Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7200 in DVD
• Released on: 2000-06-05
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Romanian, Arabic, Bulgarian
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 101 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review

Renny Harlin's first feature since The Long Kiss Goodnight reinvents the rampaging shark movie for the digital age. Echoing Alien and Deep Rising, a typically motley crew is trapped and terrorised in a remote ocean research station incapacitated by storms. Saffron Burrows' scientist has devised a means of using shark brain-tissue to fight Alzheimer's Disease, but it has the unfortunate side effect of increasing by fivefold the intelligence of the station's three test sharks. Once the sharks escape captivity, their captors become prey and Burrows, along with Thomas Jane's diver and corporate sponsor Samuel L. Jackson, are pursued through the station's maze of corridors. LL Cool J also appears as the most unlikely action-movie chef since Steven Seagal in Under Siege, chanting Biblical passages to his pet parrot and choosing the perfect omelette recipe as his message for posterity.

As the bizarre premise indicates, this is not a film for those seeking great acting or rich narrative complexities, but it does deliver action and effects in abundance, particularly with the state-of-the-art computer-generated sharks themselves. While they'll never attain the iconic status of Bruce in Steven Spielberg's Jaws (still the granddaddy of all screen sharks), Harlin's swift predators are clever enough to open doors and operate an oven. As the water level rises, Burrows indulges in some Sigourney Weaver-in-Alien-style disrobing, there is one of the great surprise-death scenes, shocking and funny in equal measure, and all concerned keep their tongues firmly in cheek. This DVD version also features commentaries from Harlin and Jackson, deleted scenes, a "making of" feature and a documentary on sharks. --Steve Napleton

Amazon.co.uk Review
With a voracious trio of mako sharks wreaking havoc, Deep Blue Sea dares to up the ante on Jaws, but director Renny Harlin trades the nuanced suspense of Spielberg's 1975 blockbuster for the trickery of the digital age. In other words, why build genuine terror when you can show ill-fated humans getting torn into bloody chunks? The aforementioned makos have been lab rats in an effort to harvest a miracle cure for Alzheimer's disease from the brains of sharks, but the research has an unfortunate side effect: the sharks get smarter, and they are determined to break out of Aquatica, the deep-sea complex where they've been penned.

Model-actress Saffron Burrows plays the researcher; Thomas Jane pulls double-duty as shark expert and action hunk; Samuel L. Jackson's the corporate sponsor who chooses the worst time for an Aquatica tour; and rapper LL Cool J is nicely cast as Aquatica's cook and comic relief. Michael Rapaport, Jacqueline McKenzie and Stellan Skarsgård round out the cast, most of whom are turned into shark food as the makos turn Aquatica into a floating junkyard. Harlin takes devilish pleasure in providing sudden, unexpected shocks--no small feat in such a derivative thriller--and as a series of action set-pieces, Deep Blue Sea never disappoints. It is inevitable that Burrows should end up in her underwear like Sigourney Weaver in Alien, but even then the movie offers a credible reason for the strip-down; that Deep Blue Sea can be simultaneously ridiculous and sensible is just another one of its shlocky charms. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

Special Features
2.35 Wide Screen
DVD 9
English
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital 5.1 English
Dolby Digital 5.1
Star And Director Commentaries
When Sharks Attack Documentary
Sharks Of The Deep Blue Sea
5 Deleted Scenes
Original Theatrical Trailer
Stills Gallery
Arabic\Bulgarian\English\Romanian

Customer Reviews

Deep Blue Sea
Origanally I thought this was prabably going to be just another Jaws movie. But was I wrong this film Has the ability to scare you half to death at same time there are some great action scene's as well. The film ends in the most unexpected way. The sharks in this film are so good you think your actually there the plot twist and turns in ways that total take you by surprise I recommend this movie to any one who wants to watch a truely scarey Shark movie. Deep Blue Sea is a must have purchase because its heart pounding thriller of a movie. For me the exolosions in this movie are out of this world. The extra features for this film are interesting and and worth watching.

Don't try to actually understand this one, just enjoy it
About a half-hour into watching "Deep Blue Sea" I gave up on asking myself what the hell the people who made this movie were thinking. Then there is a scene where Russell Franklin (Samuel L. Jackson), who once survived an avalanche, gives an inspiration speech to everybody still alive at that point in the movie. His words are punctuated in such a way that I knew we were not in Kansas any more and decided not to question anything that happened in the rest of the film. This proved to be a wise decision because what director Renny Harlin has created here is not so much a movie as an amusement park ride.

The explanation for what Harlin was thinking is provided on the special features, where it becomes clear the director wanted to make a movie where he could use modern animatronics and computer generated effects to show graphic shark attacks. The idea was to play with bigger and better toys than Steven Spielberg had when he made "Jaws." Of course, doing so sacrifices the cinematic artistry of Spielberg's film, but that is fine because Harlin is not playing in that ballpark.

There is a plot to the film. Scientist Susan McAlester (Saffron Burrows) has come up with a way of using the brain tissue of sharks to concoct a way of fighting Alzheimer's disease. The research is underwritten by Franklin's corporation at a giant deep-sea research station, where we have a shark wrangler (Thomas Jane), a cook who is a self-styled preacher (LL Cool J), and an assortment of entree items in the form of Michael Rapaport, Stellan Skarsgard, Aida Turturro, and Jacqueline McKenzie.

But all that matters is that McAlester is playing Dr. Frankenstein and in making the brains of these sharks bigger, she has also made them smarter. Her motives for doing so are quickly forgotten because these super smart sharks want to kill every human being in the station and that is what this movie is about. I bet you can guess who is actually going to survive the slaughter, but that does not detract from the enjoyment of the film either because the fun with "Deep Blue Sea" is enjoying, if that would be the proper world, the way in which the sharks put the bite on the humans.

So, if you know going into this movie that it is about a bunch of super intelligent mako sharks eating a bunch of human beings, then you can dismiss all of the scientific explanations and exposition as just prologue. You do not have to understand it and you can probably get away with even paying attention to it, because once the shark attacks begin that is all that is going to matter with this film. This is not the thinking person's shark attack film.

Action, suspense & surprises with some great special effects
Deep Blue Sea has to be one of the best value DVD's on the market! I own the US version & its fintastic! The Uk version is almost identicle! There is a nice opening that sets the perfect atmosphere for the movie! Renny Harlin chose a great set of actors for the film & they blend in very well! Some people say Mr.Jackson acted poorly,wrong! everyone in the film played there parts brilliantly with LL Cool J adding some nice humourous touches! You must take Deep Blue Sea for what it is! An Action Thriller with great special effects! Theres also A few surprises as well! Because of all the action etc... I found that Deep Blue Sea is value for money because you can watch it again & again! its not a movie that you watch once & think "I cant sit through that again" Go & buy this movie now! its EXCELLENT!