Dark Waters (2003)

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

A lot of shark films have come a long way, in "Dark Waters" I liked it very much. Lorenzo Lamas know for his role in "Renegade" and "Falcon Crest" puts on quite a show as a suave marine biologist, who unmasks the secret of a bio-weapon plan gone wrong. Lorenzo plays Dane Quatrell who father was "killed" in his youth and later finds out he is alive after all those years. "Dark Waters" does have some humor to it. The schemes he and his crew pull to bilk the buyers to help the institute which indeed backfires when the "victims" turn the tables on Dane and his crew. It was funny when the tape the sub crew find wasn't surveillance. And the one other thing I liked is when the Seargent Milkos(Jeffrey Gorman) was knocked out and bleeding Dane tells Robin(Simmone MacKinnon) to remove her top. That was some sex appeal watching her in her black bra. At least no one else got any ideas afterwards. And getting rid of those super-sharks looked great. When those rogue Marines got chomped, their names won't be mention in a memorial. I've enjoyed this movie very much. The plot was good, and the rest is for you to see for yourself. Rating 3 out of 5 stars.

With the advent of straight to video movies, a whole new genre of 'B' movie seems to be appearing. This is one of them. It can't seem to make up it's mind if it wants to be a horror movie, or a sci-fi movie or an action flick. In all honesty, it fails on all levels for ALL of them. Lorenzo delivers as good a performance as can be, considering the script. He counterpart is fun to look at, but she's only tolerable if you turn the sound down on your TV. The graphics leave a great deal to be desired, especially in a day and age where really, really good graphics are available at a reasonable price from a variety of start up animation companies. The sharks are reminiscent of "Anaconda" (the first one). Remember how bad the snakes were? The sharks are worse. Really. Unless you're desperate, I'd pass on this one. It has it's moments, but for the most part, it's an incredibly uncomfortable experience.

I find it difficult to write a review on such an uninspired, unoriginal, unmotivated film. Neither sci-fi, action, horror, comedy, nor anything in between for that fact, it runs through the direct-to-video paces as comfortably as it needs to in order to still be watchable without ever being any good.Lorenzo Llamas is an oceanic researcher hard up for some funding. Together with his assistant they seduce money out of socialites at (and after) fund raisers. One night the two are drugged and taken to the estate of a man whom might have a job for them. They are to escort him to an underwater researcher station to find out why communications have been lost. Things take a turn for the dangerous when they are set upon by a school of intelligent great white sharks.The script is bored with plot holes like swiss-cheese. Not to mention script irregularities. Nothing ever seems to flow logically and every event seems to happen at random without regard for plot evolution.That should be expected from a DtV flick, but the genre hopping comes strait out of left field. It starts out a horror film, becomes a sci-fi, shifts to action, takes a turn for the comedic, goes back to horror, then kind of tosses them all in together for the conclusion. More than once I asked "what kind of movie are they trying to make?"All is not terrible though, thus the average rating. For one the sets and FX are well above par for a low budget cheese fest like this and the actors (while never given a single intelligent thing to do) are lively and energetic; it seems like they at least had fun making the movie.One could do much better than this, and one could do much worse; it really isn't for anybody as it fails to either excite or irritate.5/10

Dark Waters: One of a large number of cheapo Sci-Fi action films. Most usually related to creatures from the deep. Dark Waters is essentially a low budget equivalent to Deep Blue Sea. Starring in this is DTV maestro Sir Lorenzo of the Lamas's. Lorenzo is a legend it has to be said. From a promising earlier career including the hit TV show Falcon Crest he has through the years become a reliable action man for hire, known more for his perfectly conditioned hair than for the fact he's in excellent physical shape and is a black belt. The thing with Lorenzo is, that there are always signs he's not too bad an actor, as far as these movies go. He did after all get a Golden Globe nomination over 20 years ago. The thing is without any inspiration from the material he can seem bored and lacking in charisma. Here though Lorenzo seems more in his element compared to some of his other recent cheapies. Dark Waters has a kind of enjoyable B-movie feel to it. The movie is an effects movie, there is a lot of CGI and considering it's from the bargain basement of CGI effects they aren't to bad. Nowadays you can get fair CGI for very little money thanks to the development in the technologies. This film is obviously shot on ultra low budget but there are enough quickly constructed sets and acceptable CGI shots to give some sense of scale. Of course the movie has it's fair share of dud computer shots.In Dark Waters Lorenzo plays a marine biologist whose recklessness through the years has caused his research lab to have been shut down and causing severe problems in his pursuit of Atlantis. Now he and his equally morally oblique lady friend, played by Simmone Mackinnnon are fraudsters who try and extort money from wealthy people in order to fund their expeditions. Lorenzo seems at home playing a sleazy gigolo it has to be said and the role is given plenty of humour. Lorenzo and Simmone have a good chemistry and seem to be having fun with it.Overall this film is reasonably enjoyable and director Phillip Roth is a specialist in doing ambitious effects laden projects for minimal money, for example APEX and the fairly enjoyable Velocity Trap. He certainly has gained an understanding of using effects and is competent in the action scenes. This is, despite it's ludicrous premise and swift and harmless watch. **