Twenty-seven years ago, Renny Harlin fed a genius to a hyper-intelligent shark and audiences ate it up. Deep Blue Sea was dumb, sure. But it knew it was dumb. That self-awareness turned ridiculous CGI and Samuel L. Jackson’s infamous monologue-eating into genuine B-movie gold.
Harlin has spent the years since wandering through a wilderness of direct-to-video thrillers and the inexplicable Strangers trilogy. Now he’s back in shark‑infested waters. Deep Water promises a return to form: Aaron Eckhart and Ben Kingsley fighting for survival after their passenger jet crash‑lands into the ocean. A plane disaster movie and a sharksploitation horror smashed together. On paper, it sounds like the kind of glorious trash only Harlin could deliver.
But something went wrong between the script page and the screen. Six writers took a crack at this thing, and the result wears its influences like a patchwork scarecrow. Jaws, Titanic, The Poseidon Adventure, The Shallows, Train to Busan—the references pile up faster than the bodies. The CGI sharks perform ridiculous gymnastics that undercut any threat. And the tone? Caught awkwardly between winking at sharksploitation silliness and striving for a genuine thriller.
The question hovering over Deep Water isn’t whether it works. It’s whether Harlin still remembers the lesson Deep Blue Sea taught: sometimes the fun is the point. Spoiler: only Ben Kingsley got that memo.
Deep Water Review: Renny Harlin’s Sharksploitation Mess
A Horror Movie Review by George Wolf
It isn’t too long before counting all the borrowed ideas becomes the most fun Deep Water is offering.
It’s a shark movie, so…Jaws. But you’ll also spot Titanic, the Airport franchise, The Shallows, Train to Busan, The Perfect Storm and a good bit of The Poseidon Adventure.
At least they acknowledge that last one with a Shelly Winters wisecrack, and it’s welcome. Because for a film that seems to think it’s farther above a Sharknado sequel than it ends up being, a bit of self awareness is long overdue.
First, director Renny Harlin has to get us on a plane to Shanghai, so the team of six screenwriters (six!) runs us through a some broadly-drawn Airport style intros of passengers and crew.
In the cockpit we meet the rugged First Officer with personal demons (Aaron Eckhart), the veteran Captain with scalawag charm (Sir Ben Kingsley), and the patient flight attendants (Lucy Barrett, Chrissy Jin). On the passenger list we have the asshole (Angus Sampson), the idiot parents looking to join the Mile High Club (Kelly Gale and Ryan Bown), kids in peril (Molly Belle Wright and Elijah Tamati), the Shelly Winters (Kate Fitzpatrick) and two twentysomething dudes who almost throw hands early on (might they be forced to put aside petty differences and work together??)
Deep Water borrows from better movies so relentlessly that counting the references becomes the film’s sole entertainment.
The plane crashes into the sea, and the placement of the two main chunks of wreckage allows Harlin to execute some Poseidon-esque set pieces in between shark attacks. Those sharks are CGI, of course, and their ridiculous gymnastics make you long for the true tension of a mechanical maneater that often broke down.
Nothing here is the least bit scary, the writing is obvious and overwrought, and the entire tone is caught awkwardly between giving in to sharksploitation silliness and striving for a well-plotted thriller.
Only Kingsley seems to know which end of the pool Deep Water belongs in. Too bad nobody else let the Cap’n make something fun happen with all these remnants of better movies..
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