Spoilers aweigh! Maneater may be flawed but it boasts an admirable commitment to fast, no-nonsense kills. For the shark it’s like one of those expensive 17-course taster menus where they whisk your plate away and something else instantly appears. And it is expensive for the shark, who eventually pays with — ding ding — its… Who dies / swims, who dares, wins: Maneater’s order of deaths, and that ending Read More
Maneater 2 stars
A young woman and her friends enjoying a boat trip off Hawaii are attacked by a vicious Great White, that seems to be hunting for fun rather than to survive. Shark movies are like buses. You wait ages, consoling yourself with giant crocodiles, reconstituted dinosaurs and blue hedgehogs, and then three come along in succession:… Maneater Read More
Grief, guilt, and that ending in The Reef: Stalked
Very spoilery. (If your looking for my review, it’s here.) There are surprisingly few deaths in The Reef: Stalked, as it’s as much about Nic coming to terms with her sister Cath’s murder, her own guilt at what happened and her grief-stricken reaction in the months after. Eventually the surviving friends have to work together… Grief, guilt, and that ending in The Reef: Stalked Read More
The Reef: Stalked 3 stars
Four women are hunted by a shark while on a seagoing kayaking adventure. Received wisdom is that sharks got a raw deal from Peter Benchley’s novel and Spielberg’s classic movie. Though they’ve now been so thoroughly rehabilitated — personally I trace it back to Viz magazine’s self-explanatory cartoon strip The Pathetic Sharks — it’s hard… The Reef: Stalked Read More
The ending of Great White
Who dies whines, who dares wins… (my review is here) There’s a lot of scrapping and moaning in Great White, followed by some screams and bubbly glugging. I should probably have titled this The ending of (the) Great White, as the poor maligned, five-metre murderous creature does die. As does the second great white (yikes,… The ending of Great White Read More
The Meg 3 stars
Even as a B-movie The Meg could have been scarier, funnier and sillier. But bitching about it would be like kicking a particularly boisterous, fluffy kitten. It’s quite enjoyable if not particularly memorable. There are a couple of terrific action set pieces, particularly Jonas being pulled through the sea at top speed with the Meg… The Meg Read More