Deep Blue Sea (DVD)

Deep Blue Sea is not the most exciting film to watch. It is very predictable, especially for anyone who has seen Jaws. The first time I saw this film was with my husband and a friend of ours. It was their first time seeing it also and they actually predicted just about everything before it happened. I was a bit disappointed and felt they could have done much more than rekindle old scenes from Jaws.

Dr. Susan McAlester (played by Saffron Burrows) is a researcher trying to find a cure for Alzheimer's disease. In order to do this they have increased the brain size of three sharks to have enough fluid to harvest from their brains. The problem with increasing their brain size is now the sharks have become smarter.

The other characters in the movie include: Carter Blake (played by Thomas Jane), This is the guy that actually gets in the tank with the sharks to catch them.; Russell Franklin ( played by Samuel L. Jackson), he s one of the benefactors for the underwater lab who comes for an overnight tour of the facilities; Preacher Dudley ( played by LL Cool J), he is the chef and probably the most humorous character in the movie.

In the film they have to catch a shark in order to get the brain fluid extracted from it. This is handled by Carter, this is when they first realize that these sharks are not the ordinary kind. They can think and actually recognize the gun that Carter is holding while in the water with them. The sharks then proceed to knock out all the cameras so that the people in the lab loose contact with Carter. Carter at this point is still smarter than the sharks and manages to catch one . He brings it up into the lab, where they do extract the brain fluid, do their test on some brain matter and realize that this works.

Unfortunately the shark wakes before it s released again into the water and bites the arm off of one of the less significant characters. Meanwhile on the surface of the water a tropical storm has come up and makes the rescue of this man impossible.

The rest of the film goes downhill from here, first after the attempted helicopter rescue of the man with one less arm, which the sharks get a hold of again while dangling off the helicopter. They use him and the stretcher he is on to break through the glass to the lab, which to me is very impossible due to the fact it appears to be at least 10 inches thick. Then the lab becomes flooded and the film becomes a let s see who gets eaten next movie. They also drag the helicopter into the lab facility on the top side by grabbing a hold of this man while he s in the water. This causes fires on the top side of the facility.

I won t give away any more of the details of the film, so you can see for yourself, but I will warn it is very predictable, especially if you have ever seen Jaws. There s are some cool scenes though where you get to watch the shark actually eat people. LL Cool J has some good comedic lines and my favorite line of the movie comes from Samuel L. Jackson where he says, ``What does a 25-foot mako shark with a brain the size of a V-8 engine and no natural predators think about?''

You don t get the answer to this question until the very end, but the question itself seems to make the cast think.

The sharks themselves, be it done by computer, the real thing or animatronic, are not that bad. There are points in the movie where you can tell they are not real, but for the most part they look pretty good. The movie had other faults though, like LL Cool J lighting a lighter after he s been underwater with it, and it lights on the third try, not very likely even from a Zippo when it s water logged.

If your bored and have nothing better to do I would say to give the movie a try, there are some aspects of it that are not exactly like Jaws, but you may find it a waste of time when you could have been doing something more productive.