Polar Bears Watch TV

I suppose I’ll start with what’s already been so astutely observed by pretty much every review I’ve read: 1) Blake Lively is in a bikini, and 2) There is a seagull in this movie that should be in the running for best supporting actor. Aside from that, this is a solid b-movie survival thriller with a committed central performance and nice visuals, and though it doesn’t break any new ground, it’s not a bad entry to the survival genre. Even in its short running time, it does get a bit repetitive at times, but it’s nevertheless most effective when it focuses on Lively’s character figuring out how to survive. When it attempts to shoehorn in a backstory about a dead mother and uncertainty about medical school, though–as well as some arguable symbolism–it gets tiresome. To put it in a semi-clever way that makes me proud of myself, it reaches for something too deep when it really should just remain in the shallows.

GRADE: B-

Photo credit: The Shallows, Columbia Pictures

Tags: Blake Lively in a bikini The Shallows, Blake Lively Nancy The Shallows, Carlos drives Nancy The Shallows, Drunk man steals Nancy's phone money backpack The Shallows, Jaume Collet-Serra director The Shallows, Mother beach surfing Nancy The Shallows, Nancy Chloe father Galveston Texas final scene The Shallows, Nancy GoPro message The Shallows, Nancy medical student Dr. Adams The Shallows, Nancy mother death The Shallows, Nancy shooting flares shark The Shallows, Nancy swimming jellyfish The Shallows, Shark bites Nancy's leg The Shallows, Shark death impaled buoy The Shallows, Steve the Seagull The Shallows, The Shallows review, The Shallows shark attack Jaws movie, Two men shark death eaten The Shallows, Whale carcass shark The Shallows