She made the trip to Mexico with a friend, who bailed on the beach day at the last minute. She’s not some dopey bimbo who deserves her fate for solo-touristing in a dangerous cove (the nature equivalent of running away from the slasher by heading up the stairs instead of out the front door). To the film’s credit, it strives to put you on Nancy’s side. It’s not smart enough to be smart, nor dumb enough to be dumb.
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Regrettably The Shallows falls somewhere in between. After all, that trailer where the teased shark attack cuts to Lively’s mouth chomping into a crisp apple showed a grim wit. On the other hand, Collet-Serra could carve out a narrative that like Prefect Getaway would subvert the tawdry concept by lacing in real shocks, breath-taking violence, and a sharp (and very dark) sense of humor. Would he roll hard into the schadenfreude-driven spectacle that helped kick off his career? Considering The Shallows was helmed by the same director who brought us Paris Hilton as a murder victim in House of Wax, I suspect Jaume Collet-Serra knew some fans would be rooting for the shark. Too far out to make it to shore safely, she pulls herself onto a large rock, and then must concoct a plan before high tide sinks her sanctuary. On the one hand, you have a popular yet polarizing celeb thrown into a torture-porn scenario: While surfing on a secret beach, Nancy (Lively) is attacked by a shark. Or I wanted it to be as smart and titillating as such “beware vacation” thrillers as A Perfect Getaway (with creepy yet swoon-inducing Timothy Olyphant) or Donkey Punch (which is way more fun than that gross title suggests.) Honestly, I wasn’t sure which to root for.
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Into the shallows full movie movie#
I either wanted this movie to be as gloriously dumb as the seemingly SYFY original premise of “Blake Lively versus Great White” promises. Going into The Shallows, I had dueling expectations.