47 Meters Down

Had a flick through the comments here and I saw a bunch of 1's from people complaining about coast guard tactics, ocean safety and even "shark behaviour". IT'S A MONSTER SURVIVAL MOVIE! Just calm down and watch it for what it is. Lame and uninteresting characters, a boat, ocean, sharks. Followed by cheap jump scares.

Sure, it's nothing new, but it holds its own.

But hey, what do I know, when I was young, my brother and I stood on a beach in Wales screaming at a dead crab for a good 5 minutes.

How often do you watch a film from this genre and are made to watch 90 minutes of bad acting, unrealistic sharks, poor camerawork etc, my expectations weren't too high, and I for one was pleasantly surprised. This film is actually really well made, it's very solid, it's well acted, and it manages to generate both terror and claustrophobia, in a way I wasn't expecting. That ending also, talk about out of the Blue ;-) Beautifully filmed, superb location work, sharks that although maybe a little out of character to say the least certainly looked good, and of course added to the terror.

Pleasantly surprised. 7/10

Before we sit down in the theater, we know pretty much exactly what happens. Two girls go scuba diving in a shark cage and wind up a trapped in said cage 47 meters below the surface. Since they aren't experts, we know how they will react. Then sharks show up. Since they are sharks in a scary movie, we know how they will react. There is no real room for surprises.

If you expect rampant plot twists and character development, you must not see this type of movie often. It is what it is and it knows that. Despite the only real mystery being which of the girls survives, if any, or perhaps both, the movie actually manages to provide a refreshing twist.

That may sound bold to say when talking about a powerfully simple shark attack movie, but take some time to think about it. The twist is secretly ingenious and explains away many of the ghastly errors in believability.

I'm surprised to find myself defending a movie that I didn't really like all that much. But I am. It's not that movie doesn't deserve criticism. It certainly does. The acting performances earn failing grades across the board. The dialogue is laced with embarrassing over explanations and repeated lines, most of which involve warnings from the captain about the bends. Other times this takes the form of the girls obnoxiously narrating the menial tasks as they carry them out. Once or twice might have been fine, but it's tough to stomach after about the 10th time or so.

My thought on this is maybe the filmmakers knew that it was too dark to see what was going on for most of the movie, so they made the girls say aloud everything that they did. This solution makes about as much sense as going on a five-mile run after knowingly drinking spoiled milk. If one problem is easily avoidable, avoid the problem. Don't attempt a remedy that almost certainly won't help the situation.

All that said, I defend the movie because I think it executes its mission reasonably well. I shifted to the edge of my seat and felt uneasy on many occasions. The movie managed to scare the audience and it did so with fewer jump scares than expected.

Instead, the movie built to moments that would normally climax with the infamous jump scare then simply opted not to deliver one. The goal is still achieved. The moments still induce a sense of dread from the audience, but without the cheapness of frightening viewers by essentially saying "boo." I'd like to see other movies emulate this tactic.

My advice: if you are going to watch this movie, understand what you are getting into. The movie likely won't surprise and that wasn't its intention. Be reasonable with your expectations. Accept the movie's strengths and weaknesses. Empathize with how terrifying the situation would be if it were you stuck in the shark cage on the ocean floor, and don't hesitate to laugh at the movie's weaknesses.

Do those two things, and you may walk away satisfied. If you are unwilling to do that, stay out of the water.

It's summer again;  it's a shark movie.  Lisa and Kate are two sisters on holiday in Mexico with one grieving a lost relationship and the other looking for fun.  Against their better judgement they go shark cage diving 5 metres below a vessel that looks like it should have been in the salvage yard 20 years ago.  After a mechanical failure the cage plummets down to the sea bed..... (Go on, how deep? Have a guess.  Go on, go on, go on ...)

With sharks circling and air running low, will the girls survive their ordeal?  

Last year, one of the surprise movies of the year for me was "The Shallows", which I really enjoyed.  A tense, well made yarn held together by a solid performance by Blake Lively and with a genuine escalation of tension (albeit let down by a poor ending). 

"47 Metres Down" differs from that film in three major respects:  B- movie acting, from Mandy Moore and Claire Holt (with Holt being significantly better than Moore); a screenplay by Johannes Roberts and Ernest Riera that is both ponderous and unbelievable; and dialogue that is at times truly execrable.  

The film really takes its time to get to the 'sharp end' (as it were). Once there, the actions of the girls are so clinically stupid that they are deserving of Darwin Award nominations. Fortunately, the IQs of the sharks (well realised as CGI by Outpost VFX) are only marginally greater:  the sharks will appear and then go away for ten minutes at a time, just so that the implausible plot can progress unmolested.

These films always need an escalator for the tension:  in "The Shallows" it was the rising tide; in this film it is the air supply. This element works well and adds an additional element of claustrophobia to the film that is already at 11 on the scale (you surely don't need me to tell you that claustrophobics need to avoid this film!). 

Much of the dialogue is expository regarding what is going on in the darkness and is so repetitive ("We ARE going to get out of here Kate!") that it would make a good drinking game.  The worst dialogue award though goes to Matthew Modine ("Memphis Belle") who's repeated medical descriptions of "the bends" becomes mildly comical - I literally got a fit of the giggles at one point.

I'm not going to completely savage the film though, since there IS a nice twist to the ending, albeit one that's heavily signposted.  And instead of reaching constantly for the classic "Ben's head in the boat" jump scare, the film occasionally teases the audience with set- ups that ultimately just feature murky water and nothing more. 

My recommendation:  if you've not yet seen "The Shallows", check that out on DVD and give this one a miss.

(For the graphical version of this review please visit bob-the-movie- man.com. Thanks).

Me and my fiance decided to watch this film as we had watched Jaws 3 the night before. Thought it would be interesting and it was entertaining as it was one of those movies you talk over as the characters in the film proceed to not use their minds at all and make poor decision after poor decision! I am betting this film was originally going to be a direct to DVD type film, but they ended up releasing it in theaters and considering it cost only about six million to make and went on to gross 44 million I would say they made a good decision. I am glad I did not see this in theaters and rather just watched it on Netflix as it was okay to some degree, but I could not have made fun of it in the theater like I did in my fiance's living room. The movie just begs a person to yell criticisms at the two main characters!

The story has two sisters who are in Mexico living it up. Apparently, one of the sister's recently had her boyfriend break up with her so the other sister gets her to go out and party! They meet two guys who get the girls to sign up to go on a boat that looks like crap, then go into a rusty shark cage and then plunge into the waters that are filled with great whites as the idiots on the boat throw chum into the water thus sending the sharks into a feeding frenzy. What could go wrong? Well, pretty much everything as the rusty, rickety wench that holds the cage breaks, go figure, plunging the girls 47 meters down. Hey, that's the title! They are running low on oxygen and the only help they have is the captain and his crew who at least stayed and tried to help them out and just didn't pack up and forget about them. Unfortunately, the girls keep insisting on leaving the safety of the cage. I can understand it the first time, and when they needed the oxygen tank, but not when they saw the flashlight in the water. They not only have to contend with sharks, the possibility of getting the bends but poor judgement by everyone!

As I said, this film was not bad, but certainly nothing great either. It passed the time nicely as it is a rather absurd movie. For one thing, sharks generally do not try to break through shark cages and rarely go for humans to chomp on unless said person is on a surfboard because then the shark mistakes them for a seal. Here it was ridiculous how determined the sharks are to get at people! Then the whole premise is idiotic as it is clear the captain recognizes the one girl was not experienced and considering how he actually did try to help them he I am betting he would have nixed the whole thing seeing how she was behaving on deck. The ending was a bit predictable too as the captain mentioned something that one who watches a lot of movies will know will come into play otherwise no mention would have been made of it at all. Entertaining, to a degree, good, not very.