Deep Blue Sea

Directed by Renny Harlin, Deep Blue Sea follows a group of scientists, led by Saffron Burrows’ Susan McAlester, as they’re attacked by the super-smart sharks they’ve been studying and experimenting on. It’s larger-than-life subject matter that’s employed to erratic yet mostly satisfying effect by Harlin, as the filmmaker, armed with a script by Duncan Kennedy, Donna Powers, and Wayne Powers, delivers a gleefully over-the-top thriller that remains quite watchable for the duration of its (admittedly overlong) running time – with the movie’s entertaining atmosphere heightened by its stirring performances and assortment of memorable interludes and set-pieces. (There is, in terms of the latter, a justifiably iconic moment involving Samuel L. Jackson’s doomed figure that’s as engaging and deliciously absurd as one might’ve hoped.) And while the picture’s second half does tend to drag here and there (ie the emphasis on the surviving characters’ efforts at escaping results in plenty of skulking and sneaking around), Deep Blue Sea builds towards a predictably silly (and thoroughly successful) climax that ensures it ends on a positive note – with the end result a solid shark movie that certainly (and effectively) exploits its broad premise to an agreeable extent.

*** out of ****