Miedo profundo

People often underestimate or under-appreciate the ability to produce a genuinely good B-movie. There's Renny Harlin on one end of the spectrum, making crap like The Legend of Hercules, 12 Rounds, and The Covenant. But then you have someone like Jaume Collet-Serra, who knows a thing or two about framing a scene, getting good performances from his actors, and above all, making an entertaining movie.

The Shallows could have been an otherwise conventional and forgettable thriller without Collet-Serra's strong and stylish direction. For example, the scene when Blake Lively's character first gets attacked by the shark is beautifully composed - in one unbroken take, no less - and legitimately nightmarish, with the red blood slowly overtaking the blue screen. It also doesn't hurt that Lively successfully carries the entire film on her shoulders, giving what is arguably the best performance in her career to date. There's a quiet fierceness and admirability to her character that makes it easy to root for her survival.

Overall, there's a lot to like about The Shallows. It's gorgeously shot, suspenseful, emotionally gratifying, and entirely successful on what it sets out to be - a solid B-movie, and it takes skill to pull that off. Sure, it doesn't match the heights of either Gravity or The Martian, but then again, its budget is a mere fraction of what those films cost.

Steven Spielberg has a lot to answer for. Ever since he made Jaws in 1975 there have been countless attempts on the big screen to emulate that film and all have failed. Some have been excruciatingly bad but thankfully The Shallows isn't one of those. This is the story of Nancy who travels to a secluded beach to surf . While in the water , she is hunted by a great white shark and finds herself stranded on a rock with the tide going out . Wounded and with time running out she battles to get away from the shark. Probably the best thing about this film is performance of Blake Lively. She definitely carries this film. The action is pretty good although totally predictable and it looks great up until the use of CGI underwater when it starts to look like a scene from a Sharks Tale. At a pleasant running time of 84 minutes , The Shallows is good bit of escapism but like every other shark film , it's no Jaws.

The Shallows knows exactly what it is, and that's the best praise I can give it. It's barely 90 minutes long, has a small cast, and only one location. Its only purpose is to give you a thrill-ride during that time; an adrenaline rush based on an ubiquitous fear among humans: being stranded in the ocean with a shark. However as the title suggests, this doesn't take place in the middle of the ocean. This woman is stranded only a couple hundred yards from the shore, close enough to potentially shout for help. What The Shallows does so well is establish this sense of isolation and hopelessness for our main character, and her situation of being so close yet so far from safety.

Blake Lively is great in this role. It's mostly a reactionary role - not much dialogue aside from some early establishing conversations to develop her character. For the majority of the film Lively is terrified and fighting for survival against a deadly shark. This thing is huge, like the Jaws' shark's father huge. And it's interesting to see how she follows its patterns and observes its behavior, allowing her to act accordingly without being trapped. There are some far-fetched scenes, sure, but Jaws had them as well and it's hailed as a classic. Now I'm not saying The Shallows is as good a movie as Jaws, because it certainly isn't. But again, the movie knows what it is, and as a short shark thriller appealing solely to our primal fear, it gets the job done and then some.

Now, it has its faults. The electronic music during the surfing scenes was immediately off-putting, and there are some slo-mo shots that definitely did not deserve to be in slo-mo. But the directing as a whole is well done - gorgeous sweeping shots of the open ocean, the slow build up before the initial attack, showing the shark only when it's most effective. The writing is clever and practical, relatable to the point that you feel for this character's predicament, and the acting as I said is top notch. The Shallows doesn't break any new ground, but it does exactly what it sets out to do - give the audience yet another reason to avoid the beach.

A young American woman goes surfing alone at a secluded beach in Mexico but finds herself stranded on a rock with a hungry great white shark circling. And a seagull called Steve for company! This makes a great change from the glut of ridiculous shark movies "inspired" by the likes of 'Sharknado". No roaring shark (I didn't hear any anyway) and no CGI that looks like they were done by a 5 year old. Sure, there are goofs and gaffs, and I felt that the final showdown was pretty silly. However it is nicely filmed, has decent effects, plenty of tension and Blake Lively does a good job as the heroine. She also looks mighty fine in a bikini!

The Shallows is a cool and helpful film, it is also a movie that has many risks of being boring, since much of the film is set on an isolated rock in the sea, and the main one has to survive, not to be killed by A shark, the cast is good, I was surprised Blake Lively's performance, she proved to be a good actress, obviously not a memorable performance, but she did well, the rest of the cast does not compromise, the visual effects are good, the Visual of the shark is OK, the rhythm starts well, but loses a little strength in the progress, the soundtrack combines with the film, the film has tense moments, the script has some problems, and the film unfortunately loses its force in the third act , Plus The Shallows is recommended, even more who likes movies of that same style. Note 6.8