Into the Deep: Richard Dreyfuss and Sharks, Together Again

Jaws 2 gets a bad rap. People unfairly lump it together with the next two truly dreadful sequels. Of course, for many, it was doomed from the start when Richard Dreyfuss refused to reprise his original role. Now, forty-five years later, Dreyfuss finally appears in another shark movie (Piranha 3D and documentary narration don’t count). Technically, he never leaves shore, but he still has some of the best moments in Christian Sesma’s Into the Deep, which releases today in theaters and on VOD.

Years ago, Cassidy Branham’s parents moored their boat at a spot where sharks had never been reported, but a great white ate her father right in front of her anyway. She has had a love-hate with the ocean ever since, largely because Seamus, her marine biologist grandfather, keeps pushing her to face her fears. That is why she agrees to join her archeologist husband Gregg and his scruffy skipper pal Daemon Benz on a treasure dive.

Tragically, both sharks and pirates crash their party. First sharks chow down on one of their companions. Then they hail the nearest boat for help, but the bandits aboard are decidedly not good Samaritans. Led by disgraced Navy SEAL Jordan Devane, they are tracking the signal of a large submerged shipment of drugs that they intend to hijack/salvage. However, they need a better, lighter diver to ferry the drugs back up in the shark cage.

Mixing sharks with pirates gives Into the Deep a slightly different angle than other sharksploitation movies. It also has a decent cast, especially Dreyfuss, whose appearance is quite a coup for a movie of this stature. Essentially, crusty Seamus, who constantly warns his students to fear nature’s wrath, is a combination of his original oceanographer character, Matt Hooper, and Robert Shaw’s salty sea dog, Quint. He never gets within earshot of a shark, but delivers several colorful monologues and makes an extended pitch for shark conservation during the closing credits.

Horror movie regular Scout Taylor-Compton is a more than credible sharksploitation “final girl,” handling both Branham’s lingering trauma and aquatic scenes better than a film like this deserves. As the villainous Devane, Jon Seda snarls and chews the scenery with suitable flair, but his veteran status is a tiresome cliché and arguably an insult to those who served. Frustratingly, cult action star Ron Smoorenberg is grossly under-utilized as Devane’s henchman Chucky. Sesma never capitalizes on his martial arts chops and hardly even gives him any face-time, which is just a waste.

Into the Deep is reasonably competent, but aside from some of Dreyfuss’s scenes, it is not particularly memorable. Still, the cast boosts its watchability. Okay as a time-waster, Into the Deep opens today (1/24) in LA at the Glendale Laemmle.