The Deep Blue Sea... what lurks there if not sharks! The plot takes me back to Jaws, and though I don't actually remember that much of the former apart from the theme: sharks, I feel like this might be a modern take on an old classic, a remake with a slightly evolved scenario. And yet, it stands on its own, it's a good movie. In fact, it's a great movie! It's intense! The action sequences and the dialog alike, they are both as captivating as I'd expect a speech by... someone I admire.

I thought I saw the ill LL Cool J in the cast. And it was him! I'm used to seeing DMX in movies, but it turns out there's another famous rapper I need to keep track of! Samuel Jackson is along for the ride too, and a few other personas I recognize but do nae know the names of yet. All in all it's an awesome cast, one that slowly counts down as the movie progresses.

There are plenty of surprises, the script is as varied as it's clever, but the biggest feat of this movie is realism of the destruction, the explosions, the metal bulging inwards, the water gushing in, the shark blowing up - leaving a pool of blood slowly spreading in the sea - it all leaves you with a sublime aftertaste of action. And you can feel the panic when the facility gets flooded, when they can't reach the surface, when they keep dying and yet keep confiding in each other all the same. All the CGI is... well it's from 1999, go figure it's not the most realistic, but considering that it is this old it's also way ahead of its time compared to other movies from the same era. It's not perfect, but it's not bad. I remember how CGI has completely destroyed some great classics in the face of progress, and that how we perceive 'real' when it comes to artificial effects changes so rapidly, but with this one there's no such issue. The movie isn't destroyed. CGI could've been better, but it's good enough to convey the danger - the threat - the mutated sharks farmed to grow brain protein that could potentially cure the Alzheimer disease.

There's a store coming in. There's funding getting cut off. There are people not getting along. There are people with cause and dedication, and personality, fierce weather and beasts and a very real threat of water in an isolated structure far out in the vast blue. It was a great movie!

 rated 4/5: fo shizzle

March, 2021

Didn't remember what an all-star cast this movie had! LL Cool J, Samuel Jackson, Thomas Jane, Michael Rapaport, Stellan Skarsgård... it's also that movie with the underwater shark lab that I falsely remembered as Jaws! Finally found it. Saffron Burrows is great too. Reminds a little of Eva Green.

Jaws may be the classic, the one and only, the one everybody knows about, but this? It's the good one.

As soon as the wine spills into the water, with the atmospheric lighting on the boat, with the somewhat more realistic-looking shark nearing in the water... you know. You just doubt a little since it's apart from impeccably lit and directed also a sex appeal party type of intro, not as a classy a vibe as the ones in Jaws, but even those movies did have a lot of sex appeal too didn't they, just a bit further back in time where clothing wasn't maybe all as lightweight by nature and the culture not as prevalent in movies as it is today... in a way this feels like a newer take on the former like that. With a little better filming. With a little better story. With a little - albeit equally predictable - all the more ferocious a run, too.

Maybe a bit too ferocious sometimes. A bit unfortunate sometimes. Some special effects ain't perfect either, but it ends well, LL Cool J made the outro theme and overall what a blast this was! Friggin' almost awesome (and possibly best ever shark-related) movie.

 rated 4.5/5: almost awesome