✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

You have reached the limit of free articles.


To enjoy unlimited access to Culture Whisper sign up for FREE.
Find out more about Culture Whisper

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy

Each week, we send newsletters and communication featuring articles, our latest tickets invitations, and exclusive offers.

Occasional information about discounts, special offers and promotions.


OR
LOG IN

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

Thanks for signing up to Culture Whisper.
Please check your inbox for a confirmation email and click the link to verify your account.



EXPLORE CULTURE WHISPER
✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy
Forgot your username or password?
Don't have an account? Sign Up

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

If you click «Log in with Facebook» and are not a Culture Whisper user, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and to our Privacy Policy, which includes our Cookie Use

Support Us Login
  • Home
  • Going Out
    • Things to do
    • Food & Drink
    • Theatre
    • Visual Arts
    • Cinema
    • Kids
    • Festival
    • Gigs
    • Dance
    • Classical Music
    • Opera
    • Immersive
    • Talks
  • Staying In
    • TV
    • Books
    • Cook
    • Podcast
    • Design
    • Netflix
  • Life & Style
    • Beauty
    • Fashion
    • Gifting
    • Wellbeing
    • Lifestyle
    • Shopping
    • Jewellery
  • Explore
  • Shopping
  • CW SHOPS
  • Support Us
  • Get Started
  • Tickets
  • CW SHOPS
Get the Best of London Life, Culture and Style
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
Cinema

The Shallows film review ★★★★★

12 Aug 16 – 12 Oct 16, Times vary

If you like shark movies and Blake Lively movies...

By CW Contributor on 8/8/2016

Blake Lively in The Shallows
Blake Lively in The Shallows
The Shallows film review 3 The Shallows film review Matthew Robinson
A beautiful woman trapped on a rock by a big shark. That’s the plot of The Shallows. The woman is played by Blake Lively. The shark is played by some pixels. The rock plays itself.


Something about the film recalls a line by comedian Louis CK: ‘Do you think that sharks would be embarrassed if they knew we could all see their fins sticking out the top of the water?’ Shark-attack films are inherently silly, and The Shallows is no different. Interestingly, it seems to be in on the joke only about half the time. The laughs come from the expository dialogue – Lively’s character often clunkingly ‘thinks aloud’ to herself – as much as from its mischievous willingness to traumatise its heroine.


Due to its blonde-heroine-versus-malevolent-nature subject, The Shallows has been compared to The Birds, but it’s more like a remake of Psycho: a remake that’s just 20 minutes of a naked woman showering followed by an hour of her wrestling with the knife-wielding assailant. It’s about as one-note, voyeuristic, and diverting as that description suggests.



If you arranged a quality-spectrum for killer shark films, with Jaws at one end and Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No! at the other, then The Shallows would swim back and forth between both extremes during its brief 86 minute running time. At its best, it’s a serviceable creature-feature that does exactly what it promises.


Director Jaume Collet-Serra has access to better special-effects technology than Steven Spielberg did in 1975, which means that he can have his Great White flip into the air like in a David Attenborough documentary. And while he doesn’t have Spielberg’s genius for characterisation – even his shark has a bolted-on backstory – he can ably manufacture a sense of jeopardy out of a situation that can only end one way. You’ll grip your seat’s armrests even as you scorn the goofiness.


In the end, your enjoyment of The Shallows depends on your susceptibility to dumb B-movies and to Blake Lively. Both are guilty pleasures that you can elect to indulge or ignore.


We forget, in our contemporary reverence for Jaws, that its original reviews were relatively dismissive. The New York Times called it ‘the sort of nonsense that can be a good deal of fun’. The same can be said of The Shallows.



What The Shallows film review
Where Various Locations | MAP
Nearest tube Leicester Square (underground)
When 12 Aug 16 – 12 Oct 16, Times vary
Price £determined by cinema
Website Click here for more details



Most popular

Things to do in London this weekend: 27–29 January
Things to do in London this weekend: 27–29 January
Harrison Ford in Shrinking, AppleTV+ (Photo: Apple)
What to watch on TV this week
Culture After Dark: The Best Museum Late Night Openings
Culture After Dark: the best museum late-night openings

Editor's Picks


  • 1. BETTER THAN THE BOOK?

    The most interesting literary adaptations in cinema

    2. WHAT TO WATCH

    We pick the best new Netflix titles

    3. POLITICAL DOCUMENTARIES

    Films to help you understand the modern world

Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).

Cinema

Action

Thriller

Blake Lively

You might like

  • Photo credit:  Maria Mochnacz PJ Harvey tour Hope Six Demolition Project concerts London October 2016 best gigs

    PJ Harvey, Brixton Academy

  • Jennifer Connelly and Ewan McGregor - American Pastoral, Philip Roth adaption 2016

    American Pastoral film review ★★★★★

  • Image: Tickled Poster tickled documentary review london best films august

    Tickled film review ★★★★★



  • The Culture Whisper team
  • Support Us
  • Tickets
  • Contact us
  • Press
  • FAQ
  • Privacy
  • Terms and conditions
  • Cookies
  • Discover
  • Venues
  • Restaurants
  • Stations
  • Boroughs
Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
×