THE SHALLOWS - By Brett Blake Surfer vs. shark. That’s THE SHALLOWS boiled down to its essence. It’s a simple concept executed well, and the result is a tense and occasionally wonderful little thriller that stands as the best shark movie since 1978’s JAWS 2. The plot is straightforward: a young woman, Nancy (Blake Lively), journeys to a mysterious, unnamed beach in Mexico where her recently-deceased mother once visited while pregnant with her. What begins as an idyllic surfing experience quickly turns deadly, as a huge great white shark attacks and traps an injured Nancy on a small rocky island hundreds of yards from shore, with only a wounded seagull for company. As the situation becomes more and more dire, Nancy must figure out a way to survive before the tide rises and leaves her fully exposed to the shark’s advances. THE SHALLOWS is an almost quintessential summer movie. Not just because of its subject matter, which viscerally makes one think of summertime (with its beaches and water and bikini-clad leading lady), but also because it takes us back - even in a small way - to the original (and perhaps greatest) summer blockbuster of them all: JAWS. It is nowhere near that level, but it works as a ferocious and, at times, surprisingly artful horror-thriller. In an era where shark movies have quite literally become parodies of themselves (with the various - and rather insulting - SHARKNADO films, which have, quite inexplicably, become a phenomenon), THE SHALLOWS is a truly refreshing and stripped down throwback to the JAWS ethos. It takes the situation seriously. It takes the central character seriously. It takes the shark seriously... at least until the finale, but by that point the movie has earned enough goodwill that the bombast of the climax feels satisfying rather than a betrayal of the tone. THE SHALLOWS is a terrifically effective ride. Holding everything together is Blake Lively as our heroine, and she delivers a great performance. So much of her character’s time on screen is spent in varying degrees of pain and discomfort, and Lively absolutely sells the physical grind that Nancy is undergoing. More important than that, however, is the emotional life of the character, which isn’t dwelt upon but is featured enough to flesh out Nancy as a full human being. There are moments where the character is confronted with the likelihood that she’s going to die, and Lively plays these beats perfectly and without phony melodrama. The movie’s director, Jaume Collet-Serra, has stealthily built himself a rather eclectic and impressive genre filmography. Alternating between horror and action-thrillers, he’s proven himself capable at building setpieces and escalating tension, and he takes premises that could easily be seen a hokey nonsense and does interesting, idiosyncratic things with them, while still fully satisfying as works of their genres. Here, he employs slow motion to great effect, and - in collaboration with his cinematographer - implements a saturated, colorful visual look; the ocean, the sky, the blood... all of them pop, which is something that’s refreshing when so many horror movies and thrillers look drab. Speaking of blood, there’s a lot of it in here. So much of it, in fact, that I was highly surprised that the movie got away with a PG-13 rating. There are several truly grisly moments in the film, including a makeshift suturing that Lively’s character gives herself, and a wonderfully shocking moment of dismemberment that is as graphic as anything in any shark movie. Going hand in hand with the violence is the shark itself; it’s a fearsome presence, and a convincing one, too. There are a couple of moments of dodgy effects work, but for the most part, the shark looks extremely convincing, so much so that I’m unsure how much of it was digital and how much of it was a practical animatronic effect. THE SHALLOWS is a very solid summer thriller, and one that should be very satisfying for anyone looking for an effective (wo)man against nature survival tale. That it’s also a really good shark movie is only the cherry on top. INDEPENDENCE DAY: RESURGENCE - By Brett Blake INDEPENDENCE DAY: RESURGENCE is spectacular schlock, and I don’t mean that in a pejorative sense, as schlock can be a lot of fun. This sequel to the 1996 smash hit is absolutely fun, though that comes with several side helpings of stupidity and overstuffed plotting. The story picks up 20 years after the original film, as mankind has enjoyed two decades of world peace and unprecedented scientific breakthroughs which resulted from reverse engineering the alien technology left behind after they were defeated. As such, there are now bases on the moon, anti-gravity helicopters and fighter jets, and a global defense network designed to protect the planet should the alien invaders ever return. Return they do, in an even larger ship than before, and with even more nefarious means of destruction. It falls to David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum) and former President Whitmore (Bill Pullman) to work with the new generation, including Jake Morrison (Liam Hemsworth), Dylan Hiller (Jessie T. Usher), and Patricia Whitmore (Maika Monroe), as well as a slew of side characters, to once again save the planet from total destruction. It’s worth saying right here that, no, INDEPENDENCE DAY: RESURGENCE is not as good as the original movie. Say whatever you will about that film, but it had a freshness and a sense of scale that were exciting at the time, neither of which translate over into RESURGENCE. On a certain level, we’ve seen all this before; you can only destroy the planet so many times before it loses any and all visceral impact, and though RESURGENCE attempts to expand the scope of the proceedings, it actually manages to feel smaller and more contained than the first, something I suspect was not intentional. The disaster spectacle - though handsomely rendered - doesn’t have much vitality. The movie is also overloaded with characters, most of whom feel totally extraneous. Sure, it’s fun to see Judd Hirsch return as Levinson’s father, but the moments he has in the movie (which are entirely tangential to the main narrative) interrupt the flow. Hirsch is just one example - there are literally another half-dozen characters who are given ample screentime (and, in most cases, their own mini-subplots) but who don’t directly impact the storyline; they’re just tossed in here to fulfill typical disaster movie expectations, something that director Roland Emmerich has too often overindulged in his films. The likes of Sela Ward, Charlotte Gainsbourg, and William Fichtner - all fine actors - are more or less wasted. RESURGENCE does have its virtues, however. Chief among them would have to be Jeff Goldblum, who effortlessly slips back into the David Levinson role; it’s not just Goldblum coasting on being Goldblumy (though there’s plenty of proper Goldblumy-ness), but it’s an actual continuation of his character from 20 years ago, and every moment he’s on screen is wonderful. As someone for whom Goldblum was a fixture in my youth, it’s great to see him in a leading role again after many years of supporting character turns. The rest of the lead cast members all do fine work, particularly Maika Monroe, whose emotive qualities lend some depth to a fairly one-note character. The fist act of the story, which sets up the world’s new status quo before the aliens return, is packed with cool sci-fi imagery. Action-wise, the movie also mostly delivers, even if it doesn’t exactly break new ground. There’s a dogfight midway through that provides a few visceral thrills, but it’s the finale where things really kick into high gear, offering up a climax that - somewhat miraculously - doesn’t simply retread the end of the first movie, but actually goes in a direction that I honestly didn’t see coming and found kind of delightfully ridiculous (in a good way). I’d love to talk more about it, but to preserve the surprise I’ll just say this: the finale basically turns brings a whole other science fiction subgenre into the equation. All in all, INDEPENDENCE DAY: RESURGENCE is a mixed bag. Neither exceptional, nor as bad as it could have been, it’s perfectly fine popcorn entertainment, but don’t expect it to pass the test of time... or to stay in your memory very long after seeing it.
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