John Chard

Stylish but sadly lacking any substance. No doubting that The Deep was a film hoping to cash in on the monster success of Jaws two summers previously. Written by Jaws author Peter Benchley, The Deep on the page is never fully realised here on the screen, and sadly the film never lifts itself out of standard adventure territory. From the onset it looked to be heading in the right direction, a great first hour of genuine intrigue and tension keeps the viewer interested, where we have ship wrecks, treasure, voodoo, a gorgeous locale, a gruff Robert Shaw and Jacqueline Bisset's wet t-shirt! but the film drifts onto formulaic sand and peters out like a damp squib (or should that be squid?). Lovely to look at (the underwater sequences are gorgeous), and the acting is fine enough from all of the leads, yet a meandering drug plot only has one wishing that a big shark would come and swallow the whole bloody picture and regurgitate it with a bit more oomph and passion. 5/10