Dark Tide

I liked Darktide mainly because of it's camera work and portrayal of the Great White shark.

The underwater camera work appeared to be original and was impressive in terms of continuity, unlike most shark films where footage is borrowed from a documentary and pasted in.

The behaviour of the sharks is also more realistic, showing that people with experience can swim with them outside the cage and not be attacked.

The film is let down by a thin plot and bland characters.

I would rate this as the third best shark movie after Jaws(obviously) and The Reef(underrated).

i actually really enjoyed this,if you like the ocean you like great white sharks then this is perfect for you.The acting is pretty decent,the cinematography is really good i'm mean it looks absolutely real!o.k maybe these guys were asking for trouble,but then again there are people that do this everyday out in South Africa and i bet if you talked to every single one of them they could tell you of some seriously close calls,after all you are dealing with the oceans second top predator.(and even though sharks mistake us for food as we are not their usual prey,rogue sharks do exist and have to be killed it happens all over the world so anyone that says sharks don't blindly attach humans are misinformed...anyway)I though it was better than Open Water both one and two and if think there's been loads such as adrift etc etc.The action is great there is some emotional depth between the two main protagonists and to me it seemed like a very enjoyable film.I'd give it a 6.6 out of ten.i thoroughly enjoyed it.Check it out for yourself.

Shouldn't there be some kind of protective Union to help prevent poor defenseless animals from appearing in stupid and embarrassing movies? I mean, actors and actress are supposed to be smart enough and decide for themselves whether or not a horrible scenario will negatively affect their careers (I'm looking at you, Halle Berry), but animals can't read clumsy scenarios! The sharks in "Dark Tide", for instance, are truly some of the most beautiful creatures Mother Nature brought forward, yet their astonishing appearance is criminally abused here in this dumb, exaggeratedly clichéd, dull and incompetent film. Amazing animals like these only belong in masterful documentaries or, as rare as they are, in qualitative adventure movies. Luckily enough – for my own personal anger management program, at least – I watched "Dark Tide" with the absolute lowest expectations imaginable, and that's all thanks to the fact I noticed the name of the director from beforehand. John Stockwell isn't a real filmmaker; he's a wannabe with an unhealthy fetish for famous actresses in colorful bikinis on the posters of his films! Kate Bosworth in "Blue Crush", Jessica Alba in "Into the Blue", half a dozen of sexy chicks in "Turistas" and now Halle Berry in "Dark Tide". The only recurring aspects that draw attention are the bikinis on the cover. I don't know John, but it's becoming rather difficult to convince us that you want to be seen as a serious director. The plot of "Dark Tide" features the dullest of stereotypes in the cast (traumatized heroes, obnoxious businessmen dying from cancer …) and immediately reverts to the worst clichés (troubled father-son relationships, heroine facing her demons…). The only thing worse than the dialogs are the miscast actors and actresses citing them. None of the cast members display any sort of conviction or emotion, and why should they? It's nothing but sheer nonsense anyway. If you do, however, make the mistake to watch "Dark Tide" you can at least enjoy the Cape Town filming locations and the shark footage.

The reviews who say that this movie is bad, boring, and the characters are unlikeable simply expect a different kind of movie and have forgotten the joy in a drama with thrilling elements.

This is not "Mission Impossible: Panties in a Twist" or whatever the latest incarnation is. (And I do enjoy those!) This movie is is a character study, an abundance of beautiful cinematography, and a shark chasing thriller all in one. There is a sense of realism, especially with the interactions between the characters, who react in line with their own backstories- characters who are simultaneously heroic, anti-heroic, brilliant, and ridiculously self absorbed and stupid.

Additionally, Dark Tide perfectly captured the sense of sheer peace and quiet that consumes you once your head is below the waves in the open ocean. I've been scuba diving all over the world, and driven a boat like in this movie. The movie captured the sense of reverence in the water and for the water, and took me far away to reefs of my own past.

Is it thrilling? Absolutely- the action scenes were tense, and you felt the weight of the sharks gliding silently just inches away. Is it slower? I was never bored. I enjoyed the characters, flaws and all. In the end, if anything, I wanted more closure and final introspection. But that is the only thing I found lacking. If you remotely like the ocean and treat it as a thriller with a slower burn, you will enjoy the movie.

6 1/2 stars.

.... and wishing they'd arrive soon and gobble up the entire cast of this terminally boring movie. But, alas, they didn't; and the thing dragged on and on interminably... until, after what felt like an eternity, it finally reached its always predictable, anticlimactic climax.

What can we say about the cast? It would perhaps be more accurate to describe them as the miscast. Halle Berry looks great. If I went through what she went through in this movie I'd look like something the cat brought in. But even at her most artistically bedraggled, Berry looks as if she could just slip into a D&G dress and sashay down the catwalk in Paris or Milan. Boat skippers have wind-washed complexions. Throughout this movie Berry always looks as if she could have just stepped out of the beauty parlor, with her perfect eye-liner, her manicured nails and her perfect tan. Her hair gets tousled every now and then, but that's about the extent of her dishevelment. If they wanted me to believe that she was the head of a model agency, or the editor of a woman's magazine, I might have bought it. But a shark expert who spends half her life on a boat? No way, Jose. And the rest of the miscast were no more believable.

In fairness, the cinematography was excellent. The sharks were great, too. But they arrived about an hour and twenty minutes too late, for which they will not be lightly forgiven by anyone who got suckered into wasting 94 minutes of their life watching this god awful movie.