Shark Night

Released: 30th September 2011 (UK)

Director: David R. Ellis

Stars: Sara Paxton, Dustin Milligan, Jesse Studenberg

Certificate: 15

Reviewer: Ben Harris

2010 was the host to flesh eating piranhas and whilst it was high on stupidity it embraced it and turned out to be a lot of fun. Cashing in on the success is director David R. Ellis, who is best known for the crazy ‘Snakes on a Plane’, and this time around he brings together a bunch of good looking, yet useless, teens for a fun time at a lake house. But unfortunately for these idiots the lake is home to numerous CGI sharks.

‘Shark Night’ has nothing going for it. Unlike ‘Piranha’ this film takes itself way too seriously and tries to give the characters some meaning but you just end up not caring. Sara Paxton leads the group of arrogant youngsters but even she has a bland presence.

Everything in this disastrous film is dire recycled material with no originality what so ever. Every action the characters take is excruciatingly frustrating and you find yourself cheering for these fake fish to hurry up and get on chewing.

The sharks themselves are lazy looking computer imagery and it’s saying something when Bruce from ‘Finding Nemo’ is more frightening than these pathetic creatures. The shark attacks are lifeless thanks to the 15/PG-13 rating and this also results in the nudity being non-existent. Sorry boys go watch ‘Piranha’ instead.

The story takes an unimaginative turn and you can’t even call it a “twist” as you could see it coming from the start. When the plot isn’t intriguing or likable you are left with a joyless experience and ‘Shark Night’ is a movie that falls into that category.

Ellis fails to capture a fun spirit with his lackluster direction. It isn’t helped by lazy writing, wooden performance and cartoonish special effects. Steer clear of this mess!