No Way Up

No Way Up is a movie with a cool premise but doesn't manage to effectively hit the mark. It's the story of a small group of plane crash survivors, stranded in the wreckage of a jet at the bottom of the ocean. The air is dwindling, there's little hope of rescue and the plane is gradually tilting forwards into an immense oceanic abyss. What's worse, there are sharks on the prowl and they're very hungry.

In the early going, there's a lot of promise. The characters are introduced effectively with minimal fuss, and the movie wastes no time getting to the action. Roughly twenty minutes in, a bird strike leads to a catastrophic engine failure and the plane is soon hurtling towards the waves. The crash scene is really good, outdoing a similar moment in this year's Society Of The Snow with raw intensity. People are sucked through a gaping hole into the void and crushed in their seats on impact, and there's a brief but effective moment where two characters exchange looks after seeing water outside the windows before the plane starts to sink.

From there though, No Way Up falters. The survivors are stuck in the rear of the plane as predators hunt, but the film never matches the excitement of the crash. It's not as claustrophobic as it should be, nor as tense. The cast try their best, with Sophie McIntosh's resourceful heroine and Phyllis Logan's hard-as-nails Grandma being particularly good, but it never manages to capitalise on its full potential. No Way Up is okay and it certainly kills a boring ninety minutes, but the premise is better than the film.