DEEP BLUE SEA
Artificial fintelligence
RELEASED
OUT NOW! 1999
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15
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4K/Blu-ray Director Renny Harlin Cast Saffron Burrows, Thomas Jane, Samuel L Jackson, LL Cool J
Jaws
may have spawned a feeding frenzy of copycat movies but the species had drifted into near-extinction after 1987’s sequeltoo-far Jaws: The Revenge.
Deep Blue Sea returned nature’s apex predator to blockbuster status. A sleek, explosive serving of ’90s hokum from Die Hard 2’s Renny Harlin, it supercharges the sharksploitation formula. These “gliding monsters” are not only more convincing – a mix of early CG and still-impressive animatronics – but they’re smarter, too, their brains upgraded by genetic engineering. If Jaws is the source DNA then there are also unmistakable echoes of Jurassic Park (damn you, science!) along with a heavy dose of The Poseidon Adventure as Harlin piles on the mayhem and spectacle, the fireballs, floods and fights for survival. Turning Samuel L Jackson into a shark snack, meanwhile, remains one of cinema’s greatest gotchas.