The Shallows [Includes Digital Copy] [Blu-ray] [2016]

Very well done thriller Movie. Absolutely loved this movie. Highly reccomend this movie to anyone that loves thrillers.

Blake Lively is amazing in this shark attack film! Nice artwork!

Best shark movie probably since Jaws.Keeps you on the edge of your seat!

If you like shark movie, this one ranks pretty high.

If you're a BIG fan of Blake Lively -- as I am -- you're gonna love this photogenic treat! This Blake Lively film ranks right up there with the excellently directed (and talented cinematography) of Oliver Stone's directorship of SAVAGES (2012)! And this film, THE SHALLOWS (2016) rivals her magnificently supreme performance by Blake Lively (with Anna Kendrick) in A SIMPLE FAVOR (2018). Blake Lively is a diverse multi-character talented actress who is a real visual photogenic treat to watch. For example, her nuanced, beautiful acting performance and lean-body physical presence (showcasing her face, especially) in THE AGE OF ADELINE (2015). She has beautiful legs and a female body that just won't quit! In this film, her physical attributes are well showcased here along with great cinematography of surfing waves, coral reefs, and sharks! It is a taut survival thriller with a Great White Shark that provides an excellent backdrop-of-a-story-and-plot for her beautiful nuanced face, female figure, and physicality, emotions and well-honed acting skills! If you like "marine-styled films" [(like the very old, the groundbreaking, but "ancient," THE BEACH (Leonardo DiCaprio) or Jessica Alba's INTO THE BLUE],... or "surfing films" like Keanu Reeves' POINT BREAK, et al.,... This movie is for you. This film, THE SHALLOWS, is for you -- especially more so if you like TASTEFULLY filmed, NON-Glorified, NON-overly grossly filmed, NON-"Excessively-Horror" Shark Films, too! This is a nicely done TAUT Thriller, not an overly-sensationalized "JAWS-like" film. If you want the latter, there are PLENTY of those around! -- This movie, THE SHALLOWS, would probably be at least, "slightly disappointing," for you. For me, I bought it for the visual treat of an extremely photogenic, very talented actress, Blake Lively! I bought it for Blake Lively in the setting and themes of being immersed in a very beautiful serene and secluded TROPICAL BEACH! [And then the movie turns into a very-waterbound, (with a menacing Great White Shark) "Taut Survivalist Thriller!"] This film is a $7.99 DVD investment, well-spent FOR ME(!) with multiple DVD viewings already under my belt! I was already enthralled and enchanted after seeing it twice on the Big Screen in movie theaters!

In a sea (my big book of puns was handy) of bad shark movies, this one works. This sort of plot you understand even before buying the DVD, if not... Just off-shore, a great white shark strands a girl on a rock. Simple. Most horror films are simple. What makes or breaks them is execution and this one is well executed. The setting and filmography are first rate - this is a beautifully shot film. The special effects are terrific and the shark looks very real. The acting is solid as Blake Lively convinces as the film's hero. The villain (shark), again looks real, and is presented as the lurking terror that would scare anyone. The pace is steady and effective as the stakes continue to rise throughout. This is a Hollywood monster movie so yes, the shark does a few things that are skeptically farfetched: knocks a whale twenty feet, catches on fire, bites through metal, and pursues a lone surfer like a vengeful stalker in a Lifetime movie. Most of those things I could also attribute to Jaws - so let's take it easy, lighten up, and not forget that we're watching a monster movie. While this is not Jaws, this film contains enough to deliver what it should. A decent grab-the-popcorn, let's-take-scary-ride-and-be-entertained, what-if story.

In a sea (my big book of puns was handy) of bad shark movies, this one works. This sort of plot you understand even before buying the DVD, if not... Just off-shore, a great white shark strands a girl on a rock. Simple. Most horror films are simple. What makes or breaks them is execution and this one is well executed. The setting and filmography are first rate - this is a beautifully shot film. The special effects are terrific and the shark looks very real. The acting is solid as Blake Lively convinces as the film's hero. The villain (shark), again looks real, and is presented as the lurking terror that would scare anyone. The pace is steady and effective as the stakes continue to rise throughout. This is a Hollywood monster movie so yes, the shark does a few things that are skeptically farfetched: knocks a whale twenty feet, catches on fire, bites through metal, and pursues a lone surfer like a vengeful stalker in a Lifetime movie. Most of those things I could also attribute to Jaws - so let's take it easy, lighten up, and not forget that we're watching a monster movie. While this is not Jaws, this film contains enough to deliver what it should. A decent grab-the-popcorn, let's-take-scary-ride-and-be-entertained, what-if story.

The current trend in films toward the single actor survival genre as produced many great films. Gravity, the Revenant, The Martian, all focus largely on a single actor as they struggle with an overwhelming situation. The Shallows is another entry into this genre and is also very well done by in large. These types of films give an actor a great deal of screen time, and thus a great deal of time to well, act. Blake Lively does a fine job demonstrating the agony of not only her physical wounds but also of being so close to salvation. The shark as a villain as opposed to a force of nature is interesting. Although I think the studio anthropomorphized the shark a little bit for effect. While a shark may attempt to defend a whale carcass from competition, it does spend an inordinate time pursuing the humans. A dead whale would draw sharks from far and wide, and the shark would likely have to return to the carcass to defend it from other predators. That wouldn't make for much of a movie however, so the shark pursues the humans with something akin to a human grudge. While perhaps not an accurate representation of shark behavior, it does make for a thrilling movie! One that perhaps isn't as good as the very best in this genre, but a solid entry non the less.