newleaf

This is a hectic, madcap movie that has very little to do with Christmas. It's consistently loud, to the point of being irritating. I think the basic premise could have been turned into a decent movie, but that never came close to happening here. The only good thing was seeing scenes of Sydney, Australia.

This is a movie that's in search of a plot. Apparently there's some sort of secret society that has a grudge against everybody who hurt its little feelings, but rather than developing that idea in any way, the filmmakers filled up a couple of hours with an interminable series of violent deaths and special effects, mostly taking place in dark or dimly-lit scenes. Unfortunately, I tried to actually watch the movie. Turns out that compiling a body count would have been more interesting. As for Keanu Reeves, his abilities are normally beyond question, but what he does here is NOT acting -- it's just choreography of one fight scene after another. It gets boring mighty fast. What a terrible movie.

OK, use your imagination for a moment. You know that this movie is about people in a shark cage, and you know that the title is "47 Meters Down." So here's a quiz: What do you think is going to happen? Yup, that's it. You guessed it.

Even if I were to lay out the complete plot for you, it wouldn't be a spoiler. You already know almost everything that takes place in this story.

As for the acting, Mandy Moore doesn't have that much to do. Most of the time, she's making faces inside a scuba mask and sounding scared. The rest of the cast also operate within a limited range of emotions. There were one or two frightening moments, confirming that you really don't want to meet up with sharks, but that's about it.

Overall, disappointing.