Deep Blue Sea

Rating:
Summary: bitten in half
Review: a dump fun mindless movie. people test sharks and they give them a pill that makesthem smart. then the mans arm is bitten off thats were it all begins.and the shark breaks a glass in the lab and water goes everywhere and we see who makes it to the top.animation sharks are what the really look like. samul l jackson dosent make it which you herd was a bad part it is. i would of not of expected it until one of my dads friends were talking about how bad it was and told me about what he said and the shark attack. and a girl told me it was stupid and told me about the arm part. fun to wath on a rainy day dome no good.stupid better than python and crocodile thats it.

Rating:
Summary: Way cooler than jaws, more trills, kills and sharks
Review: The major star of this movie is Samual Jackson, who plays the new guy to the underwater lab (located 100s of miles offshore) where the sharks are advanced for their healing abilities. Eventually he notices that the sharks are getting too smart to remain under control of the scientists and handlers. Then the sharks get their chance to prove it during a topical storm, which disables everything in the lab, including their way of getting out and off of the lab. This is not a stereotypical Jaws movie, because it takes place all indoors or underwater, the special effects are sometimes gruesome, and the fact that now the sharks are smarter so they hunt the cast rather than randomly attacking. Not exactly the original Jaws, but more thrilling, and more technical knowledge about sharks. Plus tons of DVD features, this is what DVD is all about.

Rating:
Summary: Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water
Review: It's still not safe to go back in the water.

The pitch was obviously JAWS meets ALIEN, but the whole is decidedly less than the sum of its parts. The situation is inherently suspenseful (add extra shudders if you have a particular fear of drowning), the pretty evenly-matched second-tier cast makes it a little harder than usual to call the order of devouring, and the sharks are worth whatever portion of the budget was spent on them.

Fast-moving, unpredictable script makes this film worth the price of admission Not only does this shark knock on doors, he understands advanced engineering techniques. Pizza delivery is just around the corner.

That's because the sharks in "Deep Blue Sea" have come a long way since ol' motor-mouth Bruce. These guys have been genetically altered to increase their intelligence, an enhancement the human characters, unfortunately, failed to undergo. The animals are smarter than the people, and that's a classic combo that - surprise! - works in this film.

This time out, our cartilaginous friends are penned up in a seagoing laboratory called Aquatica, where Dr. Susan McAlester (Saffron Burrows)is enlarging their brains to harvest tissue for Alzheimer's research. But corporate financial backer Russell Franklin (Samuel L. Jackson)doesn't like the way the research is progressing.

Neither do the sharks.

Talk about swimming with you-know-whats. Franklin plans to pull the plug (literally) on the business venture when the sharks' brains get just large enough for them to read about it in The Wall Street Journal, and they see their chance.

Soon Aquatica looks like "Waterworld" and the human team, yes, flounders. No place is safe, not even the ovens, when the sharks begin dialing dials. And it just goes from bad to worse. With Acquatica damaged, trapping McAlester, Franklin, cold and quiet shark wrangler Carter Blake (Super Hottie,Thomas Jane)and sundry chum-in-lab-coats deep in the facility's lower levels. The violent storm raging above has cut them off from help, and those sharks are doing some awfully smart and spiteful things... just what did McAlester do to their brains, anyway?

Part "Jaws II," part "The Poseidon Adventure," part a half-dozen other flicks, "Deep Blue Sea" is actually "Jurassic Shark." The filmmakers sank their money into special effects and not name stars, with the wise exception of Oscar-nominee Jackson. Using a combination of live shark footage, computer digitalization and robo-gums, the producers have created one fancy, finny frightfest.

The fun still revolves around who's going to get "et" next. But the team-written script is unpredictable and as fast-moving as a hammerhead that smells a used Band-Aid. Indeed, "Deep Blue Sea" contains what might well be the single scariest scene of all of this summer's movie releases. Unlike "Lake Placid," this film had bite.

Sure, the humans still do all the stupid things that make their consumption well-deserved. But some unexpectedly sweet acting by LL Cool J as the preacher and a catalog of ways to "serve man" that would make Hannibal Lecter's mouth water help make "Deep Blue Sea" the perfect thriller for the season.

And special mention goes to Jane, who until now has scored only in supporting roles (he played weasly Todd in Boogie Nights). He cuts an impressive figure as Carter Blake, the diver and shark wrangler who knows a thing or two about the beasts who are out to chomp him; stoic and stolid, he's the kind of action movie hero you can root for simply because everything he does is believable. None of the feats Blake performs is superhero stuff-it's the kind of heroism born of a man who knows what he does well and does it when the situation requires it.

Go see it. Run, splash, scream, repeat with variations. If that sounds like fun to you, get on line. It will make you check your next pizza delivery man for fins.

Rating:
Summary: Very effective thrill machine has much to offer.
Review: "Deep Blue Sea" is a thriller about mako sharks whose brains have been genetically altered by a research team at a research facility in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The experiment soon backfires, and our man-hungry sharks are soon chasing the remaining survivors through flooded caverns and tanks.

The shark concept is hardly original, but one can hardly dismiss Renny Harlin's latest film as a "Jaws" clone. The setup for the action is different, original in its ideas but not in the message it sends us. The film is nothing more or less than a thrill machine, with lots of explosions and shark attacks to spare, but it's surprisingly entertaining, and has its share of enjoyable moments.

The movie begins with a shark attack that ends with no one killed or injured, though the accident causes some negative attention and trouble for Dr. Susan McAlester (Saffron Burrows), who runs the research lab Aquatica. Her project involves the extracting of a genetically developed protein complex in the brains of mako sharks, in hopes that they will provide a cure for Alzheimer's disease. Her funds come from Russell Franklin, whose skepticism concerning the project results in his returning with Susan to the lab to oversee the experiment.

Of course, Aquatica is not your everyday research lab. Once a navy refueling station, the facility was converted into a research laboratory, complete with shark pens and an underwater lab where observation of the sharks takes place. Introducing us to various characters that will bite the bullet sooner or later, the film is quick to let go of some baggage before things get out of hand.

The experiment proves to be a success, but a shark attack leads to a rescue helicopter accident, causing lots of explosions and flooding various chambers and levels of the facility. With no way to call for help, the remaining survivors must try to find their way out of the water before the sharks reach them.

The movie sets up the terror by using a universal message popular in many of today's creature features: don't tamper with Mother Nature. Susan has genetically tampered with the brain size of the sharks as a way to harvest more proteins, though the side effect is a much smarter animal with a heightened taste for blood and freedom. Though this is not the first film to use this kind of message (we've seen it done in films like "Mimic" and the Jurassic Park films), it works to its advantage.

And the action, once it starts, doesn't stop, and is made unique by director Harlin's sense of the unknown. Any other director, and the movie would suffer from severe predictability, but Harlin infuses the story with the same suspense he did in "Cliffhanger," and those who we think would be the last to die end up being the first ones to go. Did you really expect Samuel L. Jackson to go so quickly?

Certain scenes are very intense, creating some involving action set pieces that are very effective. The initial destruction of the facility begins with a man losing his arm and ends with the underwater observation lab being flooded as our survivors rush to escape. Another scene pits Preacher (LL Cool J) against a shark and a rapidly heating oven, ending in a spectacular explosion from which he escapes. When the climax arrives, it becomes easier to guess who will be left standing, but it's still tons of fun, nonetheless.

Some very entertaining performances are turned in here. Thomas Jane plays hero-for-the-day Carter Blake very effectively, and we believe in his physical drive and strength as much we do the scientific knowledge of Saffron Burrows in the role of Susan. Samuel L. Jackson, while he lasts, plays a part out of his norm, but he does it well. LL Cool J is a riot as the unconventional priest, and Michael Rapaport, Stellan Skarsgard, and Jacqueline McKenzie also make appearances.

In a season of uninvolving thrillers like "End of Days," "Deep Blue Sea" floats to success with some very effective action sequences and some good performances. Renny Harlin revisits the tactics used in his previous films, and puts them to good use here. It's not on par with "Jaws," but as a film in which the race against time winds down tightly, it works.

Rating:
Summary: When Renny Harlin ATTACKS!
Review: Many have already knocked Deep Blue Sea for being unrealistic, so I won't focus on that here. We're going to assume that it is entirely logical that scientists would use sharks to cure Alzheimer's.

I have two major problems with Deep Blue Sea. 1) The shark effects are incredibly bad, and 2) Renny Harlin. If the shark effects had been sweet, I might be more forgiving... but they aren't, so I won't.

My main problem with the effects is that the sharks actually change size, or "mass". I don't think this effect is intended, as the phenomenon is never addressed by the characters. There are several instances where I thought the human cast would be safe having just entered a small corridor or passed through a small doorway... "just when you thought it was safe to depend on the laws of physical matter!" Yep, here come the sharks. On the other hand, the plot also didn't address the fact that the sharks MIGHT have built some quantum space-altering machine when they weren't eating people.

I'll leave my effects quibbles at that and move on to the other major element that holds this movie back: Renny. I loved Long Kiss Goodnight, but I DIDN'T love Die Hard 2, Cutthroat Island, Cliffhanger or Driven (and -- for the record -- I never actually saw Driven). There was some nice material to work with here, but it's often too gory, too hokey, or too plain stupid to work in the movie's favor.

The DVD extras were very nice and relatively plentiful. "A" for effort on those special features, but it isn't anything you can't see on PBS shark specials... except maybe for REAL sharks.

If you think you might like Deep Blue Sea, I would recommend seeing Jaws or Lake Placid instead (that Bill Pullman is such a hoot!).

Rating:
Summary: dump this in thetrash
Review: this is the dumest movies i have ever seen animation for the attacks.i feel sorry for samul l jackson. who got eaten by a big chessy looking shark who looks like the shark on the case of shark attack two. the reason id watch it is for the scene were the shark litterly throws this guy on wires eletrcots him and bits him in two wich is fake looking.its the only scene were somebody gets eaten right.all the other attacks were animated and looked like shark on the case of shark attack 222

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable, flawed fun.
Review: Deep Blue Sea is great fun to watch. With your viewing buddy you can always look at the screen and have your eyes widened or your mouth grinning. It's a neat sense of enjoyment you can only get from a shark movie. But alas, Deep Blue Sea has its flaws. While the science-fiction story of a cure for Alzheimer's disease tries to cover up some of the flaws, you can still notice them. Sharks sense blood by its smell, not by its appearance. This is not the case in the thrilling opening scene, where some guy drops a bottle of red wine in the water on accident and a shark comes. Also, the-12-sharks-escaping-and-terrorising-people story is all entertaining, but how could the sharks fit through the corridors when they're meant to be super big? There's some more flaws, but I wouldn't want to keep you from seeing this movie because it's good fun and keeps you intrigued and entertained. There's something for everyone in Deep Blue Sea, whether you want fast CGI shocks, shocking horror, Saffron Burrows half naked, sharks eating people or just plain fun, its what you get.

Rating:
Summary: Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water!
Review: A team of reasearchers aboard the floating laboratory "Aquatica" have been playing God. By re-engineering the DNA of mako sharks they have created the perfect killing machine.

Now a tropical storm approaches these creations have only one thing on there minds - ultimate terror (and perhaps a meal or two). When the Laboratory begins to flood the team ( Samuel Jackson, Thomas Jane, LL CoolJ, Saffron Burrows etc) become trapped below deck. Time is running out and they mustfight to destroy their creations. This is the part of the movie where you should get a strange sense of deja vu - ever heard of Jaws ???

It's a heart-pumping, palm-sweating, piece of Saturday night movie watching. Watch it at your peril !!!

Rating:
Summary: Shallow Blue Sea
Review: Scientists looking for a cure for Alzheimer's disease experiment with nature's most dangerous predator, the shark, making them smarter. Unfortunately, they're now only as smart as the scientists themselves, who seem to be suffering from the disease they're trying to prevent.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent DVD (*spoilers*)
Review: Deep Blue Sea gives kudos to Jaws with, in the beginning, one of the giant sharks in the film attacking a boat full of making-out partying mid-teens.
Before we get onto this review, the sound and the picture quality is fantastic. Presented in the widescreen 2.35.1 format, with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, this DVD will blast your home theater.
The main storyline here is a group of researchers are working in a top-secret, technologically advanced underwater experiment on genetically enhanced mako sharks. To find a cure for Alzheimer's, they extract chemicals from the sharks'. Samuel Jackson and Thomas Jane star in this survival-horror-genre movie, in which the experiment goes awry and the sharks revolt against their keepers.
On to the DVD. The sound and picture quality are great, as I said. The extras are very good, but I do not like the snap cases of Warner Brothers. What do they think DVD ares, books? They can be very frustrating and keep cases keep the DVDs in better condition. The extras include several featurettes, both makings-ofs, and a commentary. Look on the Product Description for more information. The score for the movie itself is also very good, and it introduced me to the impressive work of score composer Trevor Rabin.
All in all, worth a buy.