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Directed by: Chris Kentis Starring: Blanchard Ryan, Daniel Travis I saw Open Water today (which has a release date of August 20th) and was impressed with how they made the film, and mildly entertained with the film itself. Much is being made of the renegade film style behind the film, which the two lead actors were filmed in actual shark infested waters to dramatize the tale of scuba divers stranded at sea, with no rescue in sight. With nothing but shark proof chainmail (cross your fingers that it works) to protect them from the bloodthirsty tigers of the sea, it's quite a quick to watch. But once you get beyond the gimmick and remember that it's still just a movie, the filmmaking shortcuts and amateurism behind it all really shine through. For a film that is only 80 minutes long, it's often a dull and tedious experience. Daniel Travis and Blanchard Ryan play the unlucky couple good enough to watch, but the first 20 minutes just drags. You just want them to be in the water with the sharks, 'cause that's the only reason you're even watching this. Luckily, some gratutious nudity in the beginning from the insanely beautiful Ryan (who you might remember from Super Troopers) makes the wait a bit more tolerable. Once tragedy strikes and they are stuck in the ocean (I won't tell you how), the fun begins. It's a kick to see the first real shark fin go by, and eventually swarms of grey skinned beasts herd around them, knocking them about. Ryan was apparently bitten by a barracuda during the film's shoot, but that's nothing next to the fear they must have felt with the real life maneaters swimming all over the place. This is what works well in the movie. The same sort of terror you get watching a good zombie movie when the survivors are holed up in some small place keeping the undead braineaters out with just scrap wood over the doors and windows, is flipped over in reverse here, with them right in the middle of the mysterious ocean with absolutely no clue what's even inches beneath your feet. A particularly horrifying sequence takes place during a lightning storm, with the entire screen in darkness except for the brief illumination of the sky's electrical display. The problem? The director, Chris Kentis, chooses to show scenes back on shore. Some of them just random shots of people enjoying the Caribbean beach front. I'm sure it was meant to juxtapose the danger of our heroes with the idyllic vacationers back on shore, but it only seves to remind you that it's just a movie, and you're really not spying on two people as they fight for their lives. It's certainly better than any Jaws sequel, but less entertaining than the cartoony Deep Blue Sea. I am still more fascinated with how they made the movie, than the movie itself. A documentary about it all, or some extensive DVD extras might make this a great overall package to watch, but as a film by itself, Open Water is a bit of a disappointment. 2.5 stars RATING: 2.5 PROS: Lots of cool real sharks harassing the actors CONS: Still an amateurish often boring film ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0374102/
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Aug 9, 2004 03:13
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I voted it a 4. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie because it was nerve-wracking. It's a nail-biter of a movie and you really feel hopeless, like you yourself are in the water. I thought the movie was pretty ambitious to try 80 minutes at sea with little scenery at all (besides a few cuts to an oblivious tourist beach), but i think they pulled it off. This movie isn't ground-breaking and I don't think you will walk out going "I must own this movie", but I think you will walk out disturbed and entertained, and personally, I like a movie that can affect me. As a side note, I didnt find Ryan to be a good actress, but wow, she is gooooood loooooking.
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Aug 10, 2004 06:14
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I went into this movie fairly optimistic. I read it was getting pretty decent reviews. I'd been hearing about it for months. All my buddies wanted to go. It sounded good. I was actually visiting Chicago from Ohio when we saw it. Before the movie even started my friends went out to get some food and I stayed holding the seats. In the time they were gone I was surrounded by 3 of the most inane conversations I'd ever heard. I don't want to repeat them, but one of them involved a valley girl type sitting behind me telling her friends how cultured she felt after visiting Cancun. Anyway, the movie. I knew the premise going in. 2 people out on a scuba cruise getting left behind and having to deal with the scary ocean. I can relate. I wont ever go into the ocean again after 1st grade when my parents took us kids to Florida and the Gulf Of Mexico. My older brother, then 16, and myself 7 were playing on the beach. It was a cold dreary day but we made due. My brother then saw a pelican out bobbing up and down on the water. He looked at me and said to get in the water, we're swimming to the pelican. We kept swimming for what seemed like hours but was probably less than 5 minutes. But that's quite a while for a 7 year old. We looked ahead of us and the pelican seemed to be exactly as far away as it was to begin with. Interesting. We then looked behind us and it must have been a half mile back to the beach. I freaked out. All the stories I ever heard about the magical shark cages being breached flooded my mind. I swam as fast as I could back to the beach crying the whole time. Never again will I enter the ocean to be someone's dinner. Anyway, the movie. It was pretty okay. It started off very slow. Plus the quality of the video (digital handy cam) was a bit difficult to get into, but it finally made it to the meat and potatoes. I genuinely believed their interaction with each other when they were in the water. And amidst all the freaking out and low buck scare tactics, there was even a bit of humor. I was even satisfied with the ending. Was the movie great? Not really. Was it watchable? Absolutely. Is it entertaining? Here and there. I'd say wait to rent it... which is a better recommendation than The Village. I say incenerate all the copies you can find of that. 2.5/5 vorhese fucked around with this message at 07:46 on Aug 10, 2004 |
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Aug 10, 2004 07:44
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I think that you have to go into this movie expecting more art than entertainment. The movie is a good one, however if you are going to the movie looking for popcorn, this probably isn't the film for you. It doesn't have a conventional plot or storyline, and a lot of the people in the theater with me were dissapointed in it. However, if you go in thinkning that the film will show you a little slice of what it might be like to be stuck in that situation, you will really like it. The camera work, for the most part, heightened the sense of 'being there'. The interactions between the two main characters were really well done, and very true to life. Seeing the movie with my girlfriend, we both felt that the couple reacted in a very realistic manner. All in all this movie is a good break from the traditional Hollywood fare. There's some humor, some action, some spooky parts and some titties to boot. If you can somehow manage to get a date and watch this movie while floating in a darkened pool...it's a gauranteed score. 4/5
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Aug 20, 2004 06:06
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This movie sucked. It tried to rip off Blair Witch through the use of a shaky, unfocused camcorder. Everything isjust out of focus throughout the entire movie. This failed to bring me into the film. It just constantly reminded me that the director was trying, and failing, to bring me into the film with his gritty, realistic lack of autofocus. Oh, and a note to directors everywhere: overdone, random close-ups of objects utterly unrelated to the story are not artsy or deep. They're annoying as hell. The movie itself was pure boredom. I can only assume that the director hoped that the actors' engaging dialogue and raw emotion would overcome the concept of staring at two people floating in the water for 80 minutes. It doesn't. Any attempt at creating tension is ruined by the fact that the viewer already knows that sharks are going to get involved. As If the previews didn’t tip you off to this fact, the director makes this perfectly clear though the use of some of the most glaringly obvious foreshadowing possible (e.g. Tourist: Hey, will we see sharks? Guide:If you don't want to see a shark, close your eyes. DUN DUN DUNNNN!) Any attempt at generating a sense of hopelessness is ruined by the fact that the viewer already knows how to exit the theater and escape. With the exception of a select few scenes, Ryan and Travis's interactions come across as forced. There is little to no character development, and nothing happens to make you care about either the couple or their plight. By the last half of the movie, frankly, I was rooting for the sharks, jellyfish, manatees—hell, anything that could possibly end the hour-and-a-half whine-fest that the movie was turning into. I honestly could have cared less what happened to either character. And two final, minor bitches: 1) The two shots' worth of coast guard rescue efforts irritated me to no end. "Well, we know exactly where they were abandoned and which way the ocean current is flowing. Oops, we've searched for fifteen minutes and didn't find anything! time to give up!" 2) No attempt was made to have the actors actually look like they had been in the water for over a day. They look just as hydrated, tanned, and healthy at hour 24 as they did at hour 1. On the other hand, the movie begins with a scene of purely gratuitous nudity, and drat, Blanchard Ryan's got a nice chest. 1/5
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Aug 20, 2004 23:31
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Wow. This could be the worst movie I've ever seen. I had heard very mixed things despite it getting good reviews, but wow it just sucks. The camera work is terrible. The shaky cam makes you sick when it's in the water and the digital filming hurts your eyes when they aren't in the water. I wasn't scared or terrifyed or anxious or helpless I was bored. At first when the sharks appear I thought it might be cool but it's just really really dumb. By the end I was pulling for the sharks. This movie was 80 minutes long and 40 minutes too long. The end was so dumb, it's almost like the director knew it sucked so he just wanted to get it over with. I'd give it a zero, but I can't so I need some kind of justification for giving it.5....ok, Blanchard Ryan does have amazing tits. .5/5 edit: I was trying to read up on Blanchard Ryan (Read: i was looking for screencaps of her titties in the movie) and went to her IMDB page and apparently she was in Supertroopers. I came to realize that she was the inspiration for the billboard that Mac whacks it to when Rabbit decides to go joyriding, and if you notice in Open Water Mac (Steve Lemme) has a brief non speaking role as a diver on the boat that leaves the two main characters. It almost pushes the movie to a 1.0...but no. CallMeDan fucked around with this message at 03:49 on Aug 21, 2004 |
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Aug 21, 2004 01:44
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... Deadly Sharks People getting eaten Excitement These are the words one would typically associate with shark movies. I liked Jaws, so why wouldn't Open Water be a good movie? Couldn't have been farther from the truth. Imagine sitting in a theatre watching the same scene over and over. These two people sit in the water the whole movie complaining and trying to rationalize amidst jelly fish stings and small shark bites. The ending was cheap and I felt robbed of $10.00 This "film" should get a 0, but the nudity scene was nice, so: .5/5 synthexic fucked around with this message at 06:07 on Aug 21, 2004 |
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Aug 21, 2004 06:05
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Most people who have given this movie less than 1.0 are accurate. The movie has some intensity, but you know it's going to be a crap movie when you see boobs in the first 5 minutes for no reason whatsoever. Also, the ending had to be one of the worst I've ever seen. .5/5 for the boobs alone.
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Aug 23, 2004 03:31
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Christ, that movie pissed me off. I wanted to punch things. AVOID.
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Aug 23, 2004 07:30
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I don't think this movie is even worth a rental. I go see it opening day (the day that it's in all theaters instead of "select" theaters). The show starts at 10:40pm, and me, my girlfriend, and a couple other friends get to the theater at 10:30, and get inside. First red flag: the place is loving deserted. I wouldn't say the movie lacks a plot, but it does have a lovely excuse for one. The most interesting the movie gets is when they're floating around in the water, peeing and vomiting. And what's up with the end? The chick drowns herself? WTF? It's physically impossible to drown yourself, so I'm guessing the sharks were supposed to have eaten her? Anyway, there were a couple of "OMG A SHARK <dumb chicks jump in seats>" scenes, but nothing particularly scary or frightening. Although the idea of being stranded as such is particularly scary, the director did a lovely job of portraying it that way... but then again, there's not much you CAN do with 2 actors and a lot of water. As mentioned before, because of the nudity scene, it deserves a .5 but because I used an hour and a half of my time that I'll never be able to get back to watch this piece of poo poo, it would get a 0, if I could rate it that low on here.
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Aug 23, 2004 12:43
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If it were not for the free passes, I would be begging for my money back. Open Water was boring, tedious, and not quite as scary as the Little Mermaid. I am normally the one who screams outloud or even leaves during scary movies, and I also have a phobia of swimming with fish. This movie did not scare me. I mean, seriously, there's not much that could have been done, but a lovely premise is no excuse for a lovely movie. 1/5
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Aug 23, 2004 17:34
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Total waste of time and the only way I can see anybody enjoying it is if you frequent those independent film festivles and think they are hot poo poo. Even then, this movie is the bottom of the barrel. Avoid this shitpile. 0.5/5
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Aug 24, 2004 03:55
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Just because the director can blur the camera and shake it like a Parkinson's victim for 80mins to create the "reality tv show effect" doesn't mean he should. Likewise, just because you can knowingly throw $10 into a trashcan doesn't mean you should. Granted there was one decently scary scene where the couple is floating in the water at night and there are sharks doing things, but this good scene is negatively affected by all of the other scenes where the couple is floating in the water during the day and bitching constantly. Additionally, the ending is terrible. Avoid this movie at all costs--if your friends think of the great idea "OMG Open Water, 80mins of wacky shark, jellyfish, and slimy fish shenanigans!, let's go!!!"--avoid them also. 1.5/5 for the night scene and boobies (I'm reserving the <1.5 ratings for something worse...if that's possible)
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Aug 24, 2004 04:34
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Wow, I have never felt so robbed of $8 before. The blurred camera just did not work at all. I really liked it in 28 days later, but it just gets very irriating in this movie. There were far too many random shots of the pretty islands or just the couple floating along in the ocean. And when there was an almost decent shot( the frenzy of sharks near the end) the direct completely cheats the audience out of seeing something really scary. The acting also started to suffer after they had been in the water awhile, it seemed pretty forced to me. The ending was absolutely horrible. The guy doesn't even die from a shark bite. He gets this little tiny piece out of his calf and then he just dies of shock. Very lame. And the fact that the girl just dove into the water and drowned herself was a total copout as well. Also, I am a scuba diver and there were several annoying things that stuck out for me. The sharks that were attacking were black-tip reef sharks, which if I remember almost never attack humans. Plus, when they show the shark at the end with a camera in its stomach it's a mako shark, which looks absolutely nothing like the black-tip. I think they don't even live in the same region. Finally, I've never seen a dive captain keep track of everyone so lazily. Most of them are very dedicated to safety and would actually take a head count before rushing off. It's kind of a nit picky complaint, but it bugged me. Voted .5/5 . (.5 earned for gratuitois nudity at the beggining  )
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Aug 24, 2004 07:45
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Yep. Hated it. So many holes in plausibility and a lovely ending. .5/5 New Jack Ruby fucked around with this message at 06:44 on Jan 10, 2005 |
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Jan 10, 2005 06:41
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I could have stayed home and watched PBS for free. The whole movie made me feel like I was cheated out of an actual shark movie. I dont know, I guess I just actually like to see sharks when I go to this kind of movie. Terrible movie, 0.5 a creepy colon fucked around with this message at 23:02 on Jan 12, 2005 |
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Jan 12, 2005 21:42
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I haven't seen many movies quite this bad. I heard it was good for its psychological aspect, I wasn't expecting much more than that really. I was expecting bad cinematography and sickening amounts of ShakyCam(tm). I was expecting at least a little decent acting. Psychological: NO. Acting Decent: Not really, no. Dramatic Factor: Emotions seem forced, ruined. Cinematography: Predictably, bullshit. ShakyCam: Was the camera balanced on a seal's nose? And the ending had me wondering if 5 minutes of the film had just been lost as the projector was prepared. "oops". Boat guy sees their poo poo on the boat, gets all panicked, and then they find some of their stuff in a shark? What's that mean? Not a lot. It doesn't explain what happened to them, if anyone even TRIED to save them, and if they didn't or failed, how they died. Not conclusively anyway. It's like they didn't know HOW to end the movie. Or ran out of time to film an ending. 0.5 only because I can't rate it a 0.
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Jan 14, 2005 14:14
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"Goddamnit, just eat them already." I dont know how many times I found myself shouting this during the movie. The worst part was that there wasn't even the promised shark armegeddon scene. On a side note, advertising the movie as "the best shark movie since Jaws" isn't that much of a boast in the first place. 1/5
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Jan 16, 2005 05:04
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I totaly disagree with most of the posters on this one. I thought this was a very good & suspensful movie. I went into it thinking it was going to be stupid, but I was pleasntly surprised at how realistic it was.I would give it 3.5 to 4 stars out of 5.
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Jan 17, 2005 20:29
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