Red Water (2003) (TV)

User Rating:

3.8/10   

Director:

Charles Robert Carner

Writers (WGA):

J.D. Feigelson (written by) and
Chris Mack (written by)

Release Date:

17 August 2003 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

Fear Strikes Where You Least Expect It.

Plot:

A freshwater shark wreaks havoc as it heads up a Louisiana river.

Plot Keywords:

Shark | Ex Wife | Oil Rig | Fisherman | Bayou

Cast

Lou Diamond Phillips	...	John Sanders
Kristy Swanson	...	Dr. Kelli Raymond
Coolio	...	Ice
Jaimz Woolvett	...	Jerry Collins
Rob Boltin	...	Emery Brousard
Langley Kirkwood	...	Brett van Ryan
Dennis Haskins	...	Captain Dale Landry
Gideon Emery	...	Gene Bradley
Charles Dumas	...	Hank Ellis
Clive Scott	...	Grandpa Gautreau
Nicholas Andrews	...	André Gautreau
Hilton Myburgh	...	Vidrine
Garth Collins	...	Lacombe, Oil Rig Worker
Tumisho Masha	...	Rick (as Tumisho K. Masha)
Shirley Davidson	...	Tricia

MPAA:

Rated R for some violence.

Runtime:

92 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Finland:K-15 (self applied) | Netherlands:16 | Argentina:13 | Germany:16 | New Zealand:R13 | South Korea:15 | UK:12 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

South Africa

Company:

Sony Pictures Television

Trivia:

The license plate on the sunken car is Louisiana 007 o 981 - the same one that Hooper pulled out of the shark in Jaws (1975)

Goofs:

Continuity: When John is stabbed he is quite obviously stabbed in the chest yet in the next scene his wound is on his arm.

Quotes:

Dr. Kelli Raymond: [about a gash on his head] Nasty.
Brett van Ryan: You have no idea.

Movie Connections:

References Deliverance (1972)

The umpteenth bad shark movie

What's with all these stupid but fancy looking made-for-TV shark movies these days? Only a couple weeks ago, I watched something awful called "Spring Break Shark Attack" in which a troop of sharks eat some college bikinis, and here's another one already, this time set in the swamps and revolving on a bull shark. Well, at least "Red Water" is slightly better than the aforementioned "Spring Break" but of course still a long way from being a good shark-thriller. Two crews of people navigate their boats down the extensive swamps of Louisiana. One crew (with Kirsty Swanson and Lou Diamond Philips on board) is on their way to drill oil, the other crew are villains (with rapper Coolio among them) looking for a lost treasure on the bottom of a lake, but all they encounter is an extremely hungry bull shark. It's rather dangerous to swim with him around, so the bad guys take the good guys (and girl) hostage and command them to dive for the money. "Red Water" features one or two well-staged action sequences and the bull shark is an interesting choice of water monster (finally something different than the Great White or Tiger Shark), but overall it's a forgettable thriller with weak performances from a washed up cast. There's no tension, a minimum of bloodshed and the underwater footage only shows brief images of a fake computer-engineered shark. The lovely Mrs. Swanson doesn't even wear on a colorful bikini, for Christ's sake, so why are we still talking about it?