Directed by: David R. Ellis
Starring: Sara Paxton, Dustin Milligan, Chris Carmack, Katharine McPhee, Donal Logue, Joshua Leonard
Joel David Moore
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Running Time: 91 minutes
Film: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Extras: 3 out of 5 stars
I had very high anticipation for this movie when I saw it in theaters but was utterly disappointed. I thought the 3D was decent but the film fails to really entertain. When re-watching the Blu-ray, my feelings on the film did improve slightly. My main issue with the film was the side story of how the local hillbillies capture the kids to be shark bait for their planned TV show. I thought that was beyond stupid and ruined the movie. The sharks in the film are OK but not great. I wish they would have had a lot more screen time and less crappy teen angst. The problem I have with this home release is…where is the 3D? The film was original called and marketed as “Shark Night 3D”. I really hope that Fox is planning on releasing it in the near future.
When I think sharks, I think kick ass death scenes usually. The kills are lame in this one and really suffer from its PG-13 rating. Honestly, I feel that there are better kills in the cheesy SyFy creature features. If they would have made this movie rated R and amped up the kills and got rid of the hillbillies, this probably would have been 100 times better. The video on the Blu-ray does look very clear and definitely showcases what little shark scenes there is. The sound is also very sharp and plays well with the films action scenes. One thing that I felt about the film on home release compared to theater is that I was able to replay the quick but cool shark scenes, which made this worth wild for us shark enthusiasts.
The extras are decent but run less than 20 minutes all in all. The first extra is called “Shark Attack! Kill Machine!”, which just sums up all the kills into one five-minute scene. Honestly its plays better than the whole film since the only good scenes are the shark scenes. “Shark Night’s Survival Guide” is trivia game about shark attacks, using clips from the film. It is lame overall but worth checking out once. “Fake Sharks, Real Scares'” is a great featurette about the film’s animatronic and CGI sharks, my favorite feature but it runs too short. “Ellis’ Island” is another short making-of featurette about the film, this one is worth missing. Lastly there is the theatrical trailer and about 10 minutes of sneak peek trailers for upcoming 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.