Critic Reviews
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Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter
This toothless shark thriller lacks B-movie fun.
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Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times
The only palpable emotion from "Dark Tide" is sadness for Berry, treading water in dreary efforts like this.
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Stephen Holden, New York Times
It is often impossible to figure out what's going on.
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Jeff Beck, We Got This Covered
With its one-dimensional characters and lack of an engaging plot, Dark Tide will test the patience of even the most patient moviegoer.
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Stephen Carty, Flix Capacitor
Despite the appeal of Halle Berry swimming with sharks in a bikini, you can see why Dark Tide went straight to DVD.
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Eddie Harrison, The List
Looking more prepared for a walk down a Milan catwalk than the grizzled sea-salt she's supposed to be, Berry provides a dull filling for Stockwell's risible shark sandwich.
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Grant Rollings, Sun Online
A movie that was more Snores than Jaws.
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Peter Bradshaw, Guardian [UK]
The sharks themselves are the only ones to emerge with credit from this.
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Tim Robey, Daily Telegraph
If you watch closely during John Stockwell's godawful shark-attack thriller, you can see Halle Berry's Oscar sinking ever so slowly into the waters off Cape Town.
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David Parkinson, Radio Times
The cast works hard, but not even the climactic tempest can whip up much excitement.
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Jamie Russell, Total Film
Making Mega Shark Vs Giant Octopus look like Jaws, it is totally lost at sea.
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Jeff Beck, Examiner.com
What these filmmakers did was basically take all of [Jaws's positive] elements and found their polar opposites to put together a film that is one of the most tedious movie-going experiences of recent memory.
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Paul Chambers, CNNRadio
Here's hoping Berry had a great time filming this action thriller near Capetown. Because this shark story has no bite.
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Tim Grierson, Screen International
This thriller isn't an outright embarrassment, but it nonetheless suffers from wobbly dramatic tension and an overlong running time.
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JimmyO, JoBlo's Movie Emporium
Pretty Halle Berry! Pretty water! Pretty pictures! Pretty freaking boring!
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Brian Orndorf, BrianOrndorf.com
Appears to have everything a filmmaker would need for a little exploitative venture. Leave it to John Stockwell and his unimaginative directorial touch to spoil the potential fun.
Read all 16 critic reviews
Featured Audience Ratings
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In Shark Alley, courage runs deep
Very decent good movie! I liked Dark Tide mainly because of it's camera work and portrayal of the Great White shark. The underwater camera work appeared to be original and was impressive in terms of continuity, unlike most shark films where… More
In Shark Alley, courage runs deep
Very decent good movie! I liked Dark Tide mainly because of it's camera work and portrayal of the Great White shark. The underwater camera work appeared to be original and was impressive in terms of continuity, unlike most shark films where footage is borrowed from a documentary and pasted in. The behavior of the sharks is also more realistic, showing that people with experience can swim with them outside the cage and not be attacked. The action is great there is some emotional depth between the two main protagonists and to me it seemed like a very enjoyable film.
Kate is a shark expert whose business has been failing since a shark attack killed a fellow diver under her command. Once dubbed "the shark whisperer," Kate is haunted by the memory of the attack and unable to get back into the water. With bills piling up and the bank about to foreclose on Kate's boat, Kate's ex-boyfriend Jeff presents her with a lucrative opportunity to lead a thrill-seeking millionaire businessman on a dangerous shark dive - outside the cage. Battling her self-doubts and fear, Kate accepts the proposal and sets a course for the world's deadliest feeding ground - Shark Alley.
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"He wants to see big ones? Let's show him big ones."
For a flick about sharks and Halle Berry in a bikini, Dark Tide is a bit dull.
The movie opens with a tragedy, as Berry and her team of divers swim with great white sharks off the coast of South Africa. Fast… More
"He wants to see big ones? Let's show him big ones."
For a flick about sharks and Halle Berry in a bikini, Dark Tide is a bit dull.
The movie opens with a tragedy, as Berry and her team of divers swim with great white sharks off the coast of South Africa. Fast forward, and Berry, out of the water since the incident and in financial trouble, is convinced to take a wealthy man and his son out to see some sharks, and possibly to swim with them.
Shockingly, things go awry and people get chomped on.
The scenery is nice, but nothing about Dark Tide is particularly memorable. It's admittedly cool to see people swimming so close to such massive predators, but the movie itself is as rote and conventional as can be. From the hotheaded character that causes trouble to the inevitable ship malfunction and "unexpected" storm.
Things finally pick up a bit near the end, but it shouldn't take a movie an hour and a half to become interesting. Even then, it's not exactly a nail-biter. By the time it was all over, I was less aware of the vicious power and majesty of sharks than the need for proper anchor use and safety.
Dark Tide isn't a terrible movie, but I wouldn't go so far as to call it a good one, either. If you're looking to just kill some time then you could do worse, but don't watch this expecting a lot of thrills or originality.
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Described by some as the best shark movie since "Jaws", this reviewer however found it the most boring since "Jaws: The Revenge".
It seems every couple of months I end up reviewing a shark movie. What prompted the recent explosion isn't clear, usually low… More
Described by some as the best shark movie since "Jaws", this reviewer however found it the most boring since "Jaws: The Revenge".
It seems every couple of months I end up reviewing a shark movie. What prompted the recent explosion isn't clear, usually low budget producers want to cash in on Hollywood's latest success but there really hasn't been a big budget shark flick since "Deep Blue Sea". Usually when approaching this sub-genre film-makers play on the trashy element such as "Two Headed Shark Attack" and "Shark Night 3D", producing movies which can never live up to their attention grabbing titles. Now and then we get a serious thriller involving our razor-toothed friends, movies like "Open Water" and "The Reef". This effort falls into the latter category, though it's all too hard to take seriously.
The plot is the usual cliched garbage, Berry is a marine biologist named Kate who has avoided swimming with sharks since one of her crew members became fish food a year ago. I could be imagining this but i'm pretty sure every time an attractive actress is cast as some kind of scientist they always seem to be named Kate. Maybe there's some psychology of names that is meant to convince us someone as hot as Berry would waste her time becoming a scientist instead of making a shed load of money as a model or actress. Anyway back to the plot, yawn. A rich old git convinces Berry to let him and his son swim with sharks, thanks to the persuasive powers of her ex-husband Martinez. Needless to say it all goes pear shaped, the problem is it takes ninety minutes for it to do so.
The running time is close to two hours which is just ridiculous for what is essentially a monster movie. Stockwell seems to have become the go to director for aquatic movies, having previously helmed "Blue Crush" and "Into The Blue". Maybe he should skip narrative film and make Jacques Cousteau type documentaries instead. Here he seems far more interested in showing off the natural wonder of the ocean than giving us any kind of an interesting story. The problem though is that a lot of the footage isn't actually his. There's an outrageously ballsy use of stock footage here that would make Ed Wood proud. The most ridiculous moment involves the characters pointing off screen before we cut to the "jumping shark" clip from the BBC's "Planet Earth" series. This is probably the most famous piece of shark footage ever filmed and in terms of lighting doesn't remotely match the shots Stockwell crudely cuts around it.
The best thing i can say about this is the fact that we don't get any CGI sharks but this is a terrible movie, far more dull than it has any right to be.
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