Escape of Shark

Trying to get past a personal tragedy, a worker in a Thai resort becomes stranded with several other guests when a massive earthquake triggers a tsunami keeping them inside the flooded corridors until help arrives, but when it's compounded by man-eating sharks inside must help everyone get to safety.

Overall, this one has some likable factors. Among the more favorable aspects found here is a fun series of setups that constitute the main human drama on display. While nothing is outwardly original or clever, there's enough going on to provide some fun characters along the way. With the main guy being a former swimming champion now working for the father of his deceased wife after being killed in a shark attack, the possibility for him to earn a heroic redemption angle comes off rather well. Likewise, the other guests there range from a self-centered billionaire who usually throws his money or his vicious bodyguard at others to get what he wants without much repercussions there to scout the hotel for a possible merger, a nagging wife and her put-upon husband enjoying a vacation, or the other hotel stragglers that were staying there when disaster struck, we get a fine cross-section of individuals staying there who get caught up with the sharks. As a result of this, when the action hits this one really comes into its own with quite a lot to like. The opening disaster of the earthquake strike followed by the large-scale tsunami striking the facility is a spectacular high-energy affair that looks far better than what it should for films on this scale. The aftermath of it all results in the survivors trying to move through the flooding hallways and corridors of the resort that play far more like scenes from a disaster film than a creature feature which allows for some great action to keep things moving while the sharks swarm around and strike at the most opportune moments. These are usually kept to brief stalking scenes where the creatures appear to launch a vicious attack in churning, blood-soaked water. None of these are really impressive but the ferocity and consistency of the attacks throughout here make for a generally fun time as the cheesy effects make for a lot to like. Outside of these factors, there are some aspects here that brings it down. One of the main issues to be had is the constant need to fall into reliably present cliches in the genre that prove this to be another effort in the genre without much deviation. The use of a troubled hero that needs to be redeemed for an act that wasn't his fault as he's now fallen on hard times causes his arc to be telegraphed the second he appears on-screen. Likewise, his budding romantic relationship serves to come as no surprise with how they're going to end up which is also the case with the fate of each of the various members when they get introduced. That carries over into the action scenes which feature the same sense of familiarity for the way it handles the deaths being doled out as there's little surprise for who gets killed when. Alongside the sometimes cheesy special effects for the CGI shark when it's shown on-screen, these manage to bring the film down somewhat.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Language.

No pun intended - and I am not sure about the title ... the shark is more on attack mode than escape mode ... but yes it can make sense if you want to see it from its perspective. Talking of perspective and seeing things: you have to cut this quite a lot of slack when it comes to the CGI used ... and if you do that, you will have a couple of fun moments (some may say ridiculous) but also awesome ... especially the one where there is slow motion through the wall action scene ... I thought it looked amazing.

I did not really rate this for acting or anything ... I did watch it in the original audio with subtitles ... can't speak on any dubbing and what it may have done to the movie ...

Of course I had never heard about this 2021 Chinese shark movie titled "Escape the Shark" prior to stumbling upon it here in 2023 and opting to sit down to watch it. Of course I had to watch it, with it being a shark-themed Asian movie that I hadn't already seen before.

I have to admit, though, that my expectations to writer and director Hang Zhu wasn't overly big. Usually shark movies are cringeworthy to sit through. But still, giving "Escape the Shark" the benefit of the doubt, I sat down to watch it.

The storyline in "Escape the Shark" is pretty straight forward. And for a shark movie, it was pretty generic, I would say. A couple of tourists are trapped inside a flooded hotel after the resort is struck by a tsunami. But the tsunami not only brought water with it, but also a hungry shark. And that shark that now swim about the hotel, looking for its next meal.

Sure, it was entertaining enough for the cheesy narrative that it was, and it was certainly a fun enough movie to sit through. There are far worse shark movies than "Escape the Shark" out there. It was predictable, of course it was. But still proved to be a fun enough watch.

I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, but they had a fair enough ensemble of actors and actresses to portray the various roles and bring the movie to life on the screen.

The dialogue in the movie was wooden, rigid and rather awkward. I mean, with dialogue such as this: "Honey. I know you're very brave. It's my fault. You are by my side. I'm not scared.", then you're not really in for an evening's worth of Shakespearian theater, now are you?

Visually then I think "Escape the Shark" was actually not all that shabby. The CGI rendered shark was fair enough and definitely better than many other Hollywood attempts at making shark movies. Something I will never grasp about movies such as "Escape the Shark" is the sound effects they opt to add to the shark. I mean, a growling shark is just laughably stupid, especially since sharks have no vocal chords.

"Escape the Shark" makes for an adequate enough movie if you're looking for a movie where you just lean back, munch on the snacks and enjoy the over-the-top cheesy events on the screen.

All in all, then "Escape the Shark" was a fair enough shark movie. Nothing outstanding, nor anything that hasn't been seen or done before. But it was wathcable for what it was.

My rating of writer and director Hang Zhu's 2021 movie "Escape the Shark" lands on a five out of ten stars.