There are so many shark movies out there that it’s somewhat
staggering. I’ve reviewed a few here on Geektastic Film Reviews myself (Super Shark, Sharknado, Ghost Shark),
but the constant flow of cheap killer fish faux epics make it hard to stay up
to date. But I am trying, and that’s what led me to Bait (Bait 3D in
theaters).
When a tsunami hits the shores of Australia, a group of
criminals and customers are trapped in a below ground supermarket. The floods
brought with it a couple of great white sharks that now swim through the aisles
looking for their next meal.
The set up is a little asinine, but it’s pulled off in a fun
and somewhat frightening way. I’ve actually had nightmares about this type of
scenario as a youngster, so the plot device of “sharks loose in a supermarket”
hit close to home for this dude. So right there this film gets an immediate
pass from me.
The script by Russell Mulcahy (director of Highlander, Resident Evil: Extinction and The
Shadow) and John Kim is decent for this genre. They actually manage to
build the characters up to a point where you give a shit if they live or die.
They also milk the suspense out of every single scenario they create once the
sharks are loose in the store. A few of the action bits are also surprisingly
well handled regardless of how far fetched some of them may be. My only gripe
is the overly cliché and hokey opening scene involving a lifeguard and a shark
which is made even worse by some ham fisted directing.
Director Kimble Rendall, who was a second unit director on
some mega budget epics like The Matrix
Reloaded/Revolutions, I, Robot, Ghost Rider and Underworld:
Rise of the Lycans, shows a steady hand and a lot of talent (I wouldn’t be
surprised if visual auteur Russell Mulcahy lent an assist once in a while) when
dealing with this somewhat cheesy material. The stupidly goofy opening scene
aside, he manages to keep things serious and fast paced once the sharks hit the
shoppers and the blood never really stops. Sure there are missteps along the
way, but they are minimal and nothing overly horrendous as to ruin the feel of
the film.
The acting is pretty solid. I was especially thrilled to see
Sharni Vinson so soon after her big breakout role in You’re Next. Her character is the complete opposite here, and the
fact that she’s in a bikini for the entire film made me smile. Seeing Julian
McMahon (Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer,
Nip/Tuck) playing someone other than
a crazy surgeon or Doctor Doom was a welcome change-up. He actually plays a
halfway decent dude here and shows that he has what it takes to be a leading
man again. The rest of the cast, Xavier Samuel, Richard Brancatisano, Alice
Parkinson and scores more are all up to the task and do what they do well.
But how does Bait
stack up against all the other shark movies out there? Well, I’d most directly
compare it to the aforementioned Deep
Blue Sea. The sharks here aren’t super smart, or smart in general, but they
are some of the most savage I’ve seen for a quite a while. They do almost
everything they can to get a bite of something, and the gore is abundant. It’s
nice to see an “R” rated flick in this sub-genre again since the majority of
them are made for the SyFy Channel. It doesn’t pull any punches and I was very
thankful for that. While it is nowhere as amazing as Jaws, or even Jaws 2 for
the matter, this is head and shoulders above 90% of the crap floating around
out there in the sea of bullshit shark flicks. While it certainly doesn’t break
any new ground, it certainly is watchable in all the best ways.
When Bait ended I
had a smile on my face. The action was great, the characters were likable, the
violence was spectacularly in your face and it was fun and mildly scary. I just
wish I had a chance to see it in 3D. I’m sure I would have gasped a few times.
Guaranteed.
I highly recommend this flick if you want to see a shark
attack flick done right.
3.5 out of 5
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