This isn’t how you celebrate Jaws’ 50 anniversary.
2025 marks the 50th anniversary of Steven Spielberg’s shark classic “Jaws.” The new shark thriller “Into the Deep,” which I’m sure will do better online than in a small theater, also features Richard Dreyfus as another marine biologist, but this one must train his granddaughter to overcome the gruesome death of her father, who was eaten by a shark. He trains her to face her fears, even if it means going back to the place where it all started. And the whole end credits feature the actor breaking character to inform people about shark extinction-how they’re hunted for shark fin soup and how they’re very important to their and our ecosystems.
Maybe that’s what the movie should have been, instead of this stupid, predictable, lazy, and routine shark thriller, which I’m pretty sure wants to be in the B-movie tradition with bad CGI effects and laughable dialogue.
The girl who lost her father is Cassidy (Scout Taylor-Compton), who goes on a trip in Thailand with her husband Gregg (Callum McGowan) to go diving for treasure to bring to the National Museum in London. They’re joined by their guide (Stuart Townsend), his two friends (Maverick Kang, Jr. and Lorena Sarria), and his assistant Kai (Mek Manbut), and when one of them is attacked by a shark, they seek help from nearby boat. That boat, however, is a pirate boat, and the leader (Jon Seda) covets from drugs from the bottom of the ocean, and orders Cassidy in the shark cage to retrieve them.
The shark purses the girl, who survives in the cage, but only three of the four bags gets taken up as a result, and so she persuades the villain to let her pay him back with the treasure they came across.
Of course more people, including the henchmen, are going to get eaten by the sharks, and I’m surprised that the drugs didn’t supercharge or poison them. The villain is so greedy that he has to depicted as a blind idiot, who can’t prioritize. I mean how can he? And yes, I did mean to use the words “laughable dialogue,” because occasionally, we get the good guys saying “FU” to the villain, and many other corny words.
When we’re under water, the sunken ship looks riveting, especially with the green water surrounding it. But the sharks are not. And neither are much of the humans. In fact, the only time when Dreyfuss is believable is the end credit speech I’ve mentioned. But these days, he’s a lot more believable at his appearances at “Jaws” screenings. And I know because I’ve been there, and I toyed with him with the question: “What About Bob?.” But my reaction towards “Into the Deep” has nothing to do with that anti-semitic comment he made at another special screening. It has to do with the movie’s ambiance, which definitely smells like low tide.
I think the speech about shark conservation is what the movie should have explored on, instead of this formulaic and exhausting plot. And there have been documentaries focusing on that subject. For now, I’m not seeing any cult movie status here.
In Select Theaters and Streaming on VOD This Friday