Shark Night 3D (2011)

Shark Night 3D (2011)
Director: David R. Ellis
Writers: Will Hayes, Jesse Studenberg

Six hot and diverse college students plus the comedic relief travel to rich kid Sara's mansion on a lake in Louisiana for a weekend of partying and water sports. The hedonistic escape gets off to a rough start when the group runs into a couple of racist rednecks at the local trading post. It takes a drastic turn for the worse when they discover that sharks are on the hunt in the salt water lake. Events get even worse for our group looking only to drink beer and screw when they discover the reason why sharks infest the water.

We all know why we are here sitting in front of our television watching a film called SHARK NIGHT 3D. We want to be entertained by T&A or beefcake and see inventive gory kills. A bit of tension, a little bit of jump scares, would be icing on the cake. Instead we have a neutered PG-13 film that lacks the very elements the audience wants. Does the distributor really think this film's audience is mostly comprised of people unable or unwilling to watch an R rated film? Is that why the script and therefore the characters are so dumb? When the sharks and a pet dog are the smartest creatures on screen, your script has issues.

I can forgive, or go along with a certain amount of stupidity in a low budget let's kill off the characters one by one type of film. But there are only so many inanities I'm willing to forgive and forget. SHARK NIGHT has far too many. The biggest shocks of the film are when the characters act smart.

Generally the acting is fine, especially considering the poor script. Donal Logue (BLADE) as the good ol' boy sheriff is a highlight. But he might have been given the script to a different shark film as his character is often at odds with the tone of this film.

SHARK NIGHT 3D is never scary, doesn't build up any tension outside of one short scene with the dog and doesn't deliver on the shark gore. Find a different lake to jet ski on.

 

*1/2 out of ****