When I rented this movie, I assumed it was going to be just another Jaws ripoff. Boy was I wrong. If fact, it was fascinating, multilayered epic in the spirit of Braveheart or even Schindler's List. By that, of course, I mean it was a lame Deep Blue Sea ripoff.
The movie opens, as all such movies seem to, with a guy getting eaten by a shark. For some reason, there is no blood. Don't worry. just imagine it's there. But foul play is afoot. You see, the guy was pushed into the water by two burly bad guys. Right before that happened, he sent an email to a friend of his. That friend was none other than Casper Van Dien.
You may remember Casper Van Dien from such classics as Starship Troopers and Wil Wheaton's Python. To his credit, he also had a small role in Sleepy Hollow.
Anywho, the email Casper gets from his bloodless dead buddy was corrupted or incomplete or unable to download for some other reason, like he was using Win98. Rather than trying to send a response, he hops a jet to Africa (it doesn't matter where in Africa) to visit his devoured friend. He goes to the little town where his friend lived and meets Ernie Hudson (Sergeant Albrecht from The Crow). Ernie is the town's rich guy who everyone owes money to. (Or to whom everyone owes money, if you're a stickler for good grammar) Things are rough there because all the sharks have eaten all the fish, and their entire economy is based on fishing. So, Rich Ernie has had to forclose on pretty much everyone's mortgages. Nobody suspects a thing. Casper visits the sea lab and finds out about his friend's death. Pity. He also hooks up with his friend's sister, but they never get naked together, even though the film's rated R. Figure that one out. Like most people (assuming most people flew to Africa rather than respond to emails) Casper and Corinne (the girl) suspect foul play because he was wearing his nice watch instead of his diving watch. Casper routinely rescues people from vicious sharks, and they eventually stumble upon why the sharks are there. Turns out the guy at the sea lab (whose role is considerably larger than I let on) has been using these sharks to cure cancer. And it works, except that every patient he's tried the cure on has died, but let's not let such petty things get in the way of progress.
Well someone doesn't like that they know all this, so they get kidnapped and dumped into shark-infested waters. Luckily for them, they left a full scuba tank right where there earlier in the film for no good reason. Now, if you know anything about sharks, you must know that all sharks are scared to death of people with oxygen tanks. Otherwise the sharks would have eaten Casper and the girl. Instead, with the help of the scuba tank, they get to shore and make it back to town to call the police. Turns out the police are the two guys who tried to kill them (and the friend). Casper and the girl bolt and get to the sea lab (2025) where Casper copies all the data about the cancer research onto a CDR (this takes all of 30 seconds). Then the entire cast shows up. In classic Bond style, Rish Ernie explains everything before actually killing Casper. Turns out he was just using the sea lab to get the sharks there so he could drive everyone out of town and make lots of money. I'm not sure about it either.
So, Casper escapes, and the bad guys take the girl. Casper gets a phone call setting up a time and place for a trade. The girl for the disk. Oh teh nos!! What ever shall he do? Here's what I would do:
Bad guy: Meet me at the sea lab. I'll give you the girl for the disk.
Me: No problem.
Hang up phone and go to a cybercafe to copy the disk.
or
Label a blank disk Secret Incriminating Computar Files and bring that.
Here's what actually happened:
Bad guy: Meet me at the sea lab. I'll give you the girl for the disk.
Casper: No problem.
Hangs up phone.
Casper: On teh nos! What am I gonna do??
So, he shows up with the disk. A big fight ensues. Good guys win. Bad guys lose. The end.
This is definitely the movie to rent, especialy if you're a big fan of Casper Van Dien. The acting was atrocious, the characters were cardboard, and the plot had more holes in it than a wiffle ball. It's only natural that the movie spawned two sequels.