Human Synopsis
A freak tsunami traps some shoppers in a supermarket along with some great white sharks.
Shark Synopsis
A bunch of humans start attacking a shark couple as they try to get their weekly shop.
Review
Thi review is going to be littered with SPOILERS because there are too many good bits that need to be mentioned.
It's an ordinary day and everyone is heading to work/shop at the supermarket. No one expected to be confronted by armed robbers, and certainly no one expected the situation to be resolved by a deluge of water as a tsunami hits the coast.
As the water calms the survivors climb up onto the shelving. The small group have to try and find their way out of the supermarket while staying out of the reach of the sharks that have found themselves inside the building.
Even before we get into the main bulk of the film we are treated to some prime shark movie goodness. Lifeguard Josh tries to save his friend from being snatched by a terrible CGI shark, of course he is unsuccessful, what sort of films would this be without one of our main characters being wronged by a shark?! In his despair at this event he throws his arms down and screams "Nooooooo!" at the sky... as you do.
We have a change of scenery and whizz to the present day where everything is just a little bit more ominous. Howling dogs, large flocks of birds flying inland... yet no one is taking the hint. As well as hints for the characters there are plenty of hints for the viewers, none of them spoil anything, they just leave you that fun feeling of anticipation.
While the CGI is a little ropey the prosthetics are not that bad. We get a sequence with floating bodies and whether they're real bodies with latex make-up or dummies it's pretty effective.
There will be a few people in the cast that you recognise, the biggest names being Julian McMahon of Dr Doom fame, and Damien Garvey from Harrow and a spot in the recent Dora movie. Most of the cast seem to have popped up in something at some time or another.
Apart from a couple of over enthusiastic moments of acting the cast is quite solid. Good performances from most, and as believable as you can be in a shark movie. Damien Garvey does a particularly good job in the water, 9.5 for style.
The action is confined to two areas, primarily we're in the actual supermarket and there's a secondary location in the car park. The space is used quite well and it's quite fun how the debris is initially used as an indicator of where the shark is going. Although the space is so small relatively speaking that I do have many questions I shall bring up at the end.
The movie is full of daft things, but daft things are what shark movies are about. I don't watch them for their award winning effects and storyline (often), I watch them for the entertainment of it all, and Bait is definitely full to the brim with entertainment.
Here are just some of my thoughts on Bait that were in all likelihood yelled at the screen while watching...
- The shop floor is so small to look at yet the shark, A] went undetected, and B] didn't try to eat them all instantly.
- The girl in the basement doesn't know she's got fake Gucci shoes but she does know how to jimmy a sunroof?
- I think Josh kills his ex's new boyfriend deliberately, A] had they tied the breathing tube to something that would float on the water he would have had the valuable extra feet for his mission, and B] once he's successfully flipped the switch Josh reels in the tube pretty quickly when he could potentially have returned to it and come back to safety.
- Movie fact: if you sacrifice/hurt a dog karma will get you.
- Josh's ex has just lost her new boyfriend but snogs his anyway? Rude much! His body isn't even cold yet... were you in on it too?!
- What sort of supermarket is this? Is it really a thing? Are there more underground stores than I know?
- How was the basement garage not flooded more? Certainly you'd think the stairwell would have been gone because that door did not look airtight.
- And speaking of airtight... how about Kyle's car?! Not a drop of water was coming in from anywhere which seems entirely implausible to me.
On the shark movie scale this is pretty good. It might not hold up for accuracy (although I like to think that sharks do go to supermarkets whenever they can) but like I said, I don't come for the accuracy.
What you should do
Bait is very entertaining and if you love shark movies then definitely give it a watch. I imagine it would be a great movie to watch with friends who you know will join in as you playfully rip it to shreds.
Movie thing you wish you could take home
Possibly the ability to know so much random knowledge about things, as many of the characters seem to possess.
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