Deep Blue Sea (1999)

Director: Renny Harlin

Cast: Thomas Jane, Saffron Burrows, Samuel L. Jackson

Synopsis: A group of scientists researching a cure into Alzheimer’s Disease find that their experiments have unforeseen and dangerous results.

Watch this and other movies on Sky Cinema

After a woefully slow start and some desperately poor dialogue, Deep Blue Sea finally slips into fifth gear and finds itself unable to disengage.   Saffron Burrows (In the Name of the Father) plays a scientist who persuades her boss (Samuel L. Jackson, wearing glasses to show he’s brainy and non-violent) to give her 48 hours to perfect a new drug that will put an end to all those TV disease-of-the-week movies about dotty old people.   Together, they travel to a floating lab – which looks like something out of Waterworld – to complete experiments on some giant sharks.   The trouble is, a side-effect of the drug is to make them super-intelligent and hungry, so when the lab starts sinking following a catastrophic accident all manner of nastiness ensues.

So – don’t mess with nature seems to be the message here.   It’s a shame it has to be such a noisy message, but otherwise Deep Blue Sea is quite entertaining.   People become shark food at regular intervals, but it’s not always the one’s you expect.   The sharks look pretty realistic (maybe some of them were real), and the labyrinthine metallic corridors capture a nicely claustrophobic atmosphere without becoming too oppressive.

The acting’s a little so-so though, it has to be said. Jackson’s OK, as you’d expect, but nearly everyone else delivers b-monster movie performances that grate a little. Best moment: lost chef LL Cool J, up to his chest in cold sea water, picks up a copy of Playboy that’s floating past. Looking at the centrefold he says to himself with renewed conviction: ‘I’ve got to get out of here.’

(Reviewed 26th January 2012)