Open Water

Rating:
Summary: Scary situation, but no suspense or entertainment value!!
Review: Okay, a good idea, lets take a horrifying news story and put it in production for a film. The movie is not horrible, its just dreadful to watch. I can see where the director was going with a realistic point of view, but it just was not well put together and I was looking at my watch wondering how much longer is this thing going to go on. How would you feel if you were in this situation being stuck in the ocean with no one around, jellyfish stinging you, sharks circling you, no food, cramps from staying a float, and over 12 hours of torment? Not good and not fun to watch either. Jaws is a much more entertaining movie, and has all the elements that will scare you while swimming in a pool. This movie lacks the thrills, is boring and is like watching a reflection of a bad vacation become worse!!! Don't waste your money!

Rating:
Summary: the true story of jaws
Review: open water is about two divers who dive down to the bottom of the sea and when they come back up their tour boat is missing.
they soon discover they're in shark infested waters with many dangerous creatures to keep them company.this movie looks even better than the blair witch project and was so low budget they had to use real sharks during filming.this movie looks really scary.

Rating:
Summary: Over-hyped, Poorly made attempt at a Thriller
Review: There is a tense ten minute thriller here. Unfortunately, it is buried in a 79 minute boring piece of cheaply produced cinema. The actors are bad, the direction is far from subtle and we're forced to sit through a lot of absolutely irrelevant and useless exposition for a couple of short thrilling moments. Really over-hyped and not even worth a rental. Save your money.

Rating:
Summary: Not scary, but good
Review: When an annoying yuppie couple go on a scuba vacation, a careless mistake on the part of the boat crew finds the duo left behind, stranded in shark-infested waters in the middle of the ocean. For a relationship that was tense to begin with, this leads to alternating levels of blame and interdependence.

For me, Open Water was the must-see movie of the summer of 2004. I wasn't expecting perfection from this little indie flick (from the writer-director/producer husband-and-wife team behind Grind, Chris Kentis and Laura Lau), but I did think I would get to see a tight little thriller with some good fright scenes.

Unfortunately, Open Water does not deliver on its promise of scares. There are tense moments, to be sure -- especially once the sharks come in for a taste -- but neither I nor the person I was with ever felt any real terror.

Nevertheless, the writing and directing are solid -- a real feat given that Kentis and Lau also acted as cinematographers. The acting of the two leads carries Open Water, though. I especially liked how Blanchard Ryan (Susan) underplayed her scenes, letting her eyes show her feelings -- particularly during the courageous finale. Her screenmate, Daniel Travis, prefers to act with his voice, which makes him less effective during the tense sequences as his voice rises into frantic registers unnecessary to get the point across.

From a fright standpoint, I was disappointed, but on the whole, Open Water is a solid portrait of human misadventure. An independent film with blockbuster ambitions, there are many things about it to admire, not least of which is the fact (as explained in the DVD extras) that it was filmed on weekends over a long period of time -- while Kentis was holding down a full-time job. Kentis and Lau (each taking on at least two jobs on the film -- Kentis was also the editor) have taken digital video, really the only way to make movies these days on the cheap (also, the fewer sets, the better, as this shows), and made a surprisingly beautiful-looking film that doesn't show its origins as much as some others and that will hopefully act as a springboard for better things to come as well as inspiring future filmmakers.