Often, I find myself at odds with fandom.
You see, fandom generally embraces just about anything. Because they’ve culturally been deprived of so many truly great motion pictures, they’ll wrap their hands around just about anything that’s even modestly close to the mark and celebrate it endlessly across the web-o-sphere. Hollywood long ago realized this was the baseline, and – to some degree – that’s why they’ve co-opted so much of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror tropes and liberally inserted them into projects at every opportunity. All of this is done in hopes of capitalizing exposure in the various halls of ComicCon and beyond, where they’ve been assured that “if you build it, fans will come,” and come they have without much care exercised in evaluating whether or not such wares are truly worth our time and effort.
For this reason, watchers of an outlet like the SciFi Channel – aka Syfy, for those of you who prefer that ugly moniker – have had to endure a vast array of loosely related series and telefilms because the powers that be believe it isn’t so much want fans want but will still turn out for since nothing else is available. Granted, this isn’t so much the case today – the digital and streaming explosion has brought an astonishing number of good, bad, and ugly alternatives to life – but I can assure you that the endless parade of pure schlock that demonstrated what Syfy deemed worthy of broadcast for years assured fans that “this is what you’ll get and you’ll like it.” And, yes, that even applies to the bouts of professional wrestling they threw up in prime time, no less.
Still, genre fans embraced something like Deep Blue Sea (1999) back in the day because it was a close enough facsimile to what Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror could be, making it just enough to celebrate. And why not? It had pretty big stars – Samuel A. Jackson and Stellan Skarsgård were in the cast, you know – and it offered up a pretty big idea in the way of ‘Smart Sharks’ being nurtured in an attempt to cure Alzheimer's Disease. It had a sizable budget, reported to be around $60M. It secured a tentpole summer release date in July of that year. Brought to life by acclaimed director Renny Harlin, Blue promised a heady combination of action and adventure, so what could possibly go wrong?
Sink or swim, baby. Sink or swim …
You see, fandom generally embraces just about anything. Because they’ve culturally been deprived of so many truly great motion pictures, they’ll wrap their hands around just about anything that’s even modestly close to the mark and celebrate it endlessly across the web-o-sphere. Hollywood long ago realized this was the baseline, and – to some degree – that’s why they’ve co-opted so much of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror tropes and liberally inserted them into projects at every opportunity. All of this is done in hopes of capitalizing exposure in the various halls of ComicCon and beyond, where they’ve been assured that “if you build it, fans will come,” and come they have without much care exercised in evaluating whether or not such wares are truly worth our time and effort.
For this reason, watchers of an outlet like the SciFi Channel – aka Syfy, for those of you who prefer that ugly moniker – have had to endure a vast array of loosely related series and telefilms because the powers that be believe it isn’t so much want fans want but will still turn out for since nothing else is available. Granted, this isn’t so much the case today – the digital and streaming explosion has brought an astonishing number of good, bad, and ugly alternatives to life – but I can assure you that the endless parade of pure schlock that demonstrated what Syfy deemed worthy of broadcast for years assured fans that “this is what you’ll get and you’ll like it.” And, yes, that even applies to the bouts of professional wrestling they threw up in prime time, no less.
Still, genre fans embraced something like Deep Blue Sea (1999) back in the day because it was a close enough facsimile to what Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror could be, making it just enough to celebrate. And why not? It had pretty big stars – Samuel A. Jackson and Stellan Skarsgård were in the cast, you know – and it offered up a pretty big idea in the way of ‘Smart Sharks’ being nurtured in an attempt to cure Alzheimer's Disease. It had a sizable budget, reported to be around $60M. It secured a tentpole summer release date in July of that year. Brought to life by acclaimed director Renny Harlin, Blue promised a heady combination of action and adventure, so what could possibly go wrong?
Sink or swim, baby. Sink or swim …
(NOTE: The following review will contain minor spoilers necessary solely for the discussion of plot and/or characters. If you’re the type of reader who prefers a review entirely spoiler-free, then I’d encourage you to skip down to the last few paragraphs for the final assessment. If, however, you’re accepting of a few modest hints at ‘things to come,’ then read on …)
From the film’s IMDB.com page citation:
“Searching for a cure to Alzheimer's disease, a group of scientists on an isolated research facility become the prey, as a trio of intelligent sharks fight back.”
Back in the 1970’s, Steven Spielberg’s Jaws really set the standard for what aquatic adventure could do; and decades later it remains a benchmark many a storyteller has sought to dethrone.
What gets a bit lost in the shuffle is the fact that Jaws – like any great film does – started a trend both within the United States and beyond that producers tried to capitalize upon. 1977’s Tentacles tried adapting the watery terror to that of a giant octopus while Orca – released that same year – did much of the same with killer whales. 1978’s Piranha twisted the formula a bit further, giving teeth to those deadly fish; while 1980’s Alligator housed its carnivorous delights in the jaws of the mighty reptile. Mind you: there were still an awful lot of sharksploitation efforts, too; and no one was throwing water on the idea of making it unsafe to back into the ocean.
The trend did as trends do, and it petered out after a decade or so – coming to life in new form via Discovery Channel’s Shark Week which began in 1988 – only to find resurgence on the silver screen in 1999: Warner Bros. hired Renny Harlin to craft Deep Blue Sea – a script from Duncan Kennedy, Donna Powers, and Wayne Powers – into a summer release. The results were solid – good box office mostly owed to positive word-of-mouth – and it looked like sharks were swimming back into our collective consciousness as a bevy of shark-related features began cropping up with names big and small attached. Not only was Shark Week still around, but the aforementioned SciFi Channel (aka Syfy) dove in headfirst with its dreaded Sharknado (2013), a phenomenon that produced a mind-blowing six telefilms.
That, my friends, is gonna leave a mark!
There are a handful of differences between what Jaws accomplished over two decades earlier to what Deep Blue Sea did later; and perhaps it’s these alterations that show a modest bit of evolution in the formula. While both features start and finish with the dangers of this fabled oceanic predator, Harlin’s feature expands by incorporating much of what made disaster films – 1970’s Airport, 1974’s The Towering Inferno, 1996’s Twister, etc. – into crowd-pleasing experiences. In these flicks, our heroes aren’t only trying to outrun a single threat: it’s as is life itself is closing in around them.
From the film’s IMDB.com page citation:
“Searching for a cure to Alzheimer's disease, a group of scientists on an isolated research facility become the prey, as a trio of intelligent sharks fight back.”
Back in the 1970’s, Steven Spielberg’s Jaws really set the standard for what aquatic adventure could do; and decades later it remains a benchmark many a storyteller has sought to dethrone.
What gets a bit lost in the shuffle is the fact that Jaws – like any great film does – started a trend both within the United States and beyond that producers tried to capitalize upon. 1977’s Tentacles tried adapting the watery terror to that of a giant octopus while Orca – released that same year – did much of the same with killer whales. 1978’s Piranha twisted the formula a bit further, giving teeth to those deadly fish; while 1980’s Alligator housed its carnivorous delights in the jaws of the mighty reptile. Mind you: there were still an awful lot of sharksploitation efforts, too; and no one was throwing water on the idea of making it unsafe to back into the ocean.
The trend did as trends do, and it petered out after a decade or so – coming to life in new form via Discovery Channel’s Shark Week which began in 1988 – only to find resurgence on the silver screen in 1999: Warner Bros. hired Renny Harlin to craft Deep Blue Sea – a script from Duncan Kennedy, Donna Powers, and Wayne Powers – into a summer release. The results were solid – good box office mostly owed to positive word-of-mouth – and it looked like sharks were swimming back into our collective consciousness as a bevy of shark-related features began cropping up with names big and small attached. Not only was Shark Week still around, but the aforementioned SciFi Channel (aka Syfy) dove in headfirst with its dreaded Sharknado (2013), a phenomenon that produced a mind-blowing six telefilms.
That, my friends, is gonna leave a mark!
There are a handful of differences between what Jaws accomplished over two decades earlier to what Deep Blue Sea did later; and perhaps it’s these alterations that show a modest bit of evolution in the formula. While both features start and finish with the dangers of this fabled oceanic predator, Harlin’s feature expands by incorporating much of what made disaster films – 1970’s Airport, 1974’s The Towering Inferno, 1996’s Twister, etc. – into crowd-pleasing experiences. In these flicks, our heroes aren’t only trying to outrun a single threat: it’s as is life itself is closing in around them.
Due to some unforeseen developments, Dr. Susan McAlester (played by Saffron Burrows) sees her groundbreaking research into harnessing the benefits of shark DNA to cure human disease threatened by a corporate shutdown. With no alternative left, she challenges the director – Russell Franklin (Samuel A. Jackson) – to give her a few days to conduct a single test that will guarantee unheard of scientific progress or shut her laboratory – Aquatica – down for good. Begrudgingly, Franklin not only agrees but also insists on coming along so that he can see face-to-face the benefits of continued funding.
Once aboard the floating laboratory, McAlester and her crew do manage to produce the impressive, desired results: a combination of a shark’s brain chemicals into some impacted gray matter repairs the cells in only a matter of seconds. But their celebration is cut short when – only seconds later – the sedated shark awakens and bites the arm off of one of her colleagues! The man’s medical evacuation via helicopter is even more catastrophic when inclement weather and a wayward shark (who snags the vehicle’s dangling cable) force the aircraft to nosedive into Aquatica’s command level! The resulting explosion puts the crew in the untenable situation of racing against both the encroaching trio of tiger sharks, the water that’s slowly flooding their base, and the installation falling apart all around them.
Without going into any great extrapolation of the visuals, a good portion of the action is dedicated to giving each of Aquatica’s team something to do, something to prove their worth. Resident shark wrangler Carter Blake (Thomas Jane) is the reformed ex-con who’ll stop at nothing to bring everyone back alive because it’s the right thing to do. Tom Scoggins (Michael Rapaport) is the technical brainiac who knows how the station’s many systems work and what just might work as a mechanical solution to get his peers to safety. Janice Higgins (Jacqueline McKenzie) rounds out the medical team as a specialist and somewhat love interest for the fallen Jim Whitlock (Stellan Skarsgård) mostly because there’s always a love interest in films of this sort. Sherman ‘Preacher’ Dudley (LL Cool J) is the odd-man-out, a base cook who also serves as a homegrown minister and – ahem – motivational speaker when the chips are down. Like in any good ensemble effort, each of them gets something to do here; and Harlin effectively puts his cast through some difficult pacing, be it threats of flooding water, blazing fires, or gnashing teeth.
Where Blue fails to swim is with the fact that Harlin never seems fully committed to the formula so much as he is in playing with audiences expectations ... and maybe swimming with some CGI sharks.
Though I hate spoiling it, there’s a huge scene in which Franklin – in customary Samuel A. Jackson bravado – delivers a speech meant to rouse the team to action. They’ve encountered setback after setback, and what’s needed is that seminal ‘come to Jesus’ moment with the proper narrative Patton-esque bluster. One liberally couldn’t act for a better Thespian to shoulder that responsibility here than Jackson. In fact, he delivers – quite convincingly – all the way up to the point wherein one of the tiger sharks suddenly leaps out of the pool and rips him in half! Of course, it’s funny – which is what I hope was intended – but it also feels like it was a comic bit entirely orchestrated because they could. Where others thought it was a grand moment – maybe even the biggest in the flick – I’d argue it was – like Sharknado’s entire premise of a tornado full of predators – theatrically over the top.
Once aboard the floating laboratory, McAlester and her crew do manage to produce the impressive, desired results: a combination of a shark’s brain chemicals into some impacted gray matter repairs the cells in only a matter of seconds. But their celebration is cut short when – only seconds later – the sedated shark awakens and bites the arm off of one of her colleagues! The man’s medical evacuation via helicopter is even more catastrophic when inclement weather and a wayward shark (who snags the vehicle’s dangling cable) force the aircraft to nosedive into Aquatica’s command level! The resulting explosion puts the crew in the untenable situation of racing against both the encroaching trio of tiger sharks, the water that’s slowly flooding their base, and the installation falling apart all around them.
Without going into any great extrapolation of the visuals, a good portion of the action is dedicated to giving each of Aquatica’s team something to do, something to prove their worth. Resident shark wrangler Carter Blake (Thomas Jane) is the reformed ex-con who’ll stop at nothing to bring everyone back alive because it’s the right thing to do. Tom Scoggins (Michael Rapaport) is the technical brainiac who knows how the station’s many systems work and what just might work as a mechanical solution to get his peers to safety. Janice Higgins (Jacqueline McKenzie) rounds out the medical team as a specialist and somewhat love interest for the fallen Jim Whitlock (Stellan Skarsgård) mostly because there’s always a love interest in films of this sort. Sherman ‘Preacher’ Dudley (LL Cool J) is the odd-man-out, a base cook who also serves as a homegrown minister and – ahem – motivational speaker when the chips are down. Like in any good ensemble effort, each of them gets something to do here; and Harlin effectively puts his cast through some difficult pacing, be it threats of flooding water, blazing fires, or gnashing teeth.
Where Blue fails to swim is with the fact that Harlin never seems fully committed to the formula so much as he is in playing with audiences expectations ... and maybe swimming with some CGI sharks.
Though I hate spoiling it, there’s a huge scene in which Franklin – in customary Samuel A. Jackson bravado – delivers a speech meant to rouse the team to action. They’ve encountered setback after setback, and what’s needed is that seminal ‘come to Jesus’ moment with the proper narrative Patton-esque bluster. One liberally couldn’t act for a better Thespian to shoulder that responsibility here than Jackson. In fact, he delivers – quite convincingly – all the way up to the point wherein one of the tiger sharks suddenly leaps out of the pool and rips him in half! Of course, it’s funny – which is what I hope was intended – but it also feels like it was a comic bit entirely orchestrated because they could. Where others thought it was a grand moment – maybe even the biggest in the flick – I’d argue it was – like Sharknado’s entire premise of a tornado full of predators – theatrically over the top.
Furthermore, I think far too much of the picture was invested in Dr. McAlester’s character. While this isn’t a slight to Burrows at all (she, too, is an impressive talent on display, and I’ve enjoyed her work elsewhere), it is an assessment that the script packages her as a good-looking mad scientist, one who was willing to sacrifice her principles in order to bolster a marketable cure for her employer. She’s still about as close to a human villain as we get in all of Blue; and yet – in typical Hollywood fashion – she’s given great looks and even the chance to be Blake’s squeeze if she were more than casually interested. Their pairing never feels authentic – again, like the Jackson scene, it smacks of artificiality – but, thankfully, we’re (mostly) spared of any hint of entanglement despite the fact that several lines of dialogue suggest there’s something more.
Now, there’s much more than could be nitpicked here. Some might suggest that Harlin’s film is the ultimate fish story in spite of how well it takes viewers on this carnival ride. These supposedly 45-foot-long monsters seemingly have no trouble in breaking through steel doors, and yet we’re supposed to accept that your rudimentary chain-link fence would pose greater challenge to their strength. Also, we’re forced to accept that somehow these creatures can swim completely unseen in little more than waist-deep water in one sequence while they’re displayed as big around as an SUV in the next scene; so, it does help to choke down a good deal of salt when digesting Blue casually. As filmmakers do, Harlin packs his punches to produce thrills and chills at breakneck pace without allowing the audience to stop and fathom precisely how possible any of this was; and it succeeds only on that rudimentary psychological level. In Roman times, this would be our gladiatorial spectacle, and there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with that.
One of the many bugaboos I occasionally chase down the rabbit hole here on SciFiHistory.Net – and one that many readers disagree with – is my contention that inside every bad movie there often is a good cut or, at least, several good ideas. Those good ideas – if utilized differently – could’ve salvaged an inferior release and maybe even turned it into a box office hit or even something bigger than it eventually turned out to be. While this construct may not exactly apply to Deep Blue Sea – it’s accepted to be a hit, grossing $164M worldwide on a reported budget of $60M – I’d still contend that a film that brought the only true everyman in the script to the forefront might’ve resonated more strongly with audiences: imagine a great portion of the action retooled to give more prominence to LL Cool J’s Preacher, and you get the drift. Flicks like Bill And Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989), Tremors (1990), and even Wayne’s World (1992) prove that watchers love it when misfits save the day; and such a concept could even have helped Blue earn its sea legs to swim to even greater box office profitability.
Deep Blue Sea (1999) was produced by Warner Bros., Village Roadshow Pictures, Groucho III Film Partnership, Riche-Ludwig Productions, and Baja Studios. DVD distribution (for this particular release) has been coordinated by the fine folks at Arrow Films and MVD Visual Entertainment. As for the technical specifications? While I’m no trained video expert, I found much of this 4K restoration to be exceptional: my issues with some underwhelming CGI get glorified a bit as making bad shots look crisper only reveals even greater deficiencies. (It is what it is, folks.) Lastly, if you’re looking for special features? Then buckle up because this is Arrow Films, and they rarely disappoint. In order to be precise, I’m doing the noble copy-and-paste from their press release previously published on Blu-ray.com:
Now, there’s much more than could be nitpicked here. Some might suggest that Harlin’s film is the ultimate fish story in spite of how well it takes viewers on this carnival ride. These supposedly 45-foot-long monsters seemingly have no trouble in breaking through steel doors, and yet we’re supposed to accept that your rudimentary chain-link fence would pose greater challenge to their strength. Also, we’re forced to accept that somehow these creatures can swim completely unseen in little more than waist-deep water in one sequence while they’re displayed as big around as an SUV in the next scene; so, it does help to choke down a good deal of salt when digesting Blue casually. As filmmakers do, Harlin packs his punches to produce thrills and chills at breakneck pace without allowing the audience to stop and fathom precisely how possible any of this was; and it succeeds only on that rudimentary psychological level. In Roman times, this would be our gladiatorial spectacle, and there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with that.
One of the many bugaboos I occasionally chase down the rabbit hole here on SciFiHistory.Net – and one that many readers disagree with – is my contention that inside every bad movie there often is a good cut or, at least, several good ideas. Those good ideas – if utilized differently – could’ve salvaged an inferior release and maybe even turned it into a box office hit or even something bigger than it eventually turned out to be. While this construct may not exactly apply to Deep Blue Sea – it’s accepted to be a hit, grossing $164M worldwide on a reported budget of $60M – I’d still contend that a film that brought the only true everyman in the script to the forefront might’ve resonated more strongly with audiences: imagine a great portion of the action retooled to give more prominence to LL Cool J’s Preacher, and you get the drift. Flicks like Bill And Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989), Tremors (1990), and even Wayne’s World (1992) prove that watchers love it when misfits save the day; and such a concept could even have helped Blue earn its sea legs to swim to even greater box office profitability.
Deep Blue Sea (1999) was produced by Warner Bros., Village Roadshow Pictures, Groucho III Film Partnership, Riche-Ludwig Productions, and Baja Studios. DVD distribution (for this particular release) has been coordinated by the fine folks at Arrow Films and MVD Visual Entertainment. As for the technical specifications? While I’m no trained video expert, I found much of this 4K restoration to be exceptional: my issues with some underwhelming CGI get glorified a bit as making bad shots look crisper only reveals even greater deficiencies. (It is what it is, folks.) Lastly, if you’re looking for special features? Then buckle up because this is Arrow Films, and they rarely disappoint. In order to be precise, I’m doing the noble copy-and-paste from their press release previously published on Blu-ray.com:
- NEW 4K RESTORATION of the film from the original camera negatives by Arrow Films approved by director Renny Harlin
- HDR PRESENTATION OF THE FILM
- Original DTS HD-MA 5.1 and Dolby Atmos audio options
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Brand new audio commentary by screenwriter Duncan Kennedy
- Brand new audio commentary by filmmaker and critic Rebekah McKendry
- Archive audio commentary by director Renny Harlin and star Samuel L. Jackson
- From the Frying Pan... into the Studio Tank, a new interview with production designer William Sandell
- Beneath the Surface, a new visual essay by film critic Trace Thurman
- When Sharks Attack: The Making of Deep Blue Sea, an archive featurette
- The Sharks of the Deep Blue Sea, an archive featurette
- Deleted scenes with optional audio commentary by director Renny Harlin
- Theatrical trailer
- Image gallery
- Reversible sleeve with original and newly commissioned artwork by Luke Preece
- 60-page perfect bound collector's book containing new writing by film critics Josh Hurtado, Jennie Kermode, and Murray Leeder, plus previously unseen production art and designs
- Double-sided fold-out poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Luke Preece
- Postcards from Aquatica
Now, that said, I want to clarify that – as I’m only provided a copy of the disc – I cannot and will not address the efficacy or quality of the listed physical materials (artwork, booklets, inserts, etc.) as I have not seen them. In that respect, I always remind readers “buyer beware.”
Furthermore, I rarely – RARELY – speak in the negative on such things as commentary tracks, but sometimes something deserves to be said. So … the track by Dr. Rebekah McKendry is amateurish, a choice I think the professor and filmmaker consciously thought best given the source film. At times, it felt like she was trying to accomplish a one-woman RiffTrax attempt – swearing routinely and blurting some one-liners – and it just didn’t work; other times, she offers a respectful opinion of the filmmaking process, but it all feels so … meh. It feels more like an irreverent podcast than it does a commentary track. A huge disappointment, but again it is what it is. Screenwriter Duncan Kennedy’s commentary is vastly more informative and still tickles the ribs here and there respectfully.
Alas … only Mildly Recommended.
While I’ve conceded that I was there when Deep Blue Sea (1999) had its first theatrical run and wasn’t quite impressed then, the same remains true today; and, yet, I’m willing to concede that I probably had more fun with it this time out than I did back then. It occasionally takes itself very seriously only then to go completely in the other direction with die-hard predictability and science that only exists in the movies. Thematically, I’ll always argue that Harlin and his cast and crew never quite knew if they were making something to be taken seriously or not; and about the best that can be attached to a possibly legacy is that, yes, the flick obviously inspired a helluva lot of imitators to jump back into the water with hopes of both scaring audiences silly and delivering unintended laughs with – ahem – questionable (at best) CGI. The end of the beginning or the beginning of the end? You be the judge.
In the interests of fairness, I’m pleased to disclose that the fine folks at Arrow Films and MVD Visual Entertainment provided me with a complimentary Blu-ray of Deep Blue Sea (1999) by request for the expressed purpose of completing this review. Their contribution to me in no way, shape, or form influenced my opinion of it.
-- EZ
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