The Dive

May (Louisa Krause) and Drew (Sophie Lowe) are sisters going on a dive in the ocean off an isolated beach. Falling rocks cause May to be trapped under a heavy rock. Drew struggles to free her.

It's a simple two person action thriller. The premise is not that deep. It tries to give the story depth with some background with their father. It's not much. It doesn't have the same internal drama as 127 Hours or quite frankly the true story part. The diving gear does get in the way of the actors and I'm not that familiar with them. The problems can feel a little random. All in all, it's a simple and limited thriller.

This should've been a short film without the unnecessary and mostly pointless back-story. That way there would've been constant tension and suspense without the deflating sappy back-story, that ultimately was repetitive and bland and really had nothing to do with the dramatics. I felt the gals were well cast and performed great, and the underwater cinematography was done well. The Fix-a-flat canister product placement was entertaining, but they missed some opportune moments for humor with the can and after destroying the Toyota. Nevertheless, an ok one-time watch if there's nothing better to see.

I had a much similar reaction to this thriller as I did last year when Laura and I watched' The Fall', two young ladies climb a tall aerial for kicks- things happen they get stuck on the highest point- why would anyone do this in reality (except maybe the brazen, look at me showiness displayed by av young Johnjoe years ago)?

Whilst saying this internally or out loud, one still can't look away and is sweaty with the ramping tension sustained.

This is well directed, contains pulse pounding moments and I liked the chemistry between the two sisters.

It's short and lean and is a perfect Saturday night adrenaline fix- if you, ofcourse, want that!

The Dive is built on a simple premise which is for the most part executed effectively.

It follows two sisters who embark on a scuba diving adventure in a remote location only to have disaster strike, leading to a race against the clock to survive.

It's not an overly complicated film, with the tension coming purely from the scenario rather than any in depth character work or intricate plotting. The tension is well built, but the whole thing does feel a bit predictable.

The atmosphere of the film is good, with the setting creating a vast, eerie yet also claustrophobic feel to the whole thing.

I just think there isn't enough to this film to give it much more credit. Not enough character work and fairly basic plotting and direction make for an enjoyable but perhaps uninspiring film.

I love these sort of trapped / survival movies, like Frozen and Open Water. But I found this movie to be flat. The setting didn't convey enough terror. The hallucination scenes were more annoying and confusing than interesting. I didn't quite get the backstory between the sisters.

Most of all, the main draw of these sort of movies involves creative thinking about what the characters could do. For instance, the viewer can have a lot of fun speculating about, "what if the protagonist does this or tries that to escape etc." Movies like Frozen and Open Water have that effect on viewer. This movie doesn't. More scenes should have focused on the characters' trying to get creative and find ways to stay alive.