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.

Astronaut: Sending Richard Dreyfuss Into Space

This private space entrepreneur and his contest to win a free trip into outer space is sort of like an interstellar Willie Wonka and his golden tickets. To enter, Angus Stewart must lie about his age, but not his idealism. However, he is still more of an engineer than a spaceman. Perhaps it is therefore fitting when his quest for the stars takes a Feynmanesque turn in Shelagh McLeod’s Astronaut, which opens today in New Jersey, following its North American premiere at the 2019 Fantasia International Film Festival.

“Angus,” as he insists he be called, even by his daughter Molly and grandson Barney, generally had a good life, but the last few years have been a little rocky. Now in his 70s, he has been forced to move in with Molly and her husband, due to the debt his late wife incurred when she purchased a donkey farm while in the throes of dementia. On the plus side, he can teach Barney about astronomy and try to pass along some of his passion for space exploration.

Unfortunately, for health and financial reasons, Angus’s son-in-law successfully forces him to move into an assisted living facility with especially annoying staff. Out of frustration with his new circumstances, Angus enters the lottery for a spot on the first private space tourism flight, offering by a transparently Musk-like entrepreneur. Obviously, he lies about his age and health.

Of course, he is chosen as one of the twelve space idol finalists, because that is the whole premise of the film. However, Angus will not stay in contention for long. Instead, most of his efforts will be spent raising questions about the mineral erosion potential going on beneath the super-long runway.

In a way, Astronaut represents a return to the galactic curiosity and optimism of Close Encounter, which made Richard Dreyfuss’s career, but this film cannot hold a candle to the quality and entertainment value of the Spielberg classic. Still, it offers plenty of warm fuzzies and a few nice PSA’s for greater investment in STEM education.

Dreyfuss really seems to enjoy playing Angus and the film definitely respects everything he represents. Still, the cranky codger with a heart of gold act gets more than a little cliched. Arguably, the best aspect of the character is his complicated but affectionate relationship with his son-in-law. Yet, perhaps the biggest surprise is Graham Greene’s risky but ultimately quite poignant performance as a stroke victim in the senior home. It is also fun to watch frequent big-screen villain Colm Feore play against type as the driven but decent space capitalist.

Astronaut is a nice little film that pushes a lot of nostalgia buttons for the time when our nation actually had a space program, but it is definitely small film that won’t take up too much space in anyone’s memory. Weirdly, it opens theatrically today, the week after the fiftieth anniversary of the Moon Landing, but maybe that was a strategic decision to avoid last week’s tanker hull’s worth of space programming. Recommended as a spot of chicken soup for the space nerd’s soul, Astronaut opens today (7/26) in NJ, at the AMC Jersey Gardens.

Daughter of the Wolf: Gina Carano Faces Wolves and Richard Dreyfuss

Wolves hunt in packs. MMA stars battle mano a mano or in cages, whereas cranky old people fight with everybody. All three will go at each other in David Hackl’s wilderness-revenge genre-outing, Daughter of the Wolf, which opens this Friday in Brooklyn.

Sometime back in the day, Clair Hamilton’s father did wrong by the psychotic backwoods clan patriarch known simply as “Father,” so his family of dubiously adopted rejects has kidnapped her boring pre-teen son Charlie, demanding her secret cash inheritance as ransom. Of course, Father has no intention of returning the surly boy. However, a Special Forces veteran like Hamilton will not be a pushover. With the reluctant help of one of Father’s “sons,” Hamilton will track the vengeful old codger and her son, while hungry, baying wolves circle both parties.

Admittedly, Hackl is no Caroll Ballard (and this film is no Never Cry Wolf), but Into the Grizzly Maze was a seriously entertaining B-movie, so it is rather disappointing Daughter does not have similar energy and attitude. Even with a credible action lead like Gina Carano, the film mostly plods along lifelessly. The tiresome semi-estranged mother-son relationship certainly does not help. There are also plenty of questionable motivations and decision-making that undermine audience’s willingness to suspend disbelief.

Carano has chops and decent screen presence, but Daughter is definitely a step backwards for her. As Father, Richard Dreyfuss (the Oscar-winning star of Goodbye Girl and Jaws) chews more scenery than Pac-Man, but the tone of his performance is more strident than entertaining. Beyond the two marquee antagonists, it is rather difficult to tell unshaven, greasy-haired thugs apart from each other.

Frankly, most viewers will root for the wolves. They are probably the most sympathetic characters. Hackl and the animal-wrangling team stage some reasonably impressive wolf-pack attacks, but that is about all the film has going for it.

Even though Carano is the lead and on-screen most of the time, Daughter makes poor use of her martial arts skills, which is really its biggest scene. As a result, it is far likelier to frustrate her fans, rather than satisfying them. Mostly disappointing, Daughter of the Wolf opens Friday (6/14) in Brooklyn, at the Kent Theatre.