Skip to main content

The Shallows (2016)

Source
Anthony Jaswinski’s screenplay for The Shallows was featured on 2014’s Blacklist, a list of the most well received, but unmade scripts of the year. Blake Lively plays the main role in Jaume Collet-Serra’s survival horror about Nancy Adams, a surfer left injured and stranded 200 yards from the shore. To make things worse, there is a large, hungry shark circling the small group of rocks she’s managed to scramble to.

Source
The premise (‘127 Hours’, but with a shark) is really simple, but it’s not just that which puts a new twist on the shark movie genre (is that a genre?... lets just go with it). This isn’t a monster that’s got the taste for human flesh for no reason (it’s drawn to the area by a dead whale body). Even the finale, as well as being really satisfying, is definitely original. Blake Lively is really likeable, brings humour when needed. Her character has a backstory that doesn’t feel tacked on, and actually adds weight to those scenes where she is fighting for her life. Spending much of the film stuck on a bunch of rocks with nothing other than a volleyball seagull for company, there is a lot on her to hold this film together, and I thought she did that really well. Saying that, there was the odd bit where she talked the audience through what she is doing and why. Nobody would tell themselves out loud why and how they are treating their wounds like she does. I get why, but sometimes it may have been better to take a note out of J. C. Chandor’s All Is Lost (2013). The film is nearly entirely dialogue free with a script consisting of only 32 pages. Robert Redford’s character just gets on with his battle with the elements and doesn’t feel the need to reach out to his audience to explain how. I don’t think The Shallows needed something quite as extreme as that, but sometimes it came across as daft and a little patronising.
Source
It’s a great looking film, and with a beach that stunning you would be tempted to put up with the bloodthirsty shark. The shark itself looks really good too, but I’m glad they didn’t show too much of it until the end. Monster movies have a tendency to give away it’s creature far too early.   It’s much scarier to leave it up to the audience’s imagination, and that’s something Jaws (1975) did really well (albeit not always out of choice with their malfunctioning animatronic shark), and has always been my problem with Cloverfield (2008).  My favourite scene in the movie was when the shark attacks someone else in the water, but all you see of it is Lively's reaction to what is going on.  It's much scarier than any of the scenes with the CGI shark in itself.  We’re left with a tense, and scary popcorn movie that didn’t try to be anything more than it was, and did it’s thing very well. It won’t live long in the memory, but it was a great evening out. Also, give that Wilson seagull an Oscar!
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Manchester by the Sea (2017)

Source If there is one way to get me giddy for a film, it’s having Friday Night Lights' very own Coach Taylor (Kyle Chandler) in it.  Although other fans of one of the greatest TV shows ever may also be hoping for a 2 hour Chandler motivational speech, that isn't how Manchester by the Sea pans out.  Instead Kenneth Lonergan (who writes and directs) has created a deeply moving and realistic look at grief, family and loss.  A comedy it ain't, but Manchester by the Sea was a film I could have watched for another 5 hours so attached was I to it's characters and story.  It's subject matter makes it a difficult sell, but I really hope this finds an audience as it was an enthralling piece of work. Source The story is a difficult one to tell while avoiding certain spoilers, but I think that is important so as not to lessen the impact of particular scenes.  Essentially, Manchester by the Sea is about Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck) -  a man forced to care fo...
3 comments
Read more

What We Do in the Shadows (2014)

Source During a badly hungover train journey from London back home last weekend I turned to some classic Flight of the Conchords tunes on my iPod to get me through. The New Zealand duo have a back catalogue of parody songs and two HBO television series, and if you haven’t checked them out before then I strongly recommend. When I got home and collapsed on the sofa I began scrolling through Netflix for an easy to watch film to nurse me through the dying embers of my killer headache, and turned to a comedy co-created by one of the pair, Jermaine Clement. He and Taika Waitiki co-wrote, directed and starred in this hilarious horror mockumentary about cameramen granted full access to the house of a Wellington based vampires. What We Do in the Shadows was exactly what I needed. Source I missed the film during it’s original release in cinemas. To my mind it wasn’t out for long, and that was a shame as I was huge fan of Clement’s Flight of the Conchords work in particular. He an...
2 comments
Read more

(00)7 Best James Bond Opening Sequences

Source You could tell Die Another Day was going to be dire as soon as Bond somehow gives himself a heart attack to escape custody.  And then there was the invisible Aston Martin.  Despite that though, it actually started very well.  I even like Madonna's title song (dons tin hat), but the start's hovercraft chase is really fun too.  I caught Skyfall's pre-title action sequence (and brilliant title song) on TV the other day, and it got me thinking about how important they are to the Bond formula.  It's a given now that every Bond film starts with a look down a gun barrel, a breathtaking action scene, followed by the song and title sequence.  Die Another Day, and to a lesser extent Spectre, were poor Bond films that couldn't live up to it's breathtaking starts, but those scenes are so good I'm almost tempted to put them on and sit through the whole thing.  So, putting the rest of the film and the brilliant title song sequences aside, what are the bes...
Post a Comment
Read more