Deep Blue Sea (1999)

3 out of 4

Starring: Saffron Burrows, Thomas Jane, Samuel L. Jackson, Jacqueline Mckenzie, LL Cool J, Michael Rapaport, Stellan Skarsgard

Director: Renny Harlin

Time: 104 mins

Deep Blue Sea is the perfect popcorn movie: fast-paced, plenty of action, some tense scenes, and a healthy dose of welcome relief humour. It belongs to the same genre of non-stop, thrill-ride films such as Die Hard, Speed, and Jurassic Park, and while not in the same class as the aforementioned, it is definitely better than other mindless drivel such as Armageddon and Con Air. Its most obvious inspiration is Jaws, the blockbuster shark film that shattered box office records in 1975. Indeed, a few scenes in Deep Blue Sea serve to remind you of the Steven Spielberg classic, almost as if acknowledging its illustrious forebear. Director Harlin can certainly keep the action moving, but he relies more on shocks than developing suspense, which keeps this shark film a notch below Jaws.

Saffron Burrows plays Dr Susan McAlester, a scientist who is experimenting with mako sharks out on a massive ocean and undersea platform to produce a substance that might cure Alzheimer's disease. Samuel L. Jackson is her project's financier, who visits the platform to check on her work one weekend. A skeleton crew remains to keep the operation functioning, including Thomas Jane (Boogie Nights) as a tough-guy shark wrangler, Stellan Skarsgard (Good Will Hunting) and Jacqueline McKenzie (Romper Stomper) as scientists, and rapper LL Cool J as the bible-quoting chef. Like Jurassic Park (another Spielberg monster movie), a storm moves in, destroys parts of the compound, and the folly of tampering with nature comes back to haunt the trapped humans.

Deep Blue Sea contains a few funny moments, most of them involving LL Cool J. There are a couple of unexpected "shocks", and a tense sequence in an elevator shaft where the group is climbing a ladder while one of the sharks circles below in the rising water. The sharks look quite real, being a combination of animatronic models and computer generated effects. The biggest problem, though, is the lack of characterisation. Jane is muscular but bland, Mckenzie has nothing much to do, and Burrows, as the lead character, is especially unsympathetic. The acting honours go to Jackson (who else?), who brings a touch of class to his scenes.

Harlin is showing a return to his Die Hard 2 and Cliffhanger form after the disaster of Cutthroat Island, what with 1996's The Long Kiss Goodnight and now Deep Blue Sea. While not a classic like Jaws, it certainly provides 100 minutes of popcorn-munching chills, humour and entertainment. And isn't that what we would like to see in a movie like this?

(c) Joe Wong