User reviews

The Shallows knows exactly what it is, and that's the best praise I can give it. It's barely 90 minutes long, has a small cast, and only one location. Its only purpose is to give you a thrill-ride during that time; an adrenaline rush based on an ubiquitous fear among humans: being stranded in the ocean with a shark. However as the title suggests, this doesn't take place in the middle of the ocean. This woman is stranded only a couple hundred yards from the shore, close enough to potentially shout for help. What The Shallows does so well is establish this sense of isolation and hopelessness for our main character, and her situation of being so close yet so far from safety.

Blake Lively is great in this role. It's mostly a reactionary role - not much dialogue aside from some early establishing conversations to develop her character. For the majority of the film Lively is terrified and fighting for survival against a deadly shark. This thing is huge, like the Jaws' shark's father huge. And it's interesting to see how she follows its patterns and observes its behavior, allowing her to act accordingly without being trapped. There are some far-fetched scenes, sure, but Jaws had them as well and it's hailed as a classic. Now I'm not saying The Shallows is as good a movie as Jaws, because it certainly isn't. But again, the movie knows what it is, and as a short shark thriller appealing solely to our primal fear, it gets the job done and then some.

Now, it has its faults. The electronic music during the surfing scenes was immediately off-putting, and there are some slo-mo shots that definitely did not deserve to be in slo-mo. But the directing as a whole is well done - gorgeous sweeping shots of the open ocean, the slow build up before the initial attack, showing the shark only when it's most effective. The writing is clever and practical, relatable to the point that you feel for this character's predicament, and the acting as I said is top notch. The Shallows doesn't break any new ground, but it does exactly what it sets out to do - give the audience yet another reason to avoid the beach.

People often underestimate or under-appreciate the ability to produce a genuinely good B-movie. There's Renny Harlin on one end of the spectrum, making crap like The Legend of Hercules, 12 Rounds, and The Covenant. But then you have someone like Jaume Collet-Serra, who knows a thing or two about framing a scene, getting good performances from his actors, and above all, making an entertaining movie.

The Shallows could have been an otherwise conventional and forgettable thriller without Collet-Serra's strong and stylish direction. For example, the scene when Blake Lively's character first gets attacked by the shark is beautifully composed - in one unbroken take, no less - and legitimately nightmarish, with the red blood slowly overtaking the blue screen. It also doesn't hurt that Lively successfully carries the entire film on her shoulders, giving what is arguably the best performance in her career to date. There's a quiet fierceness and admirability to her character that makes it easy to root for her survival.

Overall, there's a lot to like about The Shallows. It's gorgeously shot, suspenseful, emotionally gratifying, and entirely successful on what it sets out to be - a solid B-movie, and it takes skill to pull that off. Sure, it doesn't match the heights of either Gravity or The Martian, but then again, its budget is a mere fraction of what those films cost.

At first i thought it going to be a boring movie after reading all the negative reviews. After watching, i was pleasantly surprised. I love the special effects especially of the big white shark , the crystal clear water , the jelly fish and etc. The movie was well paced, i wasn't bored even for a single second even though 80% of screen time is only with blake lively and the bird. And it ended well with an unexpected climax albeit a little far fetched.

i will probably watch it again.

7/10.Definitely watchable if you don't get your expectations too high.

The Shallows is a cool and helpful film, it is also a movie that has many risks of being boring, since much of the film is set on an isolated rock in the sea, and the main one has to survive, not to be killed by A shark, the cast is good, I was surprised Blake Lively's performance, she proved to be a good actress, obviously not a memorable performance, but she did well, the rest of the cast does not compromise, the visual effects are good, the Visual of the shark is OK, the rhythm starts well, but loses a little strength in the progress, the soundtrack combines with the film, the film has tense moments, the script has some problems, and the film unfortunately loses its force in the third act , Plus The Shallows is recommended, even more who likes movies of that same style. Note 6.8

A young American woman goes surfing alone at a secluded beach in Mexico but finds herself stranded on a rock with a hungry great white shark circling. And a seagull called Steve for company! This makes a great change from the glut of ridiculous shark movies "inspired" by the likes of 'Sharknado". No roaring shark (I didn't hear any anyway) and no CGI that looks like they were done by a 5 year old. Sure, there are goofs and gaffs, and I felt that the final showdown was pretty silly. However it is nicely filmed, has decent effects, plenty of tension and Blake Lively does a good job as the heroine. She also looks mighty fine in a bikini!

Steven Spielberg has a lot to answer for. Ever since he made Jaws in 1975 there have been countless attempts on the big screen to emulate that film and all have failed. Some have been excruciatingly bad but thankfully The Shallows isn't one of those. This is the story of Nancy who travels to a secluded beach to surf . While in the water , she is hunted by a great white shark and finds herself stranded on a rock with the tide going out . Wounded and with time running out she battles to get away from the shark. Probably the best thing about this film is performance of Blake Lively. She definitely carries this film. The action is pretty good although totally predictable and it looks great up until the use of CGI underwater when it starts to look like a scene from a Sharks Tale. At a pleasant running time of 84 minutes , The Shallows is good bit of escapism but like every other shark film , it's no Jaws.

The movie is very particular in setting up perimeters and rules. And making it as believable as possible, that in a modern time like this, someone would not be able to call for help (apart from the usual "no service" kind of cheat other movies do when it comes to Cell Phones). And if you buy into it, it works.

There's also the question why Livelys character goes there in the first place. Well even that is explained, so there is no doubt about motive too. What never is explained though, is not where the Shark came from or why it got there, but how it's possible that it's so bloodthirsty! We're talking Jason Vorhees or any other Slasher movie kind of mad. Maybe even more mad than that.

And while you could easily go, well it's a movie, it kind of breaks it's own rules there. Because everything seems logical (explaining mentioned), even the character and her ability to deal with (graphic) wounds ... but not the shark, who is really a monster if you come to think of it. But if you don't care about internal logic, like the view (no pun intended) and the thrill of it, you will have a good (scary) time watching this!

Exactly what it was supposed to be.

A bit formulaic, but really what can one do with a shark?

Blake Lively was amazing. If nothing else, you should watch this for her Riply-esque performance and strength in the face of complete torment and almost certain death.

If you don't know what that means, you should not be reading movie reviews.

I'd recommend this movie to any adult who likes the suspense/horror genre. Good watch.

I have a couple of issues with this film (occasionally too much CGI, and a weird ending) but for the majority of its brief, 86-minutes-long run, this is a riveting film, exquisitely filmed in the Gold Coast of Australia, about a survivor of a shark attack clinging to life, figuratively and literally, on the side of a rock 200 feet from shore, with the shark still circling the waters.

Normally watered down PG13-rating gives way to some surprisingly grisly bursts of gore, as she tries to suture her wounds with makeshift surgical tools, and a couple of brutal attack scenes.

The film makes the most of a small cast, and Blake Lively carries the film almost entirely herself, spending at least two thirds of the film completely isolated. Well, she's not completely alone, she also has Steven "Sully" Seagull, as himself.

Entertaining 'shark' movie that adds a modern twist to the Jaws films of the 1970s and 80s. The location is supposed to be some surfers paradise beach in Mexico (in reality filmed in Australia) where a lone surfer Nancy (Blake Lively) ends up stranded a mere 200m from the safety of the beach by an angry Carcharadon carcharias (Great White Shark).

Nancy heavily losing blood from a deep leg wound ends up finding solace on a rock. To add to the screenplay she is befriended by a seagull she names Steven. Do you get the joke Steven Seagull? The shark effects are all cleverly added by CGI which of course Steven Spielberg didn't have available at the time of shooting Jaws in 1975. I suppose there is little manoeuvre for the screenplay. Don't get me wrong an entertaining watch but just highlights for me how good Jaws was.

The Shallows (2016)

*** (out of 4)

Nancy (Blake Lively) heads to a secluded beach in Mexico that her mother had visited years earlier. The plan is to surf and reflect on her life but soon she's fighting for it when she's attacked by a Great White shark.

THE SHALLOWS has been called the best shark movie since JAWS and it's easy to see why so many people are falling in love with it. Director Jaume Collet-Serra has certainly created one of the more memorable thrillers of the past few years and while there's a lot of scenes with the shark the director also manages to build up suspense without seeing it. This is certainly a movie where the director has full control of the experience and he really delivers a nice little gem.

The greatest thing about the movie is certainly it's suspense factor. Going into the movie you already know that there's a shark that is going to attack so this immediately gets you ready for what's to come. What works so well is the fact that everything goes as you'd expect but at the thirty minute mark things take a bigger turn and we get several more twists and surprises. I'm obviously not going to ruin them here but there's no doubt that there are several scenes that will have your stomach in a knot as you wait to see where the next attack is going to come from.

The director delivers all sorts of great excitement and there's no doubt that the shark attacks are wonderfully done. What's so great about them is that the shark looks 100% real and there's never any feeling that you're watching a CGI shark like DEEP BLUE SEA or some other crap movie you'd see on SyFy. The movie also works whenever the shark isn't attacking because the director builds up such a relationship between the viewer and the Nancy character that you can't help but feel suspense even when the shark isn't there.

Lively turns in a very good performance as she perfectly hits on several emotional marks. Oscar Jaenada also deserves a lot of credit for the few scenes that he is in. There are a few flaws here and there, including a horrible ending but there's no question that THE SHALLOWS delivers the goods.

I was trying to kill a bit of time, hence the reason why I went to see this movie, not expecting much. I was actually surprised at the quality of the filming locations, the camera work, the special effects, and the lack of any serious plot holes or stretches of the imagination.

A young woman goes surfing on a "secret" beach in Mexico and discovers that she has unknowingly entered into the feeding ground of a great white shark.

The comparisons to *Jaws* will be unavoidable. I will not give out any serious spoilers here but the only thing that really let me down to any degree was the ending. (Go see it and you'll see what I mean).

Definitely not a terrible way to spend 85 minutes of your time. Grab some popcorn, for sure!

A medical student, Nancy, takes some time off from her studies and heads to a secluded beach in Mexico to surf. While surfing she is attacked by a large shark, leaving her injured and stranded on a rock not too far out to sea. What follows is a battle of wits and wills between her and the shark.

Quite a basic plot line, yet filled with much intrigue and tension. Initially reminded me of Open Water, but follows a different course, from a point. While both have a survival vs sharks central plot, Open Water had much more character depth, adding another dimension to the movie. The Shallows is purely about survival, and what that entails.

Absolutely bloody fantastic! The photography is amazing, the location is breathtaking, Blake Lively's performance is incredible and the entire production is fantastic! Nerve-wreckingly suspenseful and brilliant! The scenery is great and wonderfully photographed, so its best viewed on Blu Ray.

I'm not a fan of Blake's, but she was highly commendable in this Jaws- On-Steroids survival thriller that reads as though it were based in truth.

As a nursing school dropout haunted and derailed by memories of her moms inevitable demise, she's very good and so is the scripting. She was greatly convincing. Any shortcoming would be due the script. The surfing scenes were pretty good too, not overtly Hollywood, would have liked to have seen more. The faded split-screen for us on the phone was well done too. I love that drunk Mexican on the beach, he was great! 10/10! It doesn't seem likely that the shark would have been so focused on her given their behavioral facts. A shark chewing through any entire steel ocean buoy, for example, reaches hella far, even for the most aggressive species... especially when there's an uncontested whale buffet 100 foot away. Sure, she and others ventured into a feeding ground but why such focused aggression on her - venturing so far as to haunt her for days and take such pain to get her-?! Lots to talk about here.

It first I didn't know what to expect from this movie, as it has become so hard to take shark movies seriously, however The Shallows not only surprised me, it is the best shark movie since Jaws and honestly the best creature feature in ages!

At only 85 minutes, this movie absolutely makes the most of that run-time and its 17 million dollar budget and delivers a tense, gripping, stress inducing movie that will constantly keep you on the edge of your seat. Blake Lively is on her way to stardom, as she carries this entire movie and is able to act without speaking, which is insanely hard to do. You care about her and you want her character to survive. The movie is insanely smart and the Director deserves all the credit in making a movie that honestly should not have worked and made it a classic in this genre.

The shark is absolutely terrifying and the way Lively is able to not only face off against this shark, but how she is able to make the most over her situation while being under-prepared was not only intelligent, but believable. The story is simple, straight forward, believable and so genuinely crafted, stylishly executed, and not a single scene is wasted. Director Jaume Collet- Serra will have no problem landing a future big budget Hollywood Blockbuster and Blake Lively will soon find herself as a leading lady more often.

The Shallows is the biggest surprise of the year, with gripping tension, a career performance from Blake Lively, beautiful scenery, an amazing story of will and survival and one big, mean, scary shark, The Shallows is a Summer movie that you don't want to miss! 9 out of 10

The Shallows (2016)

I'm guessing somewhere at some time someone said: "Hey you think Blake Lively can hold a movie on her own?" To which I imagine the response was "What sort of casting director would try that?"

Blake Lively is more than just a pretty face. The director makes sure you see her face, with the entire film being about her experience. So if she couldn't act then any audience would notice. I enjoyed her acting. She was believable and convincing that she was the character. If she can make me forget that she was Serena from Gossip Girl then that's great.

The film has problems. The shark isn't up to modern day graphics. Neither were the dolphins. Also the ending was bad. It's not how you expect it to end, which is good.

I think the bad ending it due to the writer, Anthony Jaswinski. This is his first major film and it shows.

I noticed some directorial flaws, or maybe they were intentional. Jaume Collet-Serra is good at keeping the flow of a movie going, I just wished there was better shots.

Verdict: If you're easily frightened, this film could scare you. If you're a horror movie junkie then it'll be too vanilla. Worth watching.

I can suspend disbelief with the best of them, a shark becomes vengeful towards a human, no problem, an exhausted woman can ride a turbo charged chain to extreme depth, fine, mobile phone coverage on an isolated beach in Mexico, sure, they have great infrastructure.

What I absolutely cannot accept is that high tide does not follow low tide by a little over six hours. It's the same the world over and is invariable. A hot girl in a bikini can persuade me of almost anything, but not that she can change the speed the moon revolves around the earth.

To add to this marine quibble, the story tells us there's 25 minutes to high tide, but the rock she's sitting on is still two feet above the water. Now if she'd been marooned on a rock in the Bristol Channel, where there's a huge tidal range, it's just possible the rock could have been covered 25 minutes later. Of course it's pretty cold, so no bikini, and there aren't any killer sharks, so no tension.

The rest of the film is extremely silly. She should have eaten the bird.

A US surfer gets stuck in the shallows hunted by a great white shark.

There is only so much you can do with a shark movie but this still manages to entertain despite the relative predictability of it. It's well filmed and makes the most of a beautiful setting.

There is some decent tension built up and some predictably bloody deaths. There are some nice touches done with the local wildlife of jellyfish,dolphins and gulls which all helps you keep your interest and makes you forget you've seen this all before.

This is an entertaining and decent entry into the shark movie genre and worth watching with a couple of beers on a Saturday night.