Deep Water

Deep Water
Starring Aaron Eckhart, Molly Belle Wright, Angus Sampson, Ben Kingsley
Directed by Renny Harlin

I've never been a fan of flying, and it's been over twenty years since I've set foot on a plane, and I have no intentions to ever do so again. While everyone says it's the safest way of travel, I hate not being in control, and also not trusting a piece of metal between myself and 30,000 feet of air. This is why plane films often give me the willies because I can't help but imagine myself in that situation, so "Deep Water" was a film I was sure would give me those same feelings. The only feeling I had, however, was boredom - while this is a decent film to turn your mind off to, I simply couldn't do it, and somehow, someway, this movie not only managed to make air crashes boring, but shark attacks as well.

While on a flight from Los Angeles to Shanghai, a fire breaks out in the cargo hold which causes pilots Rich (Ben Kingsley) and Ben (Aaron Eckhart) to do a controlled crash in the middle of the ocean. The survivors gather together and await rescue, but soon find that the crash is just the beginning, as they're stalked by a shiver of sharks who see them as an all-you-can-eat buffet.

Renny Harlin is the most inconsistent director in recent memory. He's given us classics like "Cliffhanger," "Die Hard 2" and "Mindhunters" but also complete duds like the recent "Strangers" trilogy, "The Legend of Hercules," "Exorcist: The Beginning" and "The Covenant." It's fascinating that he can perform two ends of the coin in such a terrifically awful way, and "Deep Water" will join the list of some of his worst. While not excruciating to watch, it's still a formulaic, poorly performed, stereotypical, terrible effects-laden slog that feels twice as long than what it is.

The first half is an airline disaster movie where the plane catches fire and crashes, and while it's somewhat impressive to see the interior of the plane flipping like a coin over and over, the CGI of the plane outside takes away from the moment. Then the sharks come, which are almost as bad as the sharks in "Sharknado" in their effects, once again detaching you from any real fear or dread the movie tries to tell. It doesn't help that the backdrop looks like Harlin literally had a picture of a sun in the background and used it as a pull-down still that obviously shows this was filmed entirely on a sound stage. Maybe he was too busy driving the three last nails in "The Strangers" to have any money for effects, but it shows here.

The characters are your venerable who's who of disaster movies. The two pilots (played by Ben Kingsley and Aaron Eckhart, who both need better roles, and who both seemed to literally be asleep during the whole performance) are your stereotypical older gruff pilot and the younger pilot with a family at home. There's the nuclear family where the young daughter (played annoyingly by Molly Belle Wright) makes the most bone-headed decisions imaginable. The young athletes with a love story to tell. The caring yet vanilla stewardesses. The complete douchebag who inadvertently causes everything to happen but is so unlikable the audience just waits for him to get devoured (played by Angus Sampson, who does do a great job at making you hate him). These characters basically just serve to be somewhat-named characters (although I forgot most of their names) and maybe care whether they live or die? It fails on that end.

Despite offering a two-for-one when it comes to disaster movies, "Deep Water" is in deep trouble due to its razor-thin script, poor performances, poorer CGI and absolutely no urgency in its story.

The Score: C-