Review of Deep Blue Sea

Introduction

Being a self confessed lover of disaster movies, and movies that wash over you with popcorn munching story lines, I was keen to see this film. The inevitable comparisons with Jaws made 25 years ago meant this film had a lot to live up to. This film is real projection/Dolby Digital fodder for home cinema fans, and is special effects crammed.

The plot (if you really need one) revolves around scientific research into using sharks to provide a cure for Alzheimer`s disease, aboard an undersea laboratory. The sharks appear to be getting more intelligent, and are actually learning. A huge storm engulfs the lab, providing the excuse for the sharks to escape and the action to start..

Video

The DVD provides an anamorphic 2.35 transfer, and is split over 33 chapters – and for a film 101 minutes in length, is more than adequate.

Video is very nice indeed, with a solid crisp picture all round. The image is pin sharp, and colours are deep without losing detail - many of the underwater scenes bear this out, with the murky dark pictures that causes no trouble for this DVD. The transfer is spotless, as should be the case, and blacks are deep with again no detail loss. No problems with the compression were seen.

This is a fun, special effects movie at the end of the day, and full use is made of the huge leap in technology available since the days of Jaws in the mid 1970s. In the director’s commentary, Renny Harlin defies anyone to be able to point out which sharks are real, which are animatronic and which are CGI. I think the audience will have rather less trouble in doing this that Harlin thinks, but who cares! The sharks make this film, and the technology in visual effects has improved unrecognisably since the rubber shark days of Jaws (excellent though that ground breaking film is).

Audio

This is another Dolby Digital treat, as you would expect from a high budget, effects filled action/horror picture. It is a loud, brash audio experience which will ensure your neighbours know you are watching a fast paced action thriller. The action scenes can be a little too much over the top sometimes in comparision with the rest of the soundtrack, but hey, this is a scary shocker of a movie, so who cares.

Many of the underwater scenes provide plenty of creaks, groans and echoes to reverberate around the soundstage. Action fans will enjoy the many loud big boomy action scenes, which will have all six of your speakers active.

Features

This disc is nicely packed with extras, accessible from some cool animated menus with accompanying sound.

The commentary track features director Renny Harlin and Samuel L. Jackson in partnership for most of the film, but half way through Jackson seems to give up and leaves Harlin to it! Harlin’s commentary is essential listening for those movie fans like me, who have to know as much as possible about how this was shot, how that was done and how often Jackson played golf during the shoot.

You get cast and crew filmographies (but sadly not many of the cast), and the theatrical trailer. Five separate deleted scenes are included, and you have the option as to whether to watch them with the standard sound, or have Harlin discussing the reasons for omission of each one – a nice touch.

Two ‘making of’ documentaries are included: ‘The Sharks of the Deep Blue Sea’ and ‘When Sharks Attack!’ lasting 20 minutes and 9 minutes respectively. A lot of information is here on the CGI and animatronic sharks they used, and the special effects techniques.

DVD-ROM users get a few goodies to play around with, including access to the Deep Blue Sea web site.

Conclusion

This film is real fun, and for me had far more scary bits than The Blair Witch Project. You know what to expect before the opening scene starts, and you are not disappointed. It`s all there - the effects, the humour, Saffron Burrows as the eminent Doctor who enters the 1999 Miss Wet T-Shirt competition... Something for everyone.

There are obvious comparisons with Jaws, and Harlin has included several tribute scenes to pay homage to the Speilberg film (the number plate in the shark’s mouth is actually the same one that featured in Jaws). There is also the Jaws-like opening scene where the shark attacks some teenagers (but with a new twist). Again, this film has used some relatively unknown faces (except Jackson, who gleefully tells all he got paid far more than the others in his commentary!). The acting can be a little suspect at times however (LL Cool J as the chef?!!!)

The DVD is good value for money in that the audio and video presentation is good, and a lot of worthwhile extras are included on the disc.

But generally, all things considered, for popcorn movie fans – it’s a must buy.