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.

Although it can have a handful of somewhat intense moments, 47 Meters Down sadly proves to be nothing but another generic shark movie, and to be frank, a rather pathetic attempt at that. I'll start with the films strengths, that being why most of the people will watch the film, for the suspense. I feel all the suspenseful moments in the film come from the situations under water, and not at all the danger of the sharks themselves. The sharks throughout the film are almost comically thrown in there, so much to the point, that I laughed whenever they came on screen. I enjoyed the claustrophobic nature it had been trapped in the cage under water, not knowing what to do or where to go, but our lead characters are too stupid to truly be concerned for, and the lead actresses hardly capable of carrying the film to the lengths it needs them too. The acting is quite bad, incredibly overdramatic, silly at times, and the dialogue is atrocious. Besides the sharks literally being a joke upon the screen, the worst part of the film is hands down the twist ending, which is not only frustrating, but absolutely ridiculous, and completely unnecessary. The film is unbelievable, dull at times, and simply too stupid to handle the fear of its somewhat interesting premise. In the end, 47 Meters Down is probably left better at the bottom of the ocean, than it was in major theaters across the globe. My Rating: 3.5/10

I actually caught this in the theater and again a year later at home. Reviews are mixed with this film, but I actually enjoyed this movie. Mandy Moore's acting is always a breath of fresh air and Claire Holt didn't have trouble carrying the film along. Yes it's a shark movie, but what makes this flick a stand out, is the fact the sharks aren't the only threat to the girls survival. It got a few jumps and a sudden episode of claustrophobia from me. Which I guess is a good thing. Moore's freaky smile in the end makes one lasting impression but one burning question though for me is... WHERE THE HELL DID THE SHARKS DISAPPEAR TO IN THE FINAL RESCUE SCENE ?!?

47 Meters Down is a highly claustrophobic shark movie starring Mandy Moore and Matthew Modine but it's flaws are quite unique.

Telling the story of two girls who go into a shark cage in Mexico to see the great whites but fall into peril when the chain snaps and they're plunged into darkness.

Let me say that visually the movie is incredible and is one of the most claustrophobic heart pounding films I've seen in years. You feel for these ladies, the movie gets across the panic, severity and time restrictions very well and it taps into something which makes me personally feel very uncomfortable.

But, and it's a big but the movie's logistics are dumbfoundingly stupid and defy logic. What I mean by that is that nobody involved bothered doing any research into oxygen at these depths, what is done here not only isn't possible but is to moronic science fiction levels. It quite frankly insults the intelligence of the viewer.

If you can get past that (And I couldn't) it's quite a memorable little film that looks great, has passable performances (I've always liked Moore) and is fairly unique.

If they'd done some research and applied it to the film then this would have been a lot better. However if they had then this would have had to be a different film altogether to be even remotely realistic.

The Good:

Looks incredible

Sets the tone perfectly

Mandy Moore

Unique stuff

The Bad:

Offensively unrealistic

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