Everyone loves a good shark movie - except maybe surfers and sharks - and a new shark thriller has just swum into cinemas.
Starring Blake Lively and a big shark, The Shallows could take a healthy bite out of the box office this weekend.
The film features a beautiful, isolated beach, swaying palm trees, rolling waves and a pretty surfer - honestly, what could possibly go wrong?
Welcome to The Shallows, on a mission to get you into a cinema and out of the water.
Lively is med student and surfer Nancy, ready to hang some 10 on some gnarly as right-handers at a secret surf break in Mexico.
It's just Nancy and a couple of locals, and then one more local - a shark.
Soon Nancy's fledgling medical skills will come in handy, stranded on the only safe slab of rock in the bay nursing a rather gruesome bite to the leg, with the culprit somehow clever enough to work out that when the tide rises, the rest of his dinner will be served.
Jaws had the whole, 'Oh no, now the boat's sinking and we're fish food' thing going on, while The Shallows has the, 'Oh bollocks, I thought I was safe but the tide is rising' - adding an extra intensity to the man versus shark premise. It's not rocket science, but it works.
Jaws this is not, but that didn't stop me from a few yell-out-loud, freak-out fright moments. Shark or no shark, Lively in a bikini for 90 minutes will be enough to justify the ticket price for some, and the filmmakers certainly don't squander that opportunity.
A simple enough idea to work, yet too simple enough to be entirely memorable, The Shallows still made for a pretty good watch.
Three stars.
The Shallows:: Director: Jaume Collet-Serra :: Starring: Óscar Jaenada, Blake Lively, Sedona Legge, Brett Cullen, Janelle Bailey, Ava Dean:: Rating: M - Offensive language and content that may disturb:: Running Time: 86 minutes:: Release Date: In cinemas now
Newshub.
