Reviews

Many film plots suffer to a greater or lesser degree from holes. "Deep Blue Sea" suffers from so many holes that is practically without substance to define them. It should be viewed as a science comedy from the "Man With Two Brains" or "Lake Placid" genre rather than an action thriller. While it is packed with action, most of the potential thrills are telegraphed thus divesting them of any surprise, with the notable exception of whom makes it to the second reel.

Some of the larger holes are worth noting. A team at a research lab located far out in the Pacific off southern California or Baja California develop large, intelligent Makos for use in Alzheimer's research. Not only are the makos more like white pointers than makos, but with their increased intelligence comes incredible information. The makos understand metallurgy and can differentiate between different kinds of steel. They can understand the function and purpose of cameras. They know the internal layout of the facility. On the other end of the intelligence spectrum the humans seem to have lost some of theirs. Dr. Susan McAlester, leader of the research team, prepares to electrocute a shark by standing on her wet suit. Well and good, but she is leaning against a wet wall. The same Dr McAlester extracts a tissue sample from the brain of a shark and applies it directly to a tissue sample from the brain of a human affected by Alzheimer's disease. In just six and a half seconds the human brain synapses begin to fire again. Truly amazing, since the sample was highly unlikely to have displayed any functions as a sample.

The sharks also seem to have developed the capacity to alter size at will. They are huge in their containment pen, but are able to swim down narrow corridors.

The film is funnier than it is intended to be. It is leaves you cheering for the sharks.

There a many ways to make a dreadful film and Secret of the Sahara has found the secret to most of them. It is a badly plotted costume drama set in a strange Sahara populated by scores of magnificent horses, but only six camels; two very strange snakes - a fanged anaconda and a Southwest US sidewinder; a range of two dimensional characters played in some cases by talented actors; and a falcon in an oasis. Worst of all is the disjointed script. The characters do not so much interact as careen off each other. Characters disappear without further reference, characters ride off into the desert at exactly the point where they should have stayed at the oasis, and it is never clear what Jordan (Michael York) did learn. Every time a plot line establishes itself, a hole develops in it or the audience is left to wonder where it went. A great deal of talent (Kingsley, York, and McDowell) and a great deal of money is wasted in making this film. This is a film that leaves you singing the praises of the dolly grip.

A delightful light comedy in the "Why am I the only seeing these ghosts" genre. James Spader plays a publisher only remotely in contact with this life, until he moves into the house of two Broadway ghosts (Smith and Caine). With the dubious help of this quarrelsome couple who carried their stage personae into their private lives and then into their deaths, Spader works out not only his own problems, but those of the ghosts as well.