Shark 3D

Some shark movies are laughable, cheesy, and way too far fetched (Sharktopus). Some shark movies and horror movies in general can just be unbelievably bad. This Australian film was a pleasant surprise. There wasn't scantily clad girls walking around topless (Piranha) or cheap thrills. This had some genuine pillow clenches, it had some unpredictability, great acting, and had a location I had not seen before in a shark movie, Australia. Most importantly it had characters I actually cared about! There is more to this shark flick than just sharp teeth and flesh. Dig your teeth into this film if you are a thriller, horror, shark movie fan.

A tsunami hits the coast of Australia, trapping a group of (mostly pretty) people inside a flooded grocery store. Oh and there's a shark trapped in there with them. Okay, so just when you thought they couldn't come up with any new twists in the killer shark subgenre of horror, they go and come up with the brilliant idea of a shark in a grocery store. It's all pretty stupid but also kind of fun. It's a watchable popcorn flick. The Aussie cast is nice, including former H2O co-stars Phoebe Tonkin and Cariba Heine. They aren't mermaids here but that would have been cool. There's really nothing about this movie that stays with you after seeing it but, while you're watching, you'll probably enjoy it well enough.

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.

It was real surprising for me to find out how watchable this movie actually was. I mean, a movie in which a shark attacks a bunch of people trapped in a supermarket, after a tsunami hit, doesn't exactly sound like high quality stuff. As a matter of fact. you would normally expect a movie like this to be extremely bad and cheesy but the movie, as it turned out, was far from cheesy and simply was being pretty good for what it was.

I still expected the worst, after the first 15 minutes or so, which wasn't exactly being a very promising start for the movie. It looked horrible and I feared for the rest of the movie. I expected it to be a very formulaic genre flick, in which nothing exciting or original ever happened. And even while the movie isn't being all that original, it still feels like a good watch, since it manages to entertain and takes itself serious enough.

That was perhaps being the key as to why the movie worked out; it took itself serious. Normally modern B-movies are very self aware and actors and directors obviously don't take their work all that serious. They make things deliberately cheesy to add to the fun factor and while this does work out at times, at others it makes the movie noting less but bad and annoying. In that regard it also was being refreshing to see how serious everybody involved took this movie. It definitely adds to the overall quality of the movie and its nice to see that this is a movie that took its audience serious and didn't treated them like a bunch of popcorn-eating-no-brainers, who only wanted to see lots of blood and nudity. The movie is not like that at all, even though the first 15 minutes would still suggest otherwise. Perhaps it was all deliberate and in the first 15 minutes they were like; 'this is what you expect us to do' and what after that follows was 'but this is what we are going to do with the concept'.

Thing I also liked about the movie was that it didn't featured one main, heroic character, in it, who saved everybody. instead there is a wide range of different characters in this, who all, just about, share an equal amount of screen time. None of them is pretending to be a hero, which also lets all of them all feel somewhat realistic and human-like.

On the downside; the special effects in this are pretty horrendous. Sort of funny that after 40-years, "Jaws" still has the most convincing looking shark in it. This movie too often relies on CGI effects, which aren't exactly of the best quality. But still, as far as shark movies go, this definitely is being one of the better ones, believe it or not.

Definitely watchable!

6/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

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.