Dark Waters

This movie lacks so much of anything needed for a good movie. It lacks a good story, good writing, good special effects, and good acting. The last half hour of the movie has virtually every line ending in the word "NOW". It's just awful.

The gaps in the story are too big to even being to make any logical transition in the film. I can't say that the movie is worth much of your time at all.

There's no wonder that this movie was released straight to video. I was unfortunate enough to have it on a local cable channel. It's so bad that it's almost laughable. As a way to make it enjoyable (should you ever want to see it), rent it with other horrible movies and get a group of friends together and use the time to shout back at the screen.

"We go in on 3, ready... 3,2,1 Go!", is an example of the idiotic dialogue that plagues Dark Waters. Not to mention the scene where our heroes escape and go galavanting around the bridge of a sub on a top-secret mission and manage to convince the officers that they are on a tour. [note: this movie is not a comedy] Dark Waters insults the intelligence of the viewer. What do I know, maybe it IS possible to abandon ship at 5,400 feet. I score Dark Waters a 3, only because the action is plentiful and Simmone Mackinnon is HOT.

This is one of the worst movies I've seen in a while. I have to confess, I fast forwarded through most of it, because it was far too stupid and low-budget to waste any time on. A navy experiment with sharks has gone awry, and a group of ferocious sharks is now threatening to make the viewer nervous. However, these CGI sharks are so phony looking, along with the sets and other effects, that one will have to watch some other movie for thrills. So little production value was added to this flick that one actor, who is supposedly eaten by a shark in one scene, re-appears 10 minutes later with a mustache on his face as a different character. I'm writing this review to take my revenge on the producers of this film. It is not a "so-bad-it's-good" movie, it's too bad for human eyes to watch.

Sci-Fi Channel's "Original Pictures" arm is fast becoming the AIP-clone for the New Millennium, and it's movies just like this one that prove it. You only have to see the credit "Starring Lorenzo Lamas" to know exactly what you're in for. And no matter how low your expectations, I don't think the hardiest bad-movie fan is ready for this 'deep-star-sixed' turkey.

Lorenzo and made-for-gratuitous-breast-shots-hottie Simone MacKinnon play--what else?--a failed marine biologist/oceanographer and his cohort. Once legit scientists who actually ran a real exploratory institute, specializing in environmental studies and research, (yeah, right), they have become mere scam artists, bilking rich idiots out of tens of thousands of dollars for a new, non-existent "project": the discovery and eventual exploration of "ATLANTIS."

At the film's opening, stolen right from the script pages of another howler, DEEP BLUE SEA, (which was twice as bad, but also two times more entertaining than this), a private deep-core drilling station is trashed by a school of animated marauding sharks (yes, you DID read that correctly), who also make its inhabitants into fast fish food.

Cut to the aforementioned pseudo-soiree. LL and Simone have just finished fleecing a bevy of bountiful society boobies, but then the "hunters get captured by the game." Next thing they know, they find themselves waking from unconsciousness and headed for the dilapidated headquarters where the institute was founded by LL's late dad. There to greet them is the man who may have been responsible for Papa's demise, played with the usual workmanlike dependability by Canadian staple Bruce Gray, (and you already know how much you should trust characters played by Canadian actors with the first name "Bruce.") Bruce offers the sci-cons a sweetheart of a deal: investigate the shark attack on his drilling station, and he'll make all their legal and monetary problems disappear. (Haven't people learned about deals like this YET???)

I could bore you with the rest of the details, but why bother? You already know it by-the-numbers: super-brainy sharks, genetic experimentation gone awry, government/military conspiracy and cover-ups, lots of bullets flying, soldiers and scenery chewed, yadayadayada. Just keep in mind: the credits in this movie list both a director of visual effects AND a director of animation, so you know that the majority of the budget was spent on hair care products for the two "stars."

Which reminds me...that's about what this movie is worth. And that's because I happen to like Bruce Gray. The sharks are a bonus. Now if they only could've snacked on the screenwriters...

Sci-Fi pulse pounder. An oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico is attacked by bloodthirsty bio-engineered sharks and a team of underwater specialists are summoned to investigate and put a plan into action to combat the out of control beasts. Some pretty bad acting and less than special effects. Attempted humor is lame and the gunfire on board the submarine is unrealistic. Research on using sharks as weapons? What the hell...this IS science fiction after all. The cast includes: Lorenzo Lamas, Bruce Gray, Rodrigo Abed and the sassy knockout Simmone Mackinnon. Not a total waste of time, but close. Of course the Sci-Fi Network is proud of this one.