Bait

Bait 3D – CATCH IT (B) Bait is about a group of survivors from different walks of life find themselves trapped inside a submerged grocery store when a tsunami hits the coast of Queensland, Australia. As they try to escape to safety, they soon discover that there is a predator among them more deadly than the threat of drowning-vicious great white sharks lurking in the water, starved hungry for fresh meat. As the bloodthirsty sharks begin to pick the survivors off one by one, the group realizes that they must work together to find a way out without being eaten alive. Bait is Australia's first 3D movie and to be honest its better than I had expected. The special effects, the cast, the monstrous sharks and supermarket half in water is pretty convincing. The movie manages to have pretty famous young and old faces so Xavier Samuel (Good), Sharni Vinson (Too skinny), Phoebe Tonkin (Cool Brat), Lincoln Lewis (Hot Jock), Alex Russell (Cute Guy), Cariba Heine (Hot Chick) and Julian McMohan (Cool). Bait is really entertaining and unlike other horror/thrillers it keeps most of the good people alive so for a killer shark movie that was a new thing.

What do you do when you are trapped underground in a flooded supermarket with sharks in the water? You fire off your underwater shotgun and taser the shark, of course!

Actually, "Bait" turned out to be quite entertaining and not at all as cheesy and stupid as I had initially anticipated it to be. Given the plot line of the story, first impressions don't bode well for "Bait". But give it a chance, because it was actually quite good.

The story is about a group of people getting stranded underground in a supermarket as a tsunami strikes Australia, as sea water rushes in and floods the complex, the people find that drowning is not the biggest of their problems. They are trapped with two ferocious white sharks.

There is a good amount of action and thrills in the movie, which turned out to be a great combination. The movie, despite being super predictable, does keep you thrilled and almost at the edge of your seat.

The concept idea is a bit far out there, but oddly enough it did work out well enough, because the movie was entertaining and interesting from start till end.

Obviously they didn't have real sharks there, duh, but the CGI effects were actually good, and the sharks did look realistic enough. And the use of prosthetic shark heads was also working out well enough. The effects in a movie like this is a determining and crucial factor between having the movie working or being utter rubbish. Luckily here, the effects were good.

There were two things in the movie that were not all that great. The scene with the swarm of crabs in the ventilation duct. What were the odds of them being right there at that exact moment? It was a bit too much in my opinion. And the second scene, that really shouldn't have made it to the final cut, was the ending scene. Are you kidding me? I will not reveal it here, just watch it yourself.

I will say that the people cast for the various roles in this movie were actually doing a good job with their given characters. The dialogue was good, the acting was good. Well, all except for one guy playing some cocky guy with spiteful remarks and jokes about everything, he just came off as fake and forced, so perhaps another actor would have been better there? Just my opinion.

All in all, "Bait" is a good shark movie, thrilling, lots of action and a good amount of blood.

Shark movies, how many good ones are out there? Well, after the obvious the list is pretty baron. However, Bait is remarkably watchable. I was quite surprised to find myself glued to the screen after over half an hour of character show and tell and only the opening shark scene to reel us in. The CGI and casting are the only two factors that plead with me to turn the movie off. For a thirty-mil budget the shark animations were truly inadequate, yet Bait managed to survive considering. Which is more than can be said for most civilians who aren't trapped in a supermarket given the state of that Australian coastline. Matthew Lessall and Ben Parkinson (Casting) need a job chat, some sideline characters offer absolutely, indescribably the worst performances I have ever seen. Listening to the psychotic Aussie robber, frantic store manager and squabbling couple in their car really made me shudder with anger. More time establishing deeper character backgrounds instead would have pleased, although they hold up pretty well for a shark flick.

Despite some teeth grinding actors and reminders of Bruce from Finding Nemo, Bait is visually very pleasing and makes for a worthy shark movie.

7/10.

This was a good stab at a shark thriller.

I was actually pretty impressed with a few of the actors. Mind you I find a lot of Australian films to have really decent acting in them even with unknowns, regardless of the plot.

An original concept for a shark movie, good use of lighting and tension, and a few nice little plot twists.

A great balance of antagonists and protagonists in a "bunch of strangers" stranded setting.

The filming quality and mechanics of the feature are superior to the budget spent, in my opinion.

I found this to be a not bad at all Friday night watch. Great "BAGGAPOPCORNER" if you are in one of those moods where you aren't sure what to watch.

I'm going to start off by saying, this movie was awful. The story itself is ridiculous, the script is very poor, and the acting was average at best (although Julian McMahon put on a solid performance.

But I loved it. This is the type of movie you go see with a bunch of friends and just sit back and enjoy. It's a 'leave your brain at the door' type of movie. There are some comical lines as well as ridiculously stupid lines that just make you cry out with laughter. It's clearly evident that this movie is not taking itself serious at all, the story tells you that.

But you can still have a lot of fun with it. Don't sit there picking out all the flaws (because there are a hell of a lot of them), and don't take it seriously, the movie was not designed that way. Just enjoy the fact that "there's a 12 foot great white shark in here". There are some awesome scenes, as well as some really cool deaths (some that you wouldn't ever imagine)

The bottom line is, just enjoy the badness of this film, don't think about it, don't take it seriously, just enjoy it. That's what it was designed for.