Deep Water - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Deep Water



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:




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Movie
Renny Harlin is a name that one associates with cheesy fun, but also abysmal failures at the same time. This is the man who gave us 80s and 90s hits like Cliffhanger, Deep Blue Sea, The Long Kiss Goodnight, Cutthroat Island (one of my favorite guilty pleasures), and Die Hard 2. But at the same time, this is the guy who gave us the horrific Skiptrace (one of the few Jackie Chan movies I’ll never watch again), The Legend of Hercules, and Graceland. Films that I’d personally like to scrub from my memory. So when I saw his name being plastered across every poster for Deep Water I was simultaneously excited, and nervous at the same time. Would we get another Deep Blue Sea? Or would we get another Skiptrace? But hey, the trailer looked fun, and I’ve been wishing Aaron Eckhart would get a second chance in Hollywood again, so why not?

The setup for the film is about as simple as they come. We’re privy to a group of people boarding a commercial air flight from LAX to Shanghai, China. On board are a group of diverse individuals going for diverse reasons, and of course our pilot Rich (Ben Kinsley) and first officer Ben (Aaron Eckhart). And while the trailer hints at Ben Kingsley being the hero against a school of sharks, he’s actually only in the film for the first 25 minutes, adding up to maybe 8 minutes run time total. The rest of the film is handed off to his first officer when the plane goes down in the middle of the ocean. Now, Ben and the rest of the survivors are stuck aboard fragments of the plane’s scattered corpse, stuck to bits of the coral reef. And don’t forget the sharks. There are dozens of man hungry sharks in the water who have nothing better to do than start munching on anyone dumb enough to dive in the water.

The film’s setup is simple, but its also pretty stinking absurd too. We have 30 different people all vying for power amidst the chaos, and hungry shark who want to just munch on human beings. Even though the great whites depicted in the film rarely hunt in packs, and aren’t as blood thirsty as films would have you believe. But who cares. This is Renny Harlin running amuck, and out of this world ludicrous nonsense is pretty much what his fan base expects. That being said, the shark kills are actually pretty fun, and Harlin does a good job balancing CGI with a ton of practical effects as well.

As for the humans? Who really cares about the humans in a killer shark movie? But to be fair, there are some fun performances. Aaron Eckhart is growling out of the side of his mouth like he’s Bruce Wayne in Nolan’s Batman films, to the point where I had to turn on subtitles a few times to hear what was going on. And frankly, he looks a lot less bored in the leading man’s role than he has with a lot of the DTV films Eckhard has been doing lately. And Angus Sampson does an absolutely AMAZING job at playing the heel of the film (and also the reason the plane goes down). His portrayal as Dan the douche bag is incredible insomuch as everyone who watches him on screen wishes for a shark to just eat him whole (spoiler, you’re gonna have fun with this bit). The rest of the cast does a solid job trying to put some heart and terror into the production, but at the end of the day this is a silly shark movie directed by the king of cheese. So don’t go in expecting a Shakespearean performance with Ben Kingsley doing a Captain Ahab against a giant shark.




Rating:

Rated R for violent content/bloody images and some language




Video:

Being that this wasn’t a major studio release I was wondering how good the image would be here, and luckily it’s on the good side of the fence. Taken from a digital shoot the Blu-ray looks quite nice, with strong hints of blue sepia for the shots inside the plane, but once we get out onto the open waters the image gets really clean and bright. Colors like the yellow life vests and the blue/green of the ocean really pop off the screen, and fine details are resplendent. Everything from Aaron Eckhart’s gritty stubble, to the blood and gore (which looks practical most of the time) really shines. As does the fine detailing on the plane itself. I did notice some weird digital noise swarms around the 53:15 mark (especially around faces), and some mild banding here and there, but overall this is a great looking image.







Audio:

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA lossless mix sounds good enough for everything, giving us a fairly front heavy dialog centric mix for the first 30 minutes of the film. But adds some oomph when the plane crashes. Bass gets heavy, the surrounds rumble and roar with the engine throbbing, but once again, when the plane finishes the crash things get back to a more quiet and dialog driven mix once more. The shark attacks bring the LFE and surrounds back with a vengeance, but still, this audio mix is a bit more docile than I was expecting for a killer shark movie. Dialog is crisp and cleanly replicated up front as expected, though I DID have to turn on the subs a few times thanks to Eckhart growling into the microphone a bit TOO MUCH.










Extras:

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Final Score: ​

Deep Water is not half bad. It’s a pulpy bit of action adventure that doesn’t try to take itself too seriously. And frankly, feels like it came from a decade previous to 2015 when films started veering away form this type of flick. It’s not a great film, but I had fun with it for what it is, and it just so happens to be one of the better shark flicks we’ve seen in a few years. The Blu-ray looks and sounds good, but there are literally ZERO extras on board. Leaving me with the weird position of not being sure whether to give this is a thumbs up or a thumbs down. Honestly, I’m going to just leave this as a neutral recommendation, as It’s not bad enough for me to give it a thumbs down, but not good enough to recommend. This is simply a middle of a lazy Sunday afternoon Matinee where you don’t feel too guilty for watching it, but is also fun enough that you can’t write it off as junk. A popcorn movie through and through.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Aaron Eckhart, Ben Kingsley, Angus Sampson, Lucy Barrett, Molly Belle Wright
Directed by: Renny Harlin
Written by: Pete Bridges, Shayne Armstrong, S.P. Krause
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH
Studio: Magenta Light Studios
Rated: R
Runtime: 106 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: July 14th, 2026

Recommendation: Fun Rental