The Shallows [2 Disc 4K Ultra-HD] [Blu-ray] [2016] [Region Free]

I'm amazed that I like this film. There's apparently something wrong with me, as I can't usually stand watching Blake Lively. The idea of a Gossip Girl marathon sounds as agreeable as cramp. I thought she was pointless screen-adornment in Green Lantern (which I suppose is understandable as the film was about her character's boyfriend). Even in Oliver Stone's brutal Savages, she occasionally came across as a self-impressed clotheshorse trying on acting for size.The Shallows not only made me eat my words, it made me enjoy doing so.Lively shoulders almost the entire film as Nancy, who has dropped out of Med-school following the death of her beloved mother, and decided to go travelling. The latest stop on her trip is the beach where her mother went surfing when she first realised she was pregnant with Nancy. The idea sounds trite, but comes off sweet. Lively sells us on Nancy's deep feelings for her mother and need to find a connection in order to move on with her life, but with a free-spirited and self-reliant charm that hugely endeared me to the performance. Nancy is not a self-obsessed millennial; yes she has a slight over-fondness for her phone, but has inherited a powerful belief in her own strength and self-reliance...one that powers all of the major events to follow.After a brief opening where she tries to joke with a local across a language barrier, she finds 'her mother's' beach and we get impressively filmed surfing scenes and some amusing banter with two locals. But following a depressing call home, Nancy decides to hit the waves one last time on the now deserted beach, and spots something unusual bobbing in the current. The object spells trouble, and she finds herself suddenly and violently fighting for survival against a shark that's staked a claim to the area for practical reasons not usually explored in shark thrillers.What follows is much more inventive and fast paced than the 'woman stuck on a rock' film that I expected, with several other characters entering the frame, and a lot of terrifying near-misses and shark-peril scenes. The thrills are inventive, thanks to the reef, scenery and objects in the water, and director Collet-Sera's unusually flashy technique turns out to be a bonus. I'd imagined his very tech-heavy flashy style of phone messages appearing in mid air (as if we're seeing them while looking at the surroundings, as used in Non-Stop) would distract from proceedings, but instead it proves brilliantly adept at welcoming us into Nancy's memories, background and family relationships, as well as helping to flesh out sequences where there'd otherwise be very little dialogue.The surfing filming is utterly gorgeous (bubbles trail from nostrils, as surfers dive under oncoming waves in slow motion) and the rest of the filming is equally technically innovative while being a treat for the eyes. The shark is largely very good indeed - a step above most CG creatures in a sense of presence and reality. There are one or two brief shots where it seems less impressive, and at the end it seems to get a little bigger, but it's not a problem. Lively is the greatest asset. While all the performers do a very good job in general, she allows her very pretty character to get realistically chewed and slashed, pale, bruised, bedraggled and downright rough-looking in a terrific performance.The script has some daft moments, and one or two predictable sections, but many times you'll assume something is a set-up for an attack or a kill, and find it's not the case. And the big fight for survival at the end of the film is both slightly bonkers and one of the most gutsy and exciting human vs predator scenes of recent years.The Shallows may not be an instant classic, but it shows that terrific shark thrillers and revelatory acting performances are still possible when they're least expected.

I loved this movie. Not enough good killer shark movies out there, certainly not compared to these made for TV schlockfests that get churned out year on year out.At 1 hours 20 minutes it doesn't plod along like too many movies nowadays and is a horror-thriller about a woman trapped on a rock at sea who needs to outwit a circling great white so she can make it back to shore. The tension builds for each of her attempts to save herself, and between these scenes deals with her attempts to patch up her wounds, survive exposure to the elements etc. It's a man vs nature story, with a low body out. Anyone wanting the shark to eat 20 or 30 people during the course of the movie should look elsewhere (and you don't have to go far for them), here the death scenes are minimalist - in fact one death I think would have been more powerful I think if they didn't show the body after the attack, and had just ended it with Blake Lively's reaction - but alas.The movie's certainly acted well, and given Lively doesn't have many co-stars to act off of, she does a good jobs selling to fear, distress and desperation through her facial expressions. I did notice though the make-up is a little inconsistent with her sunburn and dried out skin sometimes not matching the scenes immediately before and after, but overall she does look like someone who's been on a rock for 24 hours by the end of the movie rather these other movies always looks like she's at a photo-shoot regardless of what she's been through.The shark itself looks very good, and while its cg, when the shark makes a lunge for Lively it looks like this thing is in screen with her as opposed to looking like it was added afterwards on a computer.I know there were two campaigns to boycott this movie when it was in the cinema which I think were completely unjust. The most obvious one was the one claiming it shows sharks in a bad light, and yes while a real shark wouldn't stalk someone like this one, in the end its a movie monster based on a real life animal. So yes the shark is wasting far too much energy trying to get Lively than a real animal would, but its fiction, just enjoy the monster movie and don't over think it. The second was the one upset that Lively's wearing a swimsuit... in the end the movie's about a female surfer, I don't know what else they think she would be wearing, strangely nobody seemed to have a problem with the male characters wearing shorts. In the end the movie's main interest for Lively's body is the beating it takes during the course of her survival attempts (and how she overcomes these) rather than sex appeal.Ultimately the boycotters had stupid reasons. The movie's tense and enjoyable, if you like horror-thrillers then watch it.

It's a great movie fun and nice . Lots of snappy times .

I love shark films and this is one of my favourites. Apart from the very beginning, the whole film is centred around a girl who is stuck out at sea with a shark circling around. Despite this, it’s a great film and I didn’t find it repetitive or lacklustre at all. Great story, good acting, perfect ending.

Likely to get you behind the sofa scared movie - BUT i skipped through the beginning bits as I didn't find back story that interesting and there was a long scene of surfing, so if you start from 0:20 where she is chilling in the water on her own that's where the action picks up. If you're after 47 meters down / Jaws shark vs human thrills then it ticks the box! The suspense build was excellent as was her constantly changing situations and the challenges she had to meet. Naturally there was a bit of daftness which i think comes with the territory with any shark movie - but it didn't detract from the story, I mean, we want to be shouting at the screen don't we in a scary movie!? "Don't do it you'll never make it! Why did you leave your phone on the beach and tell no-one where you are - idiot!" The shark scenes were realistic enough to make you jump, so go for it if that;s what you're after!

A product that I have wanted for sometime.Also at a good price.

The best shark movie in decades....absolutely amazing movie.