DEEP WATER Review: Turns Out You Can Step into the Same Shark-Infested River Twice

There are two kinds of Renny Harlin’s films.

We’ve been subjected to the more unfortunate kind throughout The Strangers trilogy over the last two years: the one that somehow propels its authors to take themselves overly seriously, generally making the experience painful for everyone involved.

With Deep Water, Harlin is back to the other kind: a festive extravaganza that knows perfectly well what it has to offer and works hard to deliver on that promise.

Like many of Harlin’s best works in the past (Die Hard 2, Cliffhanger, The Long Kiss Goodnight, and so forth.), Deep Water largely relies on the charisma of its leading actor. This time around, it’s Aaron Eckhart, basically reprising his role in Sully, in this old-fashioned, pleasantly earnest-in-its-schlockiness reimagining of how the Miracle on the Hudson could go if it happened in the middle of the ocean, full of some extraordinarily bloodthirsty CGI sharks. The details of how and why aren’t important here: a plane going from LA to Shanghai crashes in the middle of the Pacific, leaving only a small group of survivors to fend off unwanted attention from a bunch of mako sharks stealthily sneaking around.

None of the characters here possesses actual character (nor is it required of them): each has merely a trait or two, just enough for us to still feel bad when some of them tragically expire on screen. Eckhart plays Ben, whose whole thing is that he is a long-time first officer, saddled with an ongoing family drama off-screen, who is now forced into a leadership role for the first time.

The captain of an esports team, Sam (Li Wenhan), is too much of a stickler to the rules to confess his feelings for his teammate, Lilly (Zhao Simei), even though she clearly reciprocates them. Young Cora (Molly Belle Wright, the star of Omaha, also currently available in the theaters) is resentful of her father’s new marriage. Screenwriter Matt (Richard Crouchley) makes eyes at one of the flight attendants (Rose Zhao), but is informed by a sharp-tongued older lady sitting next to him (Kate Fitzpatrick) that she is way out of his league.

And then, there is, of course, the Craig Toomy of the bunch: an obligatory asshole played with gusto by Angus Sampson, a walking ad, simultaneously warning about the dangers of smoking and advocating for the use of contraception. The comparison to The Langoliers actually goes beyond the character, though.

Despite one of Renny Harlin’s greatest hits, Deep Blue Sea, being right there in all of its sharksploitation glory, Deep Water doesn’t fully try to recreate this particular magic (with the exception of just a few scenes). Instead, the authors go for a strong feel of the disaster stories of the 70s and 80s, all those tales of people teaming up and rising to the occasion in the face of some extreme circumstances.

There is nothing even remotely innovative or surprising in Deep Water, and for once, that is actually a good thing. Harlin’s movie isn’t meant to astonish anyone; it’s here to kick us in the feels with all that it’s got. And it doesn’t much matter which feels it manages to reach really: Deep Water can effectively elicit laughs, squeamishness, and even some genuine sniff action.

What it achieves best of all, though, is providing a sort of old-fashioned comfort of being able to rely on familiar basics: the sharks will be hungry, the heroes will hero, and, to sort of quote the heroine of another great adventure classic, all nasty little fellows will get their comeuppance.

The film is now playing, only in movie theaters, via Magenta Light Studios. Visit the official site for locations and showtimes.