A review by Brooks Rich
We're back in the water with our summer coverage of shark movies and we have one of the best ones today. In my opinion this is the second best shark movie of all time. It's a simple premise but it's totally unnerving because there's a realness to it. Blake Lively gives a stunning performance and carries the movie along with her finned co-star. Seriously her performance in this is so good and makes the case that the Academy Awards are irrelevant because someone acting their ass off and doing the tough work in a film like this is ignored.
Lively plays Nancy, a med student who has come to a special beach in Mexico after the death of her mother. After a day of surfing and growing friendly with two locals, Nancy decides to catch one more wave before calling it a day. Unfortunately a great white shark, attracted to a dead whale, attacks Nancy and strands her on a rock 200 yards from shore. Nancy must now find a way to beat the incoming tide and find a way past the shark and back onto shore.
This film works because the shark is scary. The best shark movies always make the sharks scary and The Shallows is no different. These are the worlds oldest apex predators and so they should be scary. The shark in this movie is a great antagonist, reminiscent of his big brother from 1975. The kills he gets are brutal and each one is stomach churning in it's own way.
The film is directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, who is mostly known for directing four of the Liam Neeson is a badass films, Unknown, Run All Night, Non-Stop, and The Commuter. He also directed the incredibly weird killer kid movie Orphan in 2009 and the remake of House of Wax where Paris Hilton gets a metal spike through the head. The Shallows is easily his best film. I find him to be a very visually stunning director now thanks to his work on the Liam Neeson films and the cinematography in The Shallows is stunning. A lot of the film was shot in a large water tank on a studio but by mixing those scenes with the small percentage shot on location, the film never looks staged or fake.
I give this film the highest recommendation I can. Absolutely see this film if you missed it. It's not overly graphic and Lively's performance should keep everyone invested. The Shallows is one of my favorite films of the past few years and I revisit it on a pretty regular basis.
We're back in the water with our summer coverage of shark movies and we have one of the best ones today. In my opinion this is the second best shark movie of all time. It's a simple premise but it's totally unnerving because there's a realness to it. Blake Lively gives a stunning performance and carries the movie along with her finned co-star. Seriously her performance in this is so good and makes the case that the Academy Awards are irrelevant because someone acting their ass off and doing the tough work in a film like this is ignored.
Lively plays Nancy, a med student who has come to a special beach in Mexico after the death of her mother. After a day of surfing and growing friendly with two locals, Nancy decides to catch one more wave before calling it a day. Unfortunately a great white shark, attracted to a dead whale, attacks Nancy and strands her on a rock 200 yards from shore. Nancy must now find a way to beat the incoming tide and find a way past the shark and back onto shore.
This film works because the shark is scary. The best shark movies always make the sharks scary and The Shallows is no different. These are the worlds oldest apex predators and so they should be scary. The shark in this movie is a great antagonist, reminiscent of his big brother from 1975. The kills he gets are brutal and each one is stomach churning in it's own way.
The film is directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, who is mostly known for directing four of the Liam Neeson is a badass films, Unknown, Run All Night, Non-Stop, and The Commuter. He also directed the incredibly weird killer kid movie Orphan in 2009 and the remake of House of Wax where Paris Hilton gets a metal spike through the head. The Shallows is easily his best film. I find him to be a very visually stunning director now thanks to his work on the Liam Neeson films and the cinematography in The Shallows is stunning. A lot of the film was shot in a large water tank on a studio but by mixing those scenes with the small percentage shot on location, the film never looks staged or fake.
I give this film the highest recommendation I can. Absolutely see this film if you missed it. It's not overly graphic and Lively's performance should keep everyone invested. The Shallows is one of my favorite films of the past few years and I revisit it on a pretty regular basis.
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