Miedo profundo

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!

I have a couple of issues with this film (occasionally too much CGI, and a weird ending) but for the majority of its brief, 86-minutes-long run, this is a riveting film, exquisitely filmed in the Gold Coast of Australia, about a survivor of a shark attack clinging to life, figuratively and literally, on the side of a rock 200 feet from shore, with the shark still circling the waters.

Normally watered down PG13-rating gives way to some surprisingly grisly bursts of gore, as she tries to suture her wounds with makeshift surgical tools, and a couple of brutal attack scenes.

The film makes the most of a small cast, and Blake Lively carries the film almost entirely herself, spending at least two thirds of the film completely isolated. Well, she's not completely alone, she also has Steven "Sully" Seagull, as himself.

Entertaining 'shark' movie that adds a modern twist to the Jaws films of the 1970s and 80s. The location is supposed to be some surfers paradise beach in Mexico (in reality filmed in Australia) where a lone surfer Nancy (Blake Lively) ends up stranded a mere 200m from the safety of the beach by an angry Carcharadon carcharias (Great White Shark).

Nancy heavily losing blood from a deep leg wound ends up finding solace on a rock. To add to the screenplay she is befriended by a seagull she names Steven. Do you get the joke Steven Seagull? The shark effects are all cleverly added by CGI which of course Steven Spielberg didn't have available at the time of shooting Jaws in 1975. I suppose there is little manoeuvre for the screenplay. Don't get me wrong an entertaining watch but just highlights for me how good Jaws was.

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

The movie is very particular in setting up perimeters and rules. And making it as believable as possible, that in a modern time like this, someone would not be able to call for help (apart from the usual "no service" kind of cheat other movies do when it comes to Cell Phones). And if you buy into it, it works.

There's also the question why Livelys character goes there in the first place. Well even that is explained, so there is no doubt about motive too. What never is explained though, is not where the Shark came from or why it got there, but how it's possible that it's so bloodthirsty! We're talking Jason Vorhees or any other Slasher movie kind of mad. Maybe even more mad than that.

And while you could easily go, well it's a movie, it kind of breaks it's own rules there. Because everything seems logical (explaining mentioned), even the character and her ability to deal with (graphic) wounds ... but not the shark, who is really a monster if you come to think of it. But if you don't care about internal logic, like the view (no pun intended) and the thrill of it, you will have a good (scary) time watching this!