Sharks are lethal. And by lethal I mean deadly. And by deadly I mean cool, interesting, magnificent creatures. But by and large they haven't been the subject of many good films sadly. Jaws of course is brilliant. A perfect film. In the 41 years since it was released there have been dozens of films about sharks but sadly I can count the good ones on my left hand. Happily The Shallows ups the number of good shark films by 1.
Its a nice short film, great to see in an age of bloated blockbusters. It has a very economic storyline. A woman who has an emotional attachment to a beach goes to said beach to surf and is attacked by a gigantic great white shark and has to use her wits and skills to survive.
If you've seen the trailers you might think its just another monster vs bikini clad babe but its much better than that. Great acting and some super tension and superb scenery elevates it far above z movie schlock. Blake Lively carries the film fantastically and has some fun scenes with a co-star who's name I won't ruin.
It gets a tad silly near the end but so did Jaws and no one ever complains about that. I'd urge anyone with a love of thrills and spills to go see it. There aren't many female led genre films around these days and we should support the ones that do get released.
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