In the quiet waters of the Mississippi, body parts are being discovered. No one knows what is behind it all, until a huge man eating bull shark turns up. This bull shark is different, as it can breath in fresh water, making a deadly encounter between anyone who comes before it. John Sanders must now try and reach the surface, with his ex-wife and whilst being held hostage.
Review
I admit my first thought was 'shark movie' and it wasn't followed by much jumping for joy, as a child of the seventies and seeing some of Jaws mania, I wasn't convinced there was anything new to offer with sharks on film. Second confession, unfortunately that wasn't me rushing to buy this title when it first came out, in fact I actually waited at least until the second day of release (more due to work but I thought it was a point that needed to be made!).
However when I did watch this I didn't find myself at all distracted by the fact this was a shark movie, quite the opposite, and I actually think the shark stole the movie - it was more convincing than some of the actors. Obviously i wouldn't be webmaster of this site if I didn't make the note that I was not including Jaimz in that above statement. He had a decent role in this, and I enjoyed seeing him work with Coolio, some really fun moments and acting the bad guy never seems difficult for him. I didn't feel they really explained the bad guys motives in this though, being as fair as possible the whole situation that led to the bad guys 'becoming' the bad guys was due to some old guy getting his knickers in a twist because he had a bit of paper saying he had the rights to dig for oil.
Point one - he obviously had the rights cos he also had a fricking big diggy thing for digging for oil, point two - the bad guys had metal detectors, how the hell were they a threat to this guys rights? Ok, I know they tried to explain it by saying they shouldn't have been in the water full stop, but I thought they were just poking around, it wasn't like they were setting up a rival rig across the bay, in my opinion just for his pettiness the guy deserved to get shot.
The shark, as mentioned above, was actually really well done and I remember reading at the time that it was pretty convincing to act with as well, but my main problem with this was being distracted by Lou Diamond Philips, I guess I was never a fan in the first place but I couldn't quite get used to him in the lead as action/hero guy, it just didn't seem to work. It's funny really, the two elements I thought I'd struggle with in this movie, the shark and Coolio turned out to be the pleasant surprises, I thought Coolio was great and as already mentioned I enjoyed the double act he had with Jaimz, they really should have pushed that a bit more.
The ending was a little rushed, and wasn't the biggest shocker ever, maybe a bit explosive and the shark kinda became a secondary character, to the point I question if it was ever actually a shark movie in the traditional sense at all, so this film is certainly worth watching if you ever get a chance.