Sometimes you just have to waste an afternoon. Being a BIG fan of Shark Week, I decided to see what "47 Meters Down Uncaged" had to offer. I had seen "47 Meters Down" and found the ending unmemorable (cannot remember if anyone survived.) This sequel will probably in record time end up at the very bottom of the DVD bargain bin, if that.
The premise was interesting enough and the film promised to be a sort of "The Descent" knock-off (a suspense/horror film I truly enjoyed.) Two step-sisters are dropped off by their dad to take a glass-bottom boat shark cruise while he does his underwater archaeology project. Rather than join their school's mean girls onboard said tour boat, the step-sisters play hooky and hitch a ride with friends to a remote jungle spot where they go cave diving into an ancient lost underwater city/burial ground. What could go wrong? Plenty, especially when you have one renegade in the group of teens whose pigheadedness tends to cause all sorts of continuing calamity.
Anyway, the group ends up decimating the first room of the temple and obliterating their way out and so must venture deeper into the underwater catacombs to find an alternative exit. They are marveling at the evolution and size of the blind tetra cave fish and -- ba dump... ba dump... -- encounter the first of many oversized blind cave sharks. Mayhem. Panic. And unrealistic shark behavior. Unrealistic swimming abilities. Dad temporarily comes to the rescue. This is a poorly-acted scream fest that by the time the movie was over I didn't care if anyone lived. Frankly, the audience should be rooting for the sharks in this one.
Spoiler alert: There is a fun twist at the end when escape from near-certain doom is accomplished. Kind of an out of the frying pan and into the fire moment when they emerge at long last and scuba tank's final breath into the ocean and daylight...into the chum-filled waters of the aforementioned tour boat. IMHO Brilliant!
The film stars John Corbett ("Northern Exposure" DJ) and some big cinema names -- Foxx, Stallone, Bassinger -- in the form of their offspring. I don't give this film a thumb's up or down as there wasn't much to expect in the first place, but maybe it garners a quarter hangnail.
The premise was interesting enough and the film promised to be a sort of "The Descent" knock-off (a suspense/horror film I truly enjoyed.) Two step-sisters are dropped off by their dad to take a glass-bottom boat shark cruise while he does his underwater archaeology project. Rather than join their school's mean girls onboard said tour boat, the step-sisters play hooky and hitch a ride with friends to a remote jungle spot where they go cave diving into an ancient lost underwater city/burial ground. What could go wrong? Plenty, especially when you have one renegade in the group of teens whose pigheadedness tends to cause all sorts of continuing calamity.
Anyway, the group ends up decimating the first room of the temple and obliterating their way out and so must venture deeper into the underwater catacombs to find an alternative exit. They are marveling at the evolution and size of the blind tetra cave fish and -- ba dump... ba dump... -- encounter the first of many oversized blind cave sharks. Mayhem. Panic. And unrealistic shark behavior. Unrealistic swimming abilities. Dad temporarily comes to the rescue. This is a poorly-acted scream fest that by the time the movie was over I didn't care if anyone lived. Frankly, the audience should be rooting for the sharks in this one.
Spoiler alert: There is a fun twist at the end when escape from near-certain doom is accomplished. Kind of an out of the frying pan and into the fire moment when they emerge at long last and scuba tank's final breath into the ocean and daylight...into the chum-filled waters of the aforementioned tour boat. IMHO Brilliant!
The film stars John Corbett ("Northern Exposure" DJ) and some big cinema names -- Foxx, Stallone, Bassinger -- in the form of their offspring. I don't give this film a thumb's up or down as there wasn't much to expect in the first place, but maybe it garners a quarter hangnail.
