Bait (2012)

RATED- R
RUN TIME- 91 MINS
WRITERS- DUNCAN KENNEDY AND RUSSELL MULCAHY
STARRING- RICHARD BRANCATISANO, XAVIER SAMUEL AND CHRIS BETTS
DIRECTOR- KIMBLE RENDALL



Synopsis taken from IMDb
This movie is about a group of people who get trapped in a Supermarket after a Tsunami hits the coast of Queensland, Australia. But they soon find out that they have more to worry about than being in a flooded grocery store, there's a 12 foot shark swimming around them, and it's hungry. 



This film starts with getting introduced to Josh (Xavier Samuel), the films lead heroin. There's some character dialog, but the build up is all for a grisly shark attack that comes out of no where. The victim is an old man out in the ocean swimming.

From the beginning of this film you can see the influence Piranha 3D (2010) has had on this film. It's not meant to be a great film, they're going for an entertaining film.

A year later, Josh hears there's a shark migration happening on the TV. He then heads to the Supermarket. Meanwhile, there's a robbery being discussed in the parking lot and we see a couple making out in their car.

Inside the Supermarket, a shoplifter, Jaime (Phoebe Tonkin), is being chased by a security guard. She hides in the back room of the Supermarket and finds her boyfriend, Ryan (Alex Russell) who works there. Before Ryan can make her put the merchandise she stole back on the shelves his boss comes in and calls the police and fires Ryan.

In the store Josh is stocking shelves when he sees Tina, his love interest we meet in the beginning of the movie. Tina has a new boyfriend named Steven (Qi Yuwu).

In the parking lot an agreement is made about the robbery. The robbers names are Doyle (Julian McMahon) and Kirby (Dan Wyllie). The robbery is instantly compromised and goes wrong.

Suddenly a Tsunami hits and floods the store. This scene is total chaos. Everything going on between so many characters hits a sudden stop when everything is flooded and it becomes a fight for survival.

You've got people dying, people struggling to hold on and you've got the survivors who jump to the top of the shelves to get out of the water.

In the midst of coming up with a plan things go terribly wrong when they realize they can't leave. A great white is in the store with them, forbidding them to get off the shelves and come up with an escape plan.

It's truly horrific to see how the characters mesh. A great deal of the film is just them staying safe on top of the shelves interacting. And you'd think that with such a weird array of characters that it would prove to be interesting to see them have to work together. Instead it shows you how pathetic the cast is by making it these scenes completely boring. The shark is the ice breaker, it's what makes those scenes even remotely interesting. It really is a case of the film makers not knowing what they're doing and leaving the film on the casts shoulders of a hollow cast incapable of handling it.

This film is a cheap version of Piranha, it's Piranha without the Girls Gone Wild aspect. The sex is toned down a lot in comparison with Piranha, and overall I have to say that this movie fails.

It isn't suspenseful. It isn't scary. There are hardly any jump moments and the story is so cliche it'll make you slap your head in disbelief of how bad the acting is. All of these elements combined with the lack of character development cripples this film.

The actual shark they show, not the CGI one, is very detailed and real looking. But they should have left the shark tale to Jaws. This film is as forgettable as a bad day. It holds no significance in any way.

The shark attack scenes are the only interesting part of this movie. The effects and gore aren't bad. It's just a shame that they're wasted on this movie.

Based on the trailer and poster art I can't say I'm surprised this movie was a disaster, I'm just shocked at how bad it actually is. It's lazy and predictable. This film makes you instantly desire to watch Jaws, you need something refreshing to take the bad taste left in your mouth from Bait.

This film is nothing but stuff we've seen before done better, only they want to win you over because it's in 3D. This 3D thing gets out of hand when it's used as a means to tell a story. They don't make a good story and incorporate 3D in it. They just think of a bunch of cheesy overused ideas and add 3D to it thinking 3D makes the movie good. It doesn't.

The ending of this movie shows hope of a "fresh start". I sure as hell hope that a "fresh start" doesn't include a sequel.

  

THIS FILM GETS 2 REAPER SKULLS OUT OF 5