Film Review: DEEP WATER (2026): An Old School Disaster Movie from Renny Harlin That Would Have Packed Them In 20 Years Ago
Deep Water Review
Deep Water (2026) Film Review, a movie directed by Renny Harlin, written by Pete Bridges, Shayne Armstrong and S.P. Krause and starring Aaron Eckhart, Ben Kingsley, Angus Sampson, Lucy Barrett, Molly Belle Wright, Kelly Gale, Priya Jain, Rosie Zhao, Richard Crouchley, Chrissy Jin, Mark Hadlow, Lakota Johnson, Madeleine West, Ryan Bown, Rarmian Newton and Michael Cardelle.
Dark Water is director Renny Harlin’s old school action picture that is a throwback to his old disaster movie days from the 1990’s when he made Die Hard 2 and Deep Blue Sea. Harlin book-ended the 1990’s with those two pictures releasing in 1990 and 1999, respectively. In-between those films, he made a masterpiece (The Long Kiss Goodnight) and a massive flop (Cutthroat Island). It’s no surprise that Harlin decided to try a tried-and-true formula for his new film, Dark Water. It almost works because the movie is immensely entertaining in spots despite the fact that it’s clearly not reinventing the wheel. However, the audience for this picture isn’t in actual existence the way it used to be back in Harlin’s heyday.
Aaron Eckhart and Ben Kingsley are the two big stars in Dark Water. This new film opens with Eckhart’s pilot character telling a little girl he’s not a Captain and the girl questions why he isn’t. There have been detours in his life, he says. Eckhart’s character has lived on the edge and is now paying the consequences as he is about to set out on an international flight with his wise superior (Kingsley). Eckhart and Kingsley have fun in these roles, adding some genuine humor to the mix with their upbeat characterizations.
Eventually, the plane takes off, but the story line doesn’t really kick in until about the 40-minute mark and there’s only about an hour and change left to the film after that set up is complete. As anyone who has seen the trailer for this film knows, the plane crashes into shark-infested waters and our surviving passengers must fight for their survival on rafts as they avoid being eaten up by the hungry underwater predators who seek them out for dinner.
Mark Hadlow plays Coach Jade who is a wrestling coach on board the plane. He apologizes when one of his team members acts inappropriately towards the beautiful, Lilly (an enjoyable Rosie Zhao). Then, there’s the little girl, Cora (Molly Belle Wright), who was flying with her brother and soon befriends Eckhart’s character. Everyone in this movie exists as shark bait, but there isn’t as much screen time devoted to the sharks as was promised in the film’s advertisements. There are too many disaster movie elements interwoven into the plot and way too many characters. This is the Airport film series from the 1970’s meets Jaws with more emphasis on the Airport-inspired sections of the film.
Kingsley makes a quicker exit from the proceedings than was expected, but Eckhart sticks around for quite a while – the whole movie, actually. There are some shark attack scenes that work better than others. One has a killer shark flying through the air as he snatches up his victim while another late scene has a shark eating an annoying character showcased in the picture. However, these are not scenes that rival the quality of the killer shark scenes from Jaws. Harlin’s Deep Blue Sea had a bigger budget and made better use of sharks than Deep Water does.
Most of the movie consists of the characters trying to stay alive on rafts as the plane that crashed sits in the water. There’s something to be said for the music which builds suspense and the old school feel of the movie that makes the picture feel like it’s a 1970’s disaster film. That is not an easy genre to duplicate these days, and Harlin does it remarkably well. This film is just what audiences wanted in the 1970’s, 1980’s and 1990’s. Today, though, this kind of movie feels a bit dated, however entertaining it may be.
Still. Deep Water has its strengths. Eckhart excels in his heroic role and the young girl played by Wright is likable enough. However, the picture gets bogged down in too much of the same. There are so many longshots of people trying to survive as sharks swim around them rather than actual gritty shark action. When Eckhart has to rescue a key character, there’s little suspense as the audience is smart enough to know Harlin most likely won’t kill off his leading man.
Deep Water is what it is, for better more than worse. It recreates the suspense that movies like Jaws built up so well. Today’s audiences aren’t likely to embrace a film like this that takes so long to get to the shark action. You could get away with making viewers wait in the original Jaws in the 1970’s to see the sharks, but these days, the audience could be bored as they don’t have the attention span that they once did. Although movies like 1993’s Jurassic Park made viewers wait for the dinosaurs, those franchise films delivered the monsters in large quantities when push came to shove. Deep Water skimps out on superlative shark action even as it reaches its final moments. We’re left with merely a few good shark attacks. Nothing over-the-top like The Meg movies, though.
Deep Water will find its audience when it comes to streaming. It’s the type of movie that one can do other things while watching and look up when a shark comes and attacks or chases a key character. This is, ultimately, Harlin’s return to form in a world that doesn’t embrace the director’s old form much anymore. Still, to see Harlin working again so soon after the box-office disappointment of the last two The Strangers films is inspiring.
Rating: 6.5/10
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