Into the Deep

It's been a while since I've bothered to officially review anything on here, this, however, was a must !

I didn't expect anything groundbreaking or worthy of an Oscar. What I did expect, is better than this !

Holy cowabunga, is this what has become of Richard Dreyfuss ? After playing 'Hooper' in the legendary 'Jaws'......he then participated in this.......this.......this can only be classed as absolutely terrible ?!

Characters = no personality, you can't warm too or associate with any of them.

Dialogue = poor, at best.

Story = been done more than once.

Scenery = erm......not exactly great.

CGI = nothing more than abysmal.

I'm just going to leave it at that and hope there aren't too many others out there expecting better.

I'm disappointed in myself for thinking this could've at least been deemed 'acceptable'.

Of course I had not heard about this 2025 movie from director Christian Sesma prior to watching it. But I was immediately drawn in by the movie's cover, as I am a sucker for shark movies, despite the fact that the vast majority of shark movies are questionable affairs, let's just be honest about it. But I still opted to watch "Into the Deep", as it was a movie that I had never heard about.

The storyline in the movie was okay. I mean, it wasn't as if writers Chad Law and Josh Ridgway revolutionized the shark genre by any means. But the storyline was adequately entertaining for what it was, though it was somewhat generic. And in all honesty, don't we measure all shark movies up against the mother of all shark movies "Jaws" whether we want to or not?

Of the entire cast ensemble, I was only familiar with Richard Dreyfuss and Jon Seda. It was actually nice to see Richard Dreyfuss return to a shark-themed movie. The acting performances in the movie were good.

The effects in "Into the Deep" were good. At least director Christian Sesma didn't opt to use stock footage of sharks, which generally just dumbs down a movie unnecessarily so.

Watchable, for sure, if you enjoy shark movies, but hardly a noteworthy foray into the shark-infested depths. It is not a movie that particularly warrants more than just a single viewing either.

My rating of "Into the Deep" lands on a five out of ten stars.

I really wanted to like this movie. Director Christian Sesma has made a bit of a name for himself in low budget, indie, action and Scout Taylor-Compton has worked on a number of low budget, indie flicks. I like that commitment to the thinner edge of the film making wedge.

I wondered throughout the movie why Richard Dreyfus agreed to it. There's a lecture on shark conservation during the closing credits that answers that.

In the end though, it's just not very good. The dialogue is weak, the effects are poor and it offers nothing really to the pretty saturated genre of shark movies. Some friends get coerced into diving in shark infested waters by some modern pirates. The leader of which is so over-the-top I just couldn't invest. The main protagonist has a tragic backstory involving sharks and there are a number of flashback scenes where she remembers how she came to terms with the dangers of the ocean. This culminates in a literal face off with a shark that just might be the movie's highlight and low point at the same time.

I'm really trying hard to find something to like but I'm forcing it. It just isn't any good.

I usually enjoy cheesy/campy "thrillers" like this, but this one was tough to get through. It's pretty obvious that the director only had about 30 minutes of plot, so he filled in the rest of the movie with long, boring, meaningless and unnecessary flashbacks in order to stretch the movie and give Richard Dreyfuss something to do so they could slap his name on the poster in order to give the movie some legitimacy. I wasn't expecting high art, but I was hoping it would at least be entertaining. Bad dialogue, plot holes, cheap looking CGI, and hammy acting were expected (and delivered) but they could have at least added some semblance of a plot and anything to hold your attention. The flashbacks were so redundant and drawn out. Dreyfuss was just mailing this one in. He probably received a nice big check, shot all his scenes in a day or two, took a nice vacation, then hoped and prayed that this movie would never see the light of day. Out of respect for the legendary Richard Dreyfuss, please skip this movie and we can all just pretend that it never happened.

I normally would not have watched this, but the hubby wanted to, so there you go. It was not the worst movie I've ever seen, but it certainly wasn't the best. There was one particularly bad effect that almost had me laughing out loud, but I was pleasantly surprised that most of the movie was not completely unwatchable. In fact, at times it was rather entertaining, and there were a couple of pretty good performances.

Richard Dreyfus was, of course, excellent, but I confess it makes me sad when I see an Oscar winner playing a supporting role in a B movie. But, as they say, "That's show business."