The Most Famous Non-Jaws Shark Movie Is Now Streaming Free (But Is it Still as Bad as People Say?)

There’s no dispute that Jaws is the seminal shark movie. Steven Spielberg’s summer blockbuster swam into theaters in 1975 and kickstarted an entire subgenre of shark-centric horror that is still thriving today. Many films have attempted to sink their teeth into Jaws’ success in the decades since, but few have managed to reach the same fame as a 1999 shark film that just hit a new streaming home.

Director Renny Harlin’s wild sci-fi horror movie Deep Blue Sea started streaming on Tubi on November 1st. Initially dismissed by critics and audiences over a cheesy tone, clichéd script, and illogical plot, the movie is set in an isolated underwater research facility, where a group of scientists searching for a cure to Alzheimer’s disease suddenly find themselves fighting for their lives against a trio of intelligent and genetically engineered mako sharks. It holds a 60% critic score and 40% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Deep Blue Sea Is Better Than You Remember

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Deep Blue Sea is far from the cinematic masterpiece that Jaws is, and it isn’t likely to go down as one of the top shark movies of all time, but it doesn’t deserve the bad rep that’s haunted it all of these years. When you get down to the nitty-gritty of it, Deep Blue Sea is simply a dumb but entertaining monster movie that is filled with memorable scenes and over-the-top moments and is really a well-crafted film.

Deep Blue Sea is a film whose primary goal is to entertain, and to that degree, it succeeds exceptionally well. The film’s premise of scientists playing God with nature and creating sharks with human-level intelligence and an agenda to trap and hunt the scientists results in an intense and suspenseful narrative that incorporates the perfect amount of absurd humor. There’s also no shortage of intense action and memorable scenes, from numerous unforgettable scenes with LL Cool J’s character Preacher, including him riding a shark and that oven scene, to the helicopter scene, flooding corridors, and more. All of this is brought to life with a mix of practical effects and CGI, some of which still holds up today.

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Deep Blue Sea delivers just as many jump scares as it does laughs, making it the perfect balance of an edge-of-your-seat thriller and laugh-out-loud film and a fun, cheese-filled monster movie that still holds up today. Although the movie only holds a rotten 40% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, it has thankfully grown a much-deserved cult following over the years and even spawned two entertaining sequels.

What’s New on Tubi?

Deep Blue Sea started streaming on Tubi on November 1st as the free streaming service welcomed in a list of new arrivals. Now also streaming on Tubi are films like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Godfather, No Country for Old Men, Face/Off, and Titanic.

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