Deep Blue Sea

Newsweek David Ansen

Deep Blue Sea gives good rush -- earning its stripes as one terrific junk movie.

Dallas Observer Andy Klein

Not everything in the film happens according to the traditional, overly familiar blueprint.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

An example of how expert action filmmaking and up-to-the-minute visual effects can transcend a workmanlike script and bring excitement to conventional genre material.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

It proves capable of doing something that many more artistically ambitious films fail at: entertaining an audience for nearly two hours.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

One of the few big-fish horror films that still has the power to surprise.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

After slogging through the predictability of countless would-be action thrillers, I admired the sheer professionalism of this one, which doesn't transcend its genre, but at least honors it.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Imagine a cut-rate "Titanic" stripped of romance and historical resonance and fused with "Jaws," shorn of mythic symbolism and without complex characters, and you have the essence of this live-action horror comic.

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

At once self-conscious and generic, this smart monster movie about smart monsters -- supersharks cleverer than the scientist who created them -- repeatedly lulls you into thinking it's paint by numbers.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

This movie's entire raison d'etre (that's French for "shark meat") is to toy creatively with the "rules."

Film Threat Ron Wells

If distinctly uneven CGI, minimal originality and overly convenient plot devices turn you off, this may not be your film.

Entertainment Weekly Staff(Not credited)

How refreshing: a big-budget, F/X-happy action flick that actually appears to be intentionally stupid.

Variety Robert Koehler

Powered by exceptional displays of physical filmmaking, Deep Blue Sea is pulled back to shore by the usual suspects -- weak plotting and weaker dialogue.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

You have a movie in which sharks with triple-digit IQs hunt humans with double-digit IQs. It’s no contest.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Doug Saunders

One of those stupid movies that are good to relax with.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

The characters are two-dimensional and the story is intensely formulaic.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

A preposterously silly bit of work, chock-full-o' nuts and rife with the kind of plot holes you could drive a submersible ROV through.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

One of those hellishly predictable digital-monster gauntlets that makes you pity the actors.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

It's every bit as silly as it sounds, sillier really.

Chicago Tribune Barbara Shulgasser

Even overlooking the fundamental inanity of the movie, one is left to contend with some offensive racial stereotyping.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

So uninvolving as basic storytelling that it quickly becomes boring.

San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris

Unsalvageable B-movie junk.

The New Yorker David Denby

The disgraceful script is by Duncan Kennedy, Donna Powers, and Wayne Powers. Directed with occasional flashes of nasty wit by Renny Harlin.