Dark Tide

I suppose I can give Dark Tide some credit for its realistic, non manipulative depiction of the great white shark. This is certainly no monster movie. So what kind of movie is it then?

Dark Tide would have to qualify as an adventure drama, or rather an anti adventure drama. It seems that each time director John Stockwell goes seaward with a production, the movies get progressively worse. Into the Blue, was entertaining, but certainly dumb. Blue Crush, was dumb and unentertaining. This latest movie is just confused and almost devoid of any reason to watch it.

I return to my point about Dark Tide not being a horror film. So why then are the characters deliberately as uninteresting and obnoxious as the cast of any Friday the 13th sequel. Halle Berry is playing the kind of half-assed, adolescent role that I'm used to seeing Jennifer Lopez play. Dark Tide gives you an idea of how far she has fallen in the last ten years. She is sleeping with the fishes.

The movie lumbers along for a good hour, with nothing except the quality of its underwater photography (getting you nose to nose with twenty foot sharks) to keep you in your seat. The characters exchange lines of sloppy dialogue and do silly things, until it's time for distaster to strike, in the last half hour. It's fair to say that Stockwell manages to generate some suspense in the climax, but he stretches it out too long, and the camera work is disorienting.

The whole thing doesn't work. It lacks direction, intelligence, and professional acting. For all I know, Dark Tide may just have been an excuse for Stockwell to go diving in South Africa with the sharks and leave the storyline behind.

Shouldn't there be some kind of protective Union to help prevent poor defenseless animals from appearing in stupid and embarrassing movies? I mean, actors and actress are supposed to be smart enough and decide for themselves whether or not a horrible scenario will negatively affect their careers (I'm looking at you, Halle Berry), but animals can't read clumsy scenarios! The sharks in "Dark Tide", for instance, are truly some of the most beautiful creatures Mother Nature brought forward, yet their astonishing appearance is criminally abused here in this dumb, exaggeratedly clichéd, dull and incompetent film. Amazing animals like these only belong in masterful documentaries or, as rare as they are, in qualitative adventure movies. Luckily enough – for my own personal anger management program, at least – I watched "Dark Tide" with the absolute lowest expectations imaginable, and that's all thanks to the fact I noticed the name of the director from beforehand. John Stockwell isn't a real filmmaker; he's a wannabe with an unhealthy fetish for famous actresses in colorful bikinis on the posters of his films! Kate Bosworth in "Blue Crush", Jessica Alba in "Into the Blue", half a dozen of sexy chicks in "Turistas" and now Halle Berry in "Dark Tide". The only recurring aspects that draw attention are the bikinis on the cover. I don't know John, but it's becoming rather difficult to convince us that you want to be seen as a serious director. The plot of "Dark Tide" features the dullest of stereotypes in the cast (traumatized heroes, obnoxious businessmen dying from cancer …) and immediately reverts to the worst clichés (troubled father-son relationships, heroine facing her demons…). The only thing worse than the dialogs are the miscast actors and actresses citing them. None of the cast members display any sort of conviction or emotion, and why should they? It's nothing but sheer nonsense anyway. If you do, however, make the mistake to watch "Dark Tide" you can at least enjoy the Cape Town filming locations and the shark footage.

This is one of the worse movies I have ever seen. The cast is absolutely horrible. The acting is horrible. The plot is horrible. Don't waste a minute of your time on this movie.

i actually really enjoyed this,if you like the ocean you like great white sharks then this is perfect for you.The acting is pretty decent,the cinematography is really good i'm mean it looks absolutely real!o.k maybe these guys were asking for trouble,but then again there are people that do this everyday out in South Africa and i bet if you talked to every single one of them they could tell you of some seriously close calls,after all you are dealing with the oceans second top predator.(and even though sharks mistake us for food as we are not their usual prey,rogue sharks do exist and have to be killed it happens all over the world so anyone that says sharks don't blindly attach humans are misinformed...anyway)I though it was better than Open Water both one and two and if think there's been loads such as adrift etc etc.The action is great there is some emotional depth between the two main protagonists and to me it seemed like a very enjoyable film.I'd give it a 6.6 out of ten.i thoroughly enjoyed it.Check it out for yourself.

The plot of Dark Tide is not good. Character development is overacted to the point of parody while also completely underdeveloped. None of us care about any single one of these Characters, or their relationships. Halle Berry works with what she's been given, but she is miscast in this movie and she's about as good of an actor as Kristen Stewart. Sure, she is beautiful, but her acting has never been believable or diverse in anything I've ever seen her in. She's very much one flavor only, and I feel she only ever puts in "just" what's required of her and nothing more. Zero charisma.

All that said, this plot, the story, the characters, the conflicts and situations, the decisions, the choices, predicaments, dynamics of characters and their relationships, the proposals and screenplay are NOT believable. At all. Half of the movie is unnecessary entirely. We don't need, or care about, the arguments between a husband and wife, exes, a greedy and selfish father and son, and we don't, or even care to, understand what all of Halle's overacted anger and mood swings are about. There are WAY too many conflicts, one on top of the other, and a snowball of ridiculously dumb decisions.

But, when it comes to the sharks, that is all very believable. They are not dangerous, but when you tease them and provoke them, they tease back... it's worth a watch. Once.