47 METERS DOWN – Review

47 METERS DOWN is an adequate genre thriller –  immersive while going down, but not a particularly memorable or distinctive entry in ‘Shark Cinema’. Sisters Lisa (Mandy Moore) and Kate (Claire Holt) are on vacation in Mexico. Lisa has just split up with her boyfriend, so the pair head to a dance club to cheer up. There they hook up with two local guys who suggest they all meet in the morning to go scuba diving with sharks. The good news is that Captain Taylor (Matthew Modine) is willing to drop the sisters from his boat into the deep in an observation cage for the bargain rate of $100 each. The bad news is that rusty old cage doesn’t quite seem up to code. After a couple of minutes, a chain snaps and the gals plummet to the ocean floor where they are terrorized by hungry sharks and depleting oxygen tanks.

The tropes of this type of survival story may be familiar from other entries in the shark genre, especially last year’s similar THE SHALLOWS. The story, taking place over about a 3-hour period (minus the nightclub prologue), is single-minded (like a shark!), the cast minimal and the pace energetic. At 89 minutes, it’s never actually dull but the problem with 47 METERS DOWN is its weak script and its whiny lead characters who aren’t interesting enough to sustain the film’s duration. Lisa’s sole motivation to take the plunge is to snap photos that will make her seem less-boring to her ex. Even without another human to interact with, Blake Lively’s brave and resourceful character in THE SHALLOWS had far more depth than these gals who alternate between two emotions: squealing panic and short-lived elation. Their dialog is peppered with such deep nuggets as: “We’re going to get out of this together!”, “Omigod! Omigod! Omigod!”, “I’m so scared we’re going to die down here!”, and my favorite: “That shark almost got me!”. Where Lively used a series of smart choices in fending off her attacker (and looked great doing it), these girls mostly just scream and cry and wait for rescue from above. When he can get them to shut up, director Johannes Roberts does a decent job of generating suspense.  It’s dark down there, which makes the occasional appearance by the great whites more startling. The driving score which helps greatly in cranking up what tension there is is by Tom Hajdu and Andy Milburn – oddly billed in the opening credits as ‘tomandandy’ (WTF guys!?!) The film’s conclusion is marred by an underwhelming dream/hallucination scene that’s a real groaner. Apparently 47 METERS DOWN was originally set to go straight to Red Box, and it does have a certain B-movie cheesiness about it (“….and Matthew Modine as Captain Taylor”). While teens and non-discerning thrill-seekers might be enough to make 47 METERS DOWN a minor hit, it’s a disposable film, good for one moderately entertaining watch and then discarded. It’s not bad, just low-rent.

2 1/2 of 5 Stars