‘Deep Water’ Review

During the 1990s, Renny Harlin wasn’t exactly lighting the world on fire, but he proved himself a competent director-for-hire for all your action movie needs. A couple of big names for the marquee, a solid budget, and a license to have fun left movies like Die Hard 2, Cliffhanger, The Long Kiss Goodnight, and Deep Blue Sea finding an audience that many of Harlin’s films after the ‘90s have failed to secure. With a B-movie sensibility and an eye for thrills over almost anything else, Harlin hasn’t let up since the ‘90s, but he’s hardly found the same success. This leaves fairly low expectations for anything he releases at this point. Over two decades of 19 middling to below-average films, there are some bright spots within his post-2000s filmography, but they are few and far between.

Harlin’s latest film is not one of those bright spots. A disaster movie that hews closely to the genre's tropes, Deep Water promises something silly and possibly even thrilling in its first act, raising those minimal expectations just enough to be encouraging. First officer Ben (Aaron Eckhart) co-pilots a commercial airliner with the nearly-retired Captain Rich (Ben Kingsley), who is so checked out already that he’s willing to skip safety checks. A child scared of flying, teammates of an eSports team that harbour secret feelings for one another, a rich asshole (played by Mad Max: Fury Road’s Organic Mechanic, Angus Sampson), and other guests falling into familiar archetypes all litter the airport and the airplane, revealing a cast hopelessly bound for tragedy. If it wasn’t obvious enough, that rich guy who is insistent on smoking anywhere he can’t, also checked a lithium powerbank in his luggage that seems to be sparking every now and then, which Harlin cuts to so frequently that it would actually be funnier if nothing came of it. Of course, that’s not the surprise that the movie is holding close to its chest.

Deep Water begins with a plane crash that is surprisingly visceral as loose objects suddenly impale and eviscerate the passengers who aren’t already unceremoniously ripped from the plane’s gaping hole that seems likely to kill everyone before they even land. Thankfully, Ben and Rich are excellent pilots, even if their demeanour suggests they would both rather die than live another day. It’s a surprisingly gripping sequence that neatly puts all the pieces into place for a survival thriller while also getting the adrenaline going for what will hopefully be an intoxicating slow-motion implosion of clashing egos and desperation. The tone is even channelling a bleakness in its melodramatic bits, reminiscent of the ‘90s B-movies that Harlin has continued to champion. There’s a promise of something potentially satisfying working its way to the surface.

Unfortunately, Deep Water’s big reveal—which is a key part of its marketing—is that they’ve crashed into open waters far from any chance of help and surrounded by sharks who smell blood in the water. Those hoping that Harlin might be revisiting his past work in Deep Blue Sea will be disappointed. No, this is a resurrected Bait 3D sequel produced by Gene Simmons’ newest production company and is paraded around like just that—a corpse that some rich guy is still trying to siphon life from. The shark CG is just silly-looking enough that once they start tearing into survivors, it’s almost comical to witness. And surprisingly, the film really lets them get the spotlight and doesn’t pull many tricks to obscure their appearance. To come out of a harrowing plane crash and immediately start uncontrollably laughing at the film’s main conceit is not a good sign. It gets worse from there.

Disaster films always feature a few unlikable characters who you can’t wait to watch die horrible deaths. It’s the sick appeal of them in some respects, but it also usually emphasizes how virtuous the other characters are in contrast. No one is particularly likable in Deep Water, except a couple of kids that you can’t help but feel sorry for because their irresponsible parents decided to join the Mile-High Club on the flight and tragically met their end soon after. The most charismatic performance is Sampson’s as the rich idiot who caused all of this, which says a lot about how wooden Eckhart’s performance is and the quality of his character’s arc. Nothing makes any of these characters redeemable, so why not let the sharks eat them all? Deep Water is just bleak enough that it feels like it could go that way if it wasn’t weighed down by expectations. There is nothing surprising in Deep Water except that it tries to humanize everyone and somehow fails even there.

No one is going into the latest shark movie and expecting something impressive anymore. When they work, it’s always a surprise, whether it’s the dependable Jaume-Collet Serra’s The Shallows or last year’s deliciously evil Dangerous Animals from Sean Byrne. Harlin has proven he can make a great shark movie, but it’s always going to be dependent on the screenplay, and this one is particularly rough—possibly because it’s an old screenplay reworked, or because there are four writers involved in the final product. Deep Blue Sea is memorable for being campy, bloody, and surprising. Deep Water has the blood (though frequently CG) and is occasionally silly, but it still plays it so safe after sharks are introduced that it might as well not even be a shark movie. Which is damning for a film that thinks having sharks is enough to be satisfying.