THE REEF
Official Site:
Cast: Damian Walshe-Howling, Adrienne Pickering, Zoe Naylor, Gyton Grantley Rating: M for Violence and Coarse Language Tagline: Pray That You Drown First Theatrical Release: March 17, 2011 Retail Release: September 9, 2011 BOX OFFICE: Released to a limited 36 screens, it opened with a poor $58,196 despite it's critical acclaim and great reviews. Special Features: |
Plot Synopsis, Review
After their boat capsizes, a group of friends must decide whether to stay on top the boat sure to sink, or swim to the island they were not long before at, which is no longer in seeing distance.
Meh. What is it with Australian films being "based on true events", i mean c'mon, really?. First Wolf Creek, then Black Water (who directed this too). The film starts off shaky, not really giving you insight to the characters, which in the long run doesn't help. So we get that the four are on some sort of holiday and two of them are or were together at some time and are having a break, but it rushes straight past that to get them into the water to try and build suspense. The "suspense" was the extremely loud score of the flick which was somewhat reminiscent of elevator music. The films just feels cheap and rushed, a quick cash-in possibly. The audience doesn't really give a shit what happens to them because the victims haven't had enough on-screen development and set-up to make us feel anything. As far as thriller go, the only thing this does is trying to get you to guess when the shark will attack, but who it attacks was always predictable.
The plot, like many other Aussie horror flicks, was "inspired or based on true events", a marketing ploy which no-one really cares about anymore. Not many plot-holes apart from the fact that there is no way that a shark would follow a group of people as a human is enough to feed a shark for a couple of days. The story drags on and on and the quickly rushed character stories leave you to think and make-up most of their life as we have no idea what they're doing there really. It was predictable throughout, the victims were predictable from the get-go. The opening credits sequences was way too long and boring (wow, changing from underwater to open-air shots, so exciting) and the end was rushed to a read-only paragragh explaining the aftermath.
The acting was alright. Adrienne Pickering was by far the best, her character Susie starting off bubbly and vibrant and towards the end getting bitter when all faith was lost. Underbelly co-stars Gyton Grantley and Damien Walshe-Howling were the boyfriends, and Howling was way too determined in his character. Zoe Naylor was also average in an emotional role that was horribly acted when she had to cry.
Overall The Reef tries to be somewhat of a new Open Water (which was also horrible), and it lacks the suspense and creativity of the director's last flick Black Water. My rating is 2/5.
Meh. What is it with Australian films being "based on true events", i mean c'mon, really?. First Wolf Creek, then Black Water (who directed this too). The film starts off shaky, not really giving you insight to the characters, which in the long run doesn't help. So we get that the four are on some sort of holiday and two of them are or were together at some time and are having a break, but it rushes straight past that to get them into the water to try and build suspense. The "suspense" was the extremely loud score of the flick which was somewhat reminiscent of elevator music. The films just feels cheap and rushed, a quick cash-in possibly. The audience doesn't really give a shit what happens to them because the victims haven't had enough on-screen development and set-up to make us feel anything. As far as thriller go, the only thing this does is trying to get you to guess when the shark will attack, but who it attacks was always predictable.
The plot, like many other Aussie horror flicks, was "inspired or based on true events", a marketing ploy which no-one really cares about anymore. Not many plot-holes apart from the fact that there is no way that a shark would follow a group of people as a human is enough to feed a shark for a couple of days. The story drags on and on and the quickly rushed character stories leave you to think and make-up most of their life as we have no idea what they're doing there really. It was predictable throughout, the victims were predictable from the get-go. The opening credits sequences was way too long and boring (wow, changing from underwater to open-air shots, so exciting) and the end was rushed to a read-only paragragh explaining the aftermath.
The acting was alright. Adrienne Pickering was by far the best, her character Susie starting off bubbly and vibrant and towards the end getting bitter when all faith was lost. Underbelly co-stars Gyton Grantley and Damien Walshe-Howling were the boyfriends, and Howling was way too determined in his character. Zoe Naylor was also average in an emotional role that was horribly acted when she had to cry.
Overall The Reef tries to be somewhat of a new Open Water (which was also horrible), and it lacks the suspense and creativity of the director's last flick Black Water. My rating is 2/5.