Classic Movie Review: Deep Blue Sea (1999)

When you think of a classic shark movie, Jaws is the one that jumps to most people's minds. But in the late 90s along came this updated horror flick that took the idea of shark horror to a whole new level. It's one thing to have a 25-foot Great White terrorise some townspeople, but the threat of three genetically engineered supersharks getting out and terrorising the whole world is a lot more terrifying. And while these sharks may not benefit from the dodgy 90s CGI or budget Waterworld setting, they certainly didn't hurt the reputation of shark movies (no, that was something that Sharknado did expertly).

Set off the coast of California on the aquatic base Aquatica (clever), this horror movie follows a skeleton crew of scientists and others led by Dr. Susan McAlestar (Saffron Burrows) and Jim Whitlock (Stellan Skårsgard) who are experimenting with the brain tissue of sharks. They have genetically engineered three Mako sharks who have grown to massive size in an attempt to extract some of restorative brain tissue to help with human brain diseases such as Alzheimer's. But the company funding the experiment are skeptical and send along Russell Franklin (Samuel L. Jackson) to check on the science and safety of the experiments. But it suddenly goes horribly wrong when the sharks are discovered to have a high intelligence and fight back. Luckily shark wrangler Carter Blake (Thomas Jane) is more than capable of leading the crew to safety.

First and foremost, Deep Blue Sea is chock full of references to Jaws, but not in a jokey way. Rather it is extremely reverential to that movie and is almost admitted to never reach the heights of that film. This definitely takes the pressure off of it to try and achieve that greatness. Some of these references include a tiger shark that is identical to the one that is mistakenly caught at the beginning of Jaws and has the same licence plate caught in its mouth. Also the three sharks are killed in identical ways to the first three Jaws movies, but in reverse order (they didn't count Jaws: The Revenge because that would be just silly). These are incineration, electrocution and of course blowing up, which everyone should at least know.

Not pictured: you know, a shark

But it's not just sharks that get killed in creative ways. Admittedly there aren't too many variations for a shark to kill a person, but this movie endeavours at least to try. Stellan Skårsgard is the first to go and has it the roughest, first having his arm bitten off, then pulled under the water and then smashed against an underwater plate glass window. That's a bit of a lousy explanation, but here's him getting his arm bitten off (that comes with a huge NSFW warning). Others include Samuel L. Jackson getting cut off during his rousing survival speech and a fantastic moment of un-Hollywoodness when the female lead gets eviscerated. Okay perhaps I'm making this film out to be way more gory than it is. By today's standards it's incredibly tame, with plenty of that late 90s/early 2000's action that seems so satisfying. Like diving and sliding along hard surfaces. It's never made sense to me, but my god nearly every character does it in this movie.

Deep Blue Sea is an essential viewing for anyone really, just as much as Jaws is. It's a serious and well handled horror flick, that while it may not have aged as well as the aforementioned classic (it has plenty of laugh out loud moments), it's a huge step above whatever shark movies they're making today. After rewatching it, there is definitely room for an unrelated prequel about Sam Jackson's character and his survival of an avalanche.

Our Kind of Traitor

For a movie written by Hossein Amini (he also wrote everyone's favourite movie, Drive), based on a novel by spymaster John le Carré and with a cast of stars that should be impeccable, this thriller ends up being a laborious adventure in mediocrity. It probably has to do with the director Susanna White's first time attempt attempt at a thriller and the insanely distracting camera work.

Perry (Ewan McGregor) and his wife Gail (Naomie Harris) are having a holiday in Marrakech in order to reconnect after some specified bad blood between the two. One night, Perry meets Dima (Stellan Skårsgard), a Russian oligarch who soon reveals that he has previously worked for the Russian Mafia and has information he would like to exchange for he and his family's safety. Once back in London, Perry gets in contact with MI6 agent Hector (Damian Lewis), who deems the information Dima holds to be of value. However, he is unable to convince his superiors of the value and must embark on an unsanctioned mission with the help of Perry and Gail.

Despite being a relatively good story, there are a few points when the script gets sticky. Early on, there is a scene in which Dima meets with Hector for the first time and while it plays out like an amazing game of cat and mouse, it happens way too early in the story. This really affects some similar scenes that happen later on. The climax of the film also falls flat as well. It is something that you can see a mile away, but then when it happens, there's no real emotional response. I suppose one of the biggest distractions for me however, was Ewan McGregor's line readings. Whenever he said anything, it felt like he'd looked at the script for the first time and gone, "woah, I get to say that?"

But it's not as though the rest of the cast is this bad. Naomie Harris is a splendid performer and I really felt like she cared for the family they were trying to save. She didn't really have a chemistry with McGregor, but I'm guessing that's kind of the point. Stellan Skårsgard is always great at playing either the reserved quiet type or the over the top criminal. Here he straddles the middle ground quite nicely. It's good to see Damian Lewis returning to his natural accent because the American accent he does in the TV show Billions is quite grating. The only reason I bring that up is because this is how Susanna White must have got this job because she's a director on that show.

Finally, the camera work. I don't know where to begin. It's just so distracting. During the opening sequence, there was a highly stylised glittery thing going on that had me thinking, "Oh this is only for the intro, it'll settle down." But it didn't. The amount of reflective surfaces that they sparkled lights off was unbelievable. And then they decide to shoot it from some new and unusual angles. The result ended up being a disorienting mess. Some of the time, I didn't even know where we were supposed to be in the room.

The slowness of this movie made it nowhere near as enjoyable as it should have been. The story had all the intrigue that a spy movie should have, but it also just felt like a lighter version of 2014's A Most Wanted Man, also a le Carré adaptation. In fact the endings of both films are slightly similar, just this one feels a little more resolved. It just needed more excitement.

Hector and the Search for Happiness

You would expect that a feelgood film with a title such as Hector and the Search for Happiness would result in a clichéd and totally overdone mess of a story, but Peter Chelsom's film manages to pull it off, thanks by-and-large, to a vivacious performance from Simon Pegg.

Hector (Simon Pegg) is a psychologist, troubled by the fact that he is offering advice to his patients about how to live life, without having truly experienced it himself. After somewhat of a mental breakdown, Hector decides to go on a trip, exploring the world and researching what it means to be happy. He doesn't know where he's going, or when he'll return, yet he asks his long-term girlfriend Clara (Rosamund Pike), to wait for him.

Armed with a blank notebook from Clara, and all the equipment he could possibly need, Hector travels to a variety of places including China and Africa, encountering very different people, from mothers, to prostitutes, to monks, to criminals, and asks them about what they consider happiness to be, and what personally makes them happy.

Surprisingly, the clichés that you would normally expect from this sort of film weren't particularly present in Hector, though as he travels through Asia and Africa there are definitely some strong stereotypes being played upon. I also found some elements of the plot rather obscure in meaning at times, but overall, there's plenty of funny and enjoyable moments to keep you interested. These 'moments' are great on their own but unfortunately, they don't work cohesively in the overall narrative and rather rely on the typical ending montage to link them all together.

Simon Pegg brings plenty of spirit to the part of Hector, and was certainly charismatic enough to push the film beyond the capabilities of the script. Toni Collette and Christopher Plummer were both well cast, but underused - though Plummer's small role is possibly the most interesting part of the movie - and it was good to see Jean Reno as a total badass again. However, Rosamund Pike, fresh off the heels of her fantastic performance in Gone Girl didn't bring much to the screen for me, mainly thanks to the nagging nature of her inherently uninteresting character, though this certainly isn't the worst film that she's appeared in...*cough* Die Another Day *cough*.

After the dull, grey world of Hector as a psychologist moves aside for his world travel adventures, the screen opens up to a brightly coloured series of landscape shots that highlight the outlandish experiences of his trip. It's really quite a beautiful movie, bolstered by some great acting and enjoyable scenes, unfortunately though it does succumb to a few stereotypes, and lacks a bit of substance overall.

Robin Williams Tribute Month: Good Will Hunting (1998)

We couldn't do a Robin Williams month and not mention Good Will Hunting, the role which won him his only Academy Award (Best Supporting Actor). In addition to his role, the movie is pretty solid, with amazing direction from Gus Van Sant.

Will Hunting (Matt Damon) is a young mathematical genius with a photographic memory who works simply as a janitor at MIT. He mostly hangs out with his friends Chuckie (Ben Affleck) and Morgan (Casey Affleck) and they mostly spend time drinking and getting into fights. One day Will solves a difficult maths problem set by Professor Gerry Lambeau (Stellan Skarsgård). He eventually gets caught by Lambeau, who sees potential in Will.

But Will's troubled past gets in his way and one of his conditions of working with Lambeau is that he goes and sees a psychiatrist. After a slew of failed attempts, Lambeau contacts Sean Maguire (Williams), his old college roommate and asks him for help.

While this story of troubled kid tries to make something of himself is nothing new, Good Will Hunting is still a great movie. A lot of this comes down to the amazing performances and direction. Of course the setting of South Boston is also a rousing feature (our friend Mark Wahlberg tells of his passion for Southie here).

Van Sant has always been an amazing director and I always look forward to his movies. He has chosen a slightly overexposed look for this movie, but at the same time focuses on warmer colours for most of the scenes.

But I should really be talking about Williams performance. Although we don't get introduced to him until halfway through the film, Williams dominates every scene he is in from that point. Although he does have his funny moments, most of the time he is sombre and reflective. He is a great mentor to Will and really tries to open him up to realising that it's okay to be vulnerable at times.

Both Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are also great in the film (although they did write these roles for themselves). While they didn't win any awards for acting, they won Best Original Screenplay. Skarsgård is great as the gruff Gerry Lambeau and Minnie Driver adds some touching moments to this all-boy movie.

Verdict: This movie is a must-see if only for Williams award-winning performance.