Spoiler Alert! At least the shark doesn't growl like other stupid movies have to use to make the shark seem menacing! It seems like this film, Deep Blue Sea, Jaw 1 and 2 got it right. Bait was another decent film but it needed more character development I thought. This film however has fine buildup but the way they killed the shark was really weak. I was always a big fan of shark films when I was younger and I'd always rent this because it's the only other one besides the 4 others I mentioned that did really well. Lou Diamond Phillips does pretty well I must say. Bottom line the movie was pretty good up until the very end when they kill the shark.

Channel 5 broadcast this immediately after showing the 2010 version of PIRANHA . This is very lazy transmission but you can see the thematic logic of this . What it does mean is that a film like RED WATER comes off second best compared to a in your face comedy horror spoof because this is a very conventional , flat movie featuring a killer shark RED WATER gets off to a fairly good start . You want to grab an audience's attention? Well what better way to grab every man's attention by having a couple of cuties swimming in a lake wearing very skimpy bikinis . Even better a couple of minutes later the action cuts to a bad guys swimming pool where some really hot women walk around in bikinis . The board on this page has a few comments noticing this somewhat cynical crowd pleasing scene and all state this is in fact the best part of the film . You got hot chicks in bikinis and it's the best part of the film ? Yes it says a lot about the movie you're watching No matter how many hot chicks you can cram in to a movie you'd better have a story to go with it and how many great films have you seen featuring sharks that weren't directed by Steven Spielberg ? You'd also do well to remember RED WATER is one of those made for television movies so goes out of its way not to offend the audience . Example ? Someone gets eaten by a shark and a verbal reaction to this scene of horror is " Damn "

Red Water is set in the Louisiana swamps & rivers where a company has set up a mini drilling platform & are searching for oil, meanwhile environmentalist Dr. Kelli Raymond (Kirsty Swanson) has hired John Sanders (Lou Diamond Phillips) her ex-husbands fishing boat to take her to the rig so she can conduct some tests to see what effect the drilling is having on the local wildlife. To complicate things further two gangsters Ice (Coolio) & Brett (Langly Kirkwood) are searching for 3 million dollars in stolen drug money in the same stretch of river & if that wasn't enough there's an angry killer man eating Bullshark swimming around that was hurt in an explosion set off by the oil rig workers. One thing leads to another, people get eaten, people get greedy & when it all kicks off someone has to save the day...Executive produced & directed by Charles Robert Carner this is a pretty bad film although I have to say if you go into it in the right frame of mind there are a few laughs to be had here. The script by J.D. Feigelson & Chris Mack doesn't seem to take itself too seriously & at least it moves along at a nice pace so it's not boring & generally speaking there's always something happening but there are so many plot holes, ridiculous scenes & bad dialogue that you really can't take the film seriously. For a start how did a car end up at the bottom of an isolated Louisiana river? Would someone who makes a living as a fisherman on a boat really not be able to swim? I mean wouldn't being able to swim be a job requirement? Steel cranes don't just suddenly collapse for no reason. The drill blows up but then is suddenly & miraculously repaired & in perfect working order again at the end. Could someone really find a gun at the bottom of a river in the middle of the night when they don't even know where it is? There are other bit & pieces I could mention but I think you get the point. Then there's the character's who are all pretty clichéd, from Lou Diamond Phillips courageous hero to the slimy money hungry company executive & the terrible stereotypical urban gangster that is Coolio with baggy clothes, a bad attitude & a gun. As I said Red Water is decent for a few laughs but anyone looking for another Jaws (1975) this is a millions from it.Director Carner does OK on what was probably a low budget, he doesn't direct with much pace or excitement though & as a result it's not scary, it has no tension & it's all a bit flat. For some reason the shark seems to take a back seat for most of the film as the hidden money gets more screen time, there's also a green environmental message of the moral variety here as well but there's no great subtly about it & it's nothing we haven't seen before. Forget about any gore, there's some blood & a severed arm but that's about it.Made-for-TV this is meant to be set in Louisiana but was in fact filmed in South Africa & the free holiday was probably the main reason the likes of Diamond Phillips, Kirsty Swanson & Coolio wanted anything to do with it. It's reasonably well made I suppose, the special effects aren't great especially the GCI shark which for most of the time looks pretty rubbish.Red Water is a pretty bad film for sure, so bad it's good film lovers will probably like it though & I thought it was worth a few laughs. Personally I think you could do worse but at the same time you could do better.

"Oh no, not another one" was the first thing I thought when I discovered this movie at my local video store. But being a fan of animal horror movies I couldn't resist, and so I watched it. And I don't regret I did. It's not the usual shark horror movie. It's rather an action thriller where one of the villains happens to be a man-eating shark. Well, the only disappointment for me was that this movie was produced for TV and therefore doesn't have the qualities of a big screen movie. But Lou Diamond Phillips, Kristy Swanson and the other actors give their best to make this an above average TV production. The story is good, but nothing we haven't seen before. The action is okay, and the shark effects are well done. I've been disappointed more than twice with Lou Diamond Phillips' movies in the past few years but in "Red Water" he did some great acting. I also loved the Louisiana setting with Cajun music and nice atmospheric sceneries. Since it doesn't have a lot of new ideas, though, I'll give it 6 out of 10, but if you get a chance, watch it. It's worth your while, if only an alternative to a boring TV program. Jasper P. Morgan