La Dernière Plongée

In the British Virgin Islands, Noah (Jack Parr) and Levi (Julian Sands) discover the wreck of USS Charlotte which sank during WWII. The wreck is pristine after being buried all those years. Noah's college friends, Sam (Kim Spearman), Brett (Alexander Arnold), Riley (Erin Mullen), and Logan (Arlo Carter), have come for a reunion. Arrogant Brett insists on diving the unexplored wreck despite cash-strapped Noah's warning.

This is an average B-movie for the first half, maybe even the first two thirds. It's nothing special. The dive suits restrict the performances. There is the standard annoying character and people being stupid. Then the movie starts piling on some bad writing. When they go back to the surface, the sharks look worst and worst. Finally, there are a couple of really stupid shark scenes. It tries for awhile but it can't escape its bad shark movie genes.

Every summer, as sure as there will be lazy days at the beach, there will undoubtedly be a shark movie. This year sees a couple, including The Last Breath. Every shark movie since 1975 owes a bucket of chum to Jaws. Whether intentional or not, every movie where a dorsal breaks the surface pays homage to the original fish tale. Jaws is sublime, and its effectiveness lies more in the interest of characterization than waiting for a mechanical monster to pop up. The flaw in most shark films post-Jaws is uninteresting characters and the emphasis on cheap thrills. The Last Breath rides this flaccid wave. The film merely treads water enough to remind audiences that they could instead watch Jaws.

Full Review at Geek Vibes Nation.

When I stumbled upon this 2024 movie, I didn't know what I was in for. All I knew was that it was a new shark-themed movie that I hadn't seen, and thus I opted to sit down and watch it. Yeah, I do have a thing for shark movies, despite the vast majority of them being questionable affairs.

And imagine my surprise when I saw that this movie has Julian Sands on the cast list. He has always been one of my favorite actors, and it was quite a nice surprise to get to sit down and watch this last movie that he starred in. And knowing that he will not be making more movies, sort of made it a bit of an emotional affair to see him on the screen.

Writers Andrew Prendergast and Nick Saltrese put together an enjoyable and entertaining storyline. It was a pretty straightforward storyline, so you can essentially just lean back and watch the action on the screen whilst munching on some snacks. I like the concept of the storyline, which takes your average generic shark-themed storyline and adds a twist to it. I have to say that I was genuinely entertained throughout the course of the movie.

The acting performances in the movie were good. The only performer that I was familiar with on the cast list was Julian Sands. It should be noted, though, that they had a good ensemble of actors and actresses for the roles, and they performed well.

Visually then the movie was good. It wasn't the type of shark movie that make usage of stock footage of sharks swimming around, and that spoke well in favor of the movie. The sharks looks real and moves realistic, adding a lot to the overall enjoyment of the movie.

If you enjoy shark movies, like I do, then "The Last Breath" is definitely well-worth sitting down and watching. I was genuinely entertained throughout the course of the 96 minutes that the movie ran for, and it is a movie that I warmly recommend you to sit down and watch.

My rating of director Joachim Hedén's 2024 movie "The Last Breath" lands on a six out of ten stars.

A group of college friends reunite for a Caribbean scuba diving adventure, exploring a sunken WWII battleship. However, they become trapped in the rusted underwater maze, with great white sharks at every turn.

Joachim Heden delivers a watchable shark tale, but don't expect the likes of The Shallows, 47 Meters Down, The Reef, Open Water, or even Shark Bait, to name a few.

Andrew Prendergast and Nick Saltrese's script is talky for the first half hour, with the usual setup tropes: friends having a good time, water-shark-kill. It's drawn out, but Heden offers some tense moments in the third act, where the digital sharks look on form. The CGI is a mixed bag, at times very convincing. While not as well executed, the underwater settings are at times reminiscent of Mako (2021) and Deep Fear (2023).

There's a lot of reflection with the characters, and the melancholiness matches the odd whimsical soundtrack. Actress Kim Spearman is notable and does a great job with what she's given. Jack Parr has screen presence and is likable and memorable. The film is dedicated to the late Julian Sands, and it's a pity this is one of his posthumous films. Still, in his brief role, he acts the chops off it.

Overall, it's better than The Requin (2022) and countless other low-budget shark films out there.

Another movie about dumb, smart people. At every turn, I turn into that black guy in the theater that's yelling "oh, come on!" Or "Get the f**k outta here!". Because one of these "geniuses" does something so stupid that it makes absolutely no sense. There's a couple people in this movie that from the beginning. I just kept thinking oh I hope they get eaten. Now. It's up to three. But, one down.

Personally, I think it's bad writing when somebody does absolutely everything right. Just as I believe it's bad writing when everybody does everything absolutely wrong. It's not realistic. I understand panicking under stressful situations but these characters did stupid stuff before they got into the situation. Which only complicated the situation it was just so predictively dumb.