Open Water 2

I LOVE shark movies! Ever since I saw Jaws as a child I vowed to see every single shark movie ever made. When I saw this movie on NetFlix I was super happy, got myself a nice glass of wine, dimmed the lights and settled in for what I thought would be a shark fest of fun.

The movie starts off like most teenybopper type movies. A group of BFF's party it up and have a good old silly time together. They board their annoying arrogant friend's super yacht and have fun dancing, drinking and doing what young people do. They decide to go swimming in the ocean but being foolish and young they don't think to put the ladder down and opppps! they end up in quite the predicament.

The rest of the movie is spent listening to them whine and complain in the most annoying way. For the most part they end up doing stupid things that seem unrealistic but I can only assume this was filler since there is not much to show when you throw some people into the ocean with absolutely no other storyline other then that.

Some of the camera angles were quite scary when you are expecting a shark to come up and get his feast on. Scary underwater sounds, the darkness of the water, feet dangling treading water just taunting those hungry sharks. It would have made for a creepy suspenseful film except wait… where are the sharks?! I can't for the life of me figure out where the sharks went? Was this not a sequel? I cant imagine Harry Potter without Harry, Nightmare on Elmstreet without Freddy, what about Spiderman without Peter Parker! The only thing I can imagine was they were looking to make some quick easy money so they put a title on it that would attract.

I can forgive this if it was even remotely entertaining. As I stated above, there really isn't much you can do in 1.5 hours with a few folks dangling aimlessly in a huge ocean with nothing to do but be annoying.

Overall I wasn't that entertained. I've seen worse but I wouldn't recommend this movie to my friends. I'm still wondering where those sharks went though….

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The ending was quite confusing, but the rest of the movie was suspenseful and kept one on edge. In answer to a previous review, there was an anchor (it showed it several times) but it was not lowered. As far as drifting, the yacht did have grab handles on the front that the characters were holding on to. I'm not sure how it really works on a yacht, but it seems like there should be some way to lower the ladder from outside the boat within reach of the characters.

The original Open Water had a couple stranded in the high seas when they went deep sea diving, and somehow missed the boat, literally, thereby being stranded in the middle of nowhere. The formula is now repeated in Open Water 2: Adrift (just called Adrift here probably to disassociate itself from being a "sequel of sorts" movie), with the number of couples increased threefold.

But I can't judge which is better, having not watched the original. Adrift though seemed decent enough, with human nature for self-preservation portrayed so starkly on screen, it's scary. And having to bump up the number of those in trouble, allows for different views and types of people (read: caricatures at times) to be showcased. Each cast member have certain strengths, and some just have total negativity built into them, for contrast purposes.

The setup is simple and we waste no time in being introduced to our characters, almost all of whom are high school friends, and gathered together to celebrate one of their 30th birthday. They go on a weekend cruise on a luxurious yacht, and it's party, party, party, enjoying the finer things in life. Until they decide to go swimming in the sea, did they realize that hey, did someone lower the ladder on board? Otherwise, how are they going to get back to the deck? It's down to the adage of looking before you leap, and that danger lurks when you're enjoying yourself so much, that common sense, precautions and safety get thrown in the wind.

And when the severity of the problem surfaces, what do you do? Are you the leader, the thinker, the whiner or the quitter? When everything is fine and dandy, everyone knows how to enjoy to the max. But when there's an issue at hand, do you begin to point your finger at everyone else, or help to think of a solution? And when all seems lost, do you give up, or try, try again? The characters partake in exhibiting some of these traits at different points, and with time running out, and dehydration, paranoia and hysteria slowing creeping in, you'd wonder how long they'll last.

It's human nature to instinctively try and survive, and watching the characters on screen do just that in spite of impossible odds, just makes your heart pound faster as you think - what would you do if you're caught in the same situation? Would you bitch slap the complainer? Would you follow instructions to a T? Would you give ideas and shut up when it doesn't work? And when all seems lost, what would you do?

Supposedly based on true events, this story might have its plot holes at certain times when you think, hey they should have done this or that, but I'd suggest to hold onto your train of thoughts, until a key revelation is made, to which you may nod in agreement why it happened the way it did, and that shake in disbelief when you think that when it comes to life and death, material things should be sacrificed first, and facing the music is just part of the inevitable consequence.

The film was supposed to have been based on "true events". Yes, I'm sure it was - very, very, very loosely based. Some of the acting was nearly good enough to cover the gaping holes in the plot, but never enough to conceal the basic absurdity of it all. To the UK newspaper reviewer who allegedly said "You'll be on the edge of your seat!" I can only concede that I was - this was only because my wife had hold of the waistband of my trousers to prevent me leaving the cinema. The ending was extremely unsatisfactory and I was left feeling very sorry for the actors, whose performances are the only reason I've rated it as highly as a 5.

Interesting one this.I liked the film.It set you in the scene,what would you do? How would you cope?I like films that put me there and make me question how id behave in similar circumstances.Okay,it doesn't feature any big star names and its direction and stylisation is pretty non existent but its a compact little film that myself and my partner enjoyed as a piece of throwaway entertainment on a Saturday night.I since watched Open Water which i didn't enjoy as much as this.I like that the ending is open to interpretation also,its adds a spooky element to the film.I think being stranded and abandoned is one of our primal fears, this film taps into that fear effectively.