Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Shark Week Day 3: Nothing says quality like Lorenzo Lamas

Years ago, prior to it's US remake, I'd heard about a Japanese horror movie called Dark Water. I looked everywhere I could for a copy of it. Eventually, I asked a relative to try to find it for a Christmas gift. And, in the ultimate case of 'close but not close at all', I received a copy of the Lorenzo Lamas shark-fest Dark Waters. There are some subtle differences between the two.

For example, Dark Waters is about genetic engineering and better living (and by living I mean warfare) through science. A boy's search for his father. And a rag tag couple of con artists searching for Atlantis.

On the other hand, Dark Water is about...i don't remember. A haunted apartment with a leaky roof or something. It's been a while since I watched it.

We aren't here to talk about that, though. No. We're here because I actually watched Dark Waters so many years after receiving it as a thoughtful gift. And you know what? It was a fairly enjoyable flick.

Sure, on it's surface, genetic research, long lost relatives, con artists, sharks and Lorenzo Lamas seems to be a lot to take in. How could the director possibly pull off such a tour de force? Poorly it turns out. The movie borders somewhere between Completely Unbelievable Land and the Predictabilityville.

Somehow though, in the end, it's still kind of enjoyable in a 'hey this isn't nearly as bad as you'd think' kind of way. It's no Raging Sharks (which I apparently like a lot more now than I did then. I guess that's what repeat viewing does for a person) or Raptor Island, sure. Really though, how could anything else reach for those kind of heights?