This was 1 movie that did not get a lot of publicity. Unlike the other summer blockbuster movies with budget so large, this one only had a mere USD 17 million (though when converted to Indonesian Rupiah, it became a huge amount). From what I checked in some websites, it had already acquired income around 4 times its budget. So I guess people really loved to see this one. I was also quite fortunate to be able to see this movie on its premiere date in Indonesia, since my wife was having food tasting in the mall nearby my office and she was able to buy the tickets for us for 7 PM show. Anyway, what was the movie all about? Below is the very short version of the story.
Brief Story Line
Movie started with a kid playing football by himself on the beach and found a stranded helmet with a camera attached to it. He naturally opened the camera and watched some video of people surfing in the ocean nearby with the surprise ending. Scene moved to Nancy (Blake Lively - The Age of Adaline, Gossip Girls TV series, etc) was having a conversation with Carlos (Óscar Jaenada) in his car where they were headed towards some sort of secret beach. She was going to surf there. In this scene we would be shown that Nancy was supposed to go to surf with her friend but she could not make it.
Once they reached the location, Carlos left Nancy there to do the surfing and remind her not to surf at night. There were also 2 more guys who were surfing. Then there would be some great scenes of the ocean and Nancy surfing for a while with those surfers. After taking a break, she went back to the beach and having short conversation with her younger sister and her father (played by Brett Cullen), where we would know a little bit more about Nancy's background. She later went back to the ocean and getting ready for surfing again while the other 2 surfers returning to the beach.
While Nancy enjoying the ocean by herself, she realized there was a dead whale floating nearby. Perhaps feeling uneasy she later tried to go back to the beach. However, a great white shark was following her and knocked her off. She fell and injured herself on the reef and got bitten as well by the shark. Threatened with the shark who already smelled blood, Nancy decided to swim to the nearest reef and get on top of it. Being a medical student, Nancy had to try healing her leg. Even though the reef was not too far from the beach, but she was unable to call for help since the 2 other surfers have gone back with their car. She was now practically stranded on this reef only "accompanied" by a seagull who was injured too with the shark circling around waiting for Nancy to come down.
So can Nancy survived this nightmare? What was the reason this shark can be violent? Was there going to be other casualties? Find them all in this entertaining movie.
End of Brief Story Line
This movie was really exciting. Without having so much special effects, we would still be having the terrifying experience of watching the shark in close range. The sound effect was good, adding the tension effect, especially during the chasing scenes. The surfing scenes, the ocean and the beach scenes were also very beautiful.
Despite the movie practically only having Nancy as the main character, it did not feel boring. Instead we could feel the frustration, the sadness, the strength and the survival instinct of her. It was great to see also a person's transformation from feeling helpless to having nothing to lose and do crazy stunts.
I also believe that people who love beaches would enjoy watching this movie as I said earlier, the beach was actually very beautiful with white sand and very clean. Water was very clear from what we saw when the ocean was shown from above.
My most memorable scene would be the ending. Since it would be giving the spoiler, I would rather let you watch it by yourself.
So if you are interested in having yourself terrified of seeing shark chase with those big scary teeth, then this movie is definitely for you. I did not have the opportunity to watch the great shark movie long time ago (JAWS from 1975), which was a major success at that time and did scare a lot of people to go to the beach. So this one can definitely give you a fresh take in white shark attack. It's not as bloody as Jaws did, but it definitely gave the same impact on me and my wife (who was screaming most of the time the shark was shown. LOL).
Have fun and be terrified watching!
Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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