Movie Review: The Shallows

When I first saw the trailer of "The Shallows" I thought to myself "Oh no. Not another shark movie". 

I shrugged it off as another Jaws wannabe and then after a few weeks I was in the theater waiting to see "The Angry Birds" movie and I had brought a couple of my nephews with me and when the trailer to "The Shallows" came up, the eyes of my 10 year old nephew turned into plates. "Ohh...Shark" was all he said but you can tell that he was captivated. 

That made me think back to a time when I was a kid and my dad would chase us around in the pool with both hands on his head ala shark fins with matching "Dun..dun..dun..dun" from the Jaws soundtrack and my sister and I would run, wading through the pool, giggling with laughter. Then I was bit more forgiving about the upcoming "The Shallows". 

Towards the  release of the film, I kept on reading positive reviews about it, critics even praising Blake Lively's performance as her "The Revenant moment" and that made me officially look forward to seeing the film. 

Come advanced screening, I was in a room with all of my movie critic colleagues (Naks! Pagbigyan niyo na ko!) and we all gasped, shrieked and thankfully my seat mate was an acquaintance so I had no problem hitting him at edge of your seat moments. 

More survival movie rather than "Jaws" or any other Shark movie out there for that matter. 

"The Shallows" has Blake Lively's Nancy Adams, a medical student recovering from a family tragedy seek out a secret beach in Mexico to surf. While waiting to catch the last wave, Nancy is struck by a great white shark, who takes a bite out of her leg. Nancy escapes on a rock formation but soon realizes that she is trapped with the shark circling her and waiting for a moment to strike. 

With no one to help her and high tide coming in to soon submerge the rock where she's on, Nancy must think fast before it's too late. 

This MacGyver-in-a-bikini  puts up a fight, the shark certainly did not expect with nothing but her quick thinking, sheer determination to survive. 

Blake Lively delivers an impressive performance and makes you respect her more as an actor. You know she got the job because she's gorgeous but she can also act.  

Beautiful cinematography, isolated sounds and a play on slow-motion sequences adds to the cinematic experience. I heard some unexpected songs in the movie, which I quickly downloaded on Spotify and these are "Trouble" from The Neon Jungle and Sia's "Bird Set Free". 

9 out of 10 stars. This is a new shark movie for a new generation to sink their teeth into - "The Shallows" will be holding sneak peaks or advanced screenings on August 1 and 2 more on that here. Regular screenings will be on August 10.