn't that bad. Sure it isn't a classic in any sense but it is still entertaining enough for a boring night with nothing to do.

Director Charles Robert Carner does what he can with this film, it turned out ok for a cheap rip off film. Writers J.D. Feigelson and Chris Mack are mainly the ones to blame here, even I can't deny that the script could have been better. Also the acting was ok at best from most, Lou Diamond Phillips was ok as the lead in this film but I have seen him do much better [The Triangle]. Kristy Swanson did well in her part as Phillips ex wife. Coolio like Lou was only ok in his part of some side kick goon. But I must say that the actor who played Bret was well beyond every one else in this film. But other then him nobody else seemed to do any thing other then ok.

The story was an easy one to follow, a shark is loose in the fresh water of the Mississippi. It just so happens that in that same water is some people drilling for natural gas, and some guys looking for some money that was lost in the river 5 years ago. As it turns out both groups cross paths and find them selves battling each other as well as the shark. Actually when I spell all of this it seems like the story should have been much better, but I'll stick by what I wrote earlier and say that this film is ok for a rip off movie.
February 9, 2007

Hahaha!!!

Well, what can I say? I'm usually not very picky about "seamonster"-movies (especially when there's a shark involved). And though it didn't surprise me, "Red Water" (hm..!), whatever you do don't believe the cover of the dvd. That shark (!) looks frightening, and looks to be a Great White. The shark in this movie however is a Bull Shark, and very "plastic" in a non-Hollywood-sence.

There is plenty of shark in "Red Water", some reviewers here mean that you hardly see the shark, but that's not the problem. The problem is that you see the shark TOO many times, and as mentioned; it's not much to look at! The effects (?) are something between Jaws 3 & 4, and that explains a lot if you are familiar with those. The acting is what you'd expect from a b-movie, ok at its' best, the script is paperthin -but it could've been more "watchable" if "more story, less shark".

I doubt that I will watch "Red Water" again. B-movies like "Anacondas" and "Lake Placid", well, at least the effects are somewhat believable.

I didn't expect much, but got less... March 29, 2005

Oh the humanity!

"Red Water," a made for television film starring Lou Diamond Phillips and Kristy Swanson, carries on the now long and wearisome tradition of ripping off "Jaws." You would think that nearly thirty years after Steven Spielberg's project arrived in theaters filmmakers and producers might move on to another genre. You would be wrong. Every year brings us even more "animal gone wild" flicks, everything from sharks, octopi, whales, snakes, bears, rats, ants, birds, cats, dogs, dinosaurs, crocodiles, alligators, and genetic laboratory experiments gone horribly awry ripping their way through a fresh crop of hapless humans. If the creature in question has sharp teeth, claws, wings, talons, tentacles, and pincers expect to see the monster in question appear in a low budget, straight to video knockoff of "Jaws." Sure, there are elaborations to the standard plot lines, none of which significantly improves these rip-offs, but all of them owe a big debt to Steven Spielberg's film. For example, "Red Water" tries something a little different by having a freshwater shark terrorize people on a Louisiana River. It also inserts a plot thread about a gang of criminals recovering a stash of money from the riverbed. None of these ideas disguises what is really going on.

"Red Water" is the story of John Sanders (Lou Diamond Phillips), a down on his luck fisherman with an ex-wife, horrific memories of a disaster from his days as an oil drilling technician, and loans on his boat he can't afford to repay. At the same time Sanders dithers with the bank about his delinquent loan payments, a shark somehow manages to enter the river and promptly wreaks havoc on swimmers, fishermen, and anyone else who manages to get in the way. Sanders could care less about the shark, primarily because he doesn't know about it at first and also because his ex-wife Kelli (Kristy Swanson) just walked back into his life. She's a scientist working for some big oil company that is drilling for natural gas on the river, and she knows that John is an expert on this sort of thing. Whether you buy the idea that a scientist would go by the name "Kelli" is another matter. Sanders eventually agrees to help out when he learns that the oil executives will pay him handsomely for his troubles. After all, he'll do just about anything to bring in enough cash to keep his boat. What none of these people know is that they will run headlong into several sharks, one that swims and several that walk around on two legs.

The movie switches focus long enough to tell us about some Jamaican criminal who lost a ton of money in the river when one of his underlings dropped the box containing the cash in the water while eluding the authorities. This guy hires some mercenary thug, along with a goon named Ice (Coolio), to go track down the subordinate in an effort to persuade him to reveal the location of the cash. And wouldn't you know it? The site just happens to lie right near the oilrig where Sanders and Kelli eventually show up! What follows is incredibly predictable: the criminals take over Sanders's vessel because they think these guys angling for the money, a disaster occurs on the rig that claims the lives of several workers, and the shark turns up to chow down on a few of the principals. How predictable is "Red Water"? Not only is there a Cajun chap helping out on Sanders's boat, we get a few scenes of a Cajun party complete with music and dancing. Just in case you aren't aware that you should laugh at these hicks, the script throws in a few lines comparing the party to "Deliverance." How clever and original is that? I'm starting to get real tired of seeing this sort of prejudice in films and television shows. If you put any minority group in the place of these Cajuns and did the same thing, the outcry would be deafening.

It's not the overt prejudice of the Cajun scenes that sinks "Red Water"; it's everything else. The venerable Lou Diamond Phillips hasn't made a good film since...well...I can't recall, actually. I quit following his career after "The First Power." As for Kristy Swanson, I was surprised to see her here. I remember her star rising in the early to mid 1990s, but at some point she fell off the radar and, if "Red Water" is any indication, into B-movie purgatory. It's sad, really, because she's not that bad of an actress. Coolio, on the other hand, goes over the top in his role as a thug looking for some money. If I had known from the start that this guy was in the film, I wouldn't have watched it. Aside from the performances, or the lack thereof, the production values are low, the pace drags, and the film has the propensity to put the strangest dialogue in its characters' mouths. I really, really wish I had written down some of the odd lines uttered by Phillips's character. I remember watching the movie and thinking at the time, "I should write that down and use it later in a review." For some reason, I didn't. Probably because I just wanted this thing to end quickly.

In another bizarre turn, the movie carries a 'R' rating even though there isn't much bloody carnage going on. The only extras on the disc, fortunately, are trailers for "Bats," "The Big Hit," and "Ride or Die." If you're really interested in watching creatures attack flicks, there are plenty of other bad movies to choose from, most of them unintentionally hilarious schlockfests that manage to entertain on some level. "Red Water" is too bland, too confused plot wise, and too full of actors on the downhill slide of their careers to be entertaining. If you decide to head up this river, good luck to you.



January 16, 2005

Red Water

Dive into this carnivorous adventure when a massive man-eating bull shark takes over the quiet waters of the Mississippi.
Nobody knows what or who is leaving behind mangled remains on the banks of a louisiana river until it is revealed that there is one breed of shark that can live in fresh water-a giant carnivore stalking the living under the surface.
Now,as workers search the river for a source of natural gas, and criminals are hunting a buried treasure, it is up to a small group of hunters to find, and destroy the murderous beast, bent on killing anything that leaves the shore...

THIS FILM IS PRESENTED IN A FULL SCREEN PRESENTATION November 24, 2004

What shark??

I watched this movie, seeing that it was a "shark" movie. But where's the shark?? The plot is these people are hostages. The shark is just there so us shark fanatics have a reason to see this awful movie. But I was watching going, "okay, they're in the water, where is the shark???" Even JAWS 3, (which sucked) has more sharks. If you like hoatage movies, see this. (on second thought, don't...) But if you like sharks, see something else. August 23, 2004

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