Director: John Stockwell
Starring: Halle Berry, Oliver Martinez, Ralph Brown, Luke Taylor, Mark Elderkin
Running Time: 108 minutes
Certificate: 15
Sharks get a tough rap; if someone came into your home snooped about, took some photos, and teased you with a lovely bit of blood you’d be annoyed right? That being the case, why do people continue to do this and act surprised when it all goes wrong? This is just the start of many problems with DARK TIDE.
Set in South Africa, married couple Kate (Berry) and Jeff (Martinez) do a bit of Shark swimming – no cages for these daredevils. Inevitably some poor expendable character is coerced into the water by Kate and gets eaten 10 minutes in. A year later Kate is a broken woman: her shark tour business is going under, and she still lives with the guilt of her friend’s death. Things begin to look up when Brady (Brown) – a rich Brit stereotype – turns up and offers 100,000 Euros (why Euros?) for him and his son to swim with sharks. Tentatively Kate accepts on the proviso they stay in the cage he agrees, but Jeff and Brady have other ideas.
Let’s get the bad stuff out the way: DARK TIDE is hideously acted, terribly edited, awfully scripted, and boring. The good stuff: it has some nice scenery and Halle Berry’s cleavage. If this hasn’t put you off allow some elaboration: 11 years ago Halle Berry gave the performance of a lifetime displaying emotion, bravery, and passion in her Best Actress Oscar acceptance for MONSTER’S BALL – she was good in the film as well. Since then a string of utter bilge must have left the bank balance a bit short resulting in DARK TIDE. Here we get ‘CATWOMAN Berry’ instead of ‘Oscar Berry’. Trying to make her look better are Oliver Martinez, Ralph Brown, Luke Taylor, and Mark Elderkin as Tommy, probably the most tedious annoyance put on screen since Jar-Jar Binks – yes he is that bad. Ronnie Christensen and Amy Sorlie seem to have spent 10, maybe 20, minutes on a script which is unsurprisingly handled as subtly as a brick in the face by director John Stockwell who excels at this rubbish having directed INTO THE BLUE.
DARK TIDE is a huge failure on all of the above points, yet it is impossible to hate as running through it are generic, but warm threads: reconciliation of a marriage following a disaster, and a father and son growing apart. Universal themes that will resonate with many viewers. But then, there is Tommy he does his best to counteract any warmth with a plethora of intentionally unfunny jokes that are meant to ease tension with the characters – but will likely cause you to rip the arm off your chair in annoyance.
If you want a story that is poorly put together, horribly acted, and devoid of quality give DARK TIDE a go; if you don’t then watch JAWS instead.
DARK TIDE is available on DVD and Blu-ray now
