Open Water 2 (2007)

[Kat]

This review contains spoilers on how certain characters die, however, the character names are not included.

MPAA Rating: R
Running Time: 95 Minutes
Release Date: Feb. 20th, 2007 (DVD)
Review Date: Jan. 16th, 2008
My Rating: 3/5

Director(s): Hans Horn
Writer(s): Adam Kreutner, Collin McMahon
Cast: Susan May Pratt, Richard Speight Jr., Niklaus Lange, Ali Hillis, Cameron Richardson, Eric Dane, Wolfgang Raach, Alexandra Raach

Synopsis: A weekend cruise on a luxurious party yacht goes horribly wrong for a group of old high-school friends. They forget to let the ladder down before they jump into the ocean for a swim. The boat proves impossible to climb. They are stuck in the water many miles from shore, with baby Sara left alone on board. Sara's mother Amy must contend with her aqua-phobia as well as the group's increasing desperation, as the friends begin to turn on each other. Soon the exhaustion of keeping afloat and the struggle to get back on board begin to take a terrible toll. The happy reunion turns into a fight for survival

My Review: If for some reason you are thinking of watching this movie because you heard it was a sequel to Open Water, and there would perhaps actually be shark attacks, since the first one didn't show anything...you're going to be disappointed. This movie has NOTHING to do with sharks. Other then one of the characters saying they think they might have been rubbed up against by a shark. I'm pretty sure that this movie was originally titled something else, and they decided to change it to 'Open Water 2' to cash in on the name. I personally found the first film AWFUL. Complete snorefest, with no fear. But...this isn't a review of the first film. I never wrote one.

The movie is actually pretty good. The concept is quite frightening, and we see the characters struggle to figure out ways to get back on the boat. But, the movie has downfalls too. Too many things happen to these characters while they are stuck in the water. Semi silly things. Fighting with each other over certain things, and silly deaths. It seems like all these events that happen to them, happen around the same time. One person hits their head, two others swim off and just drown, and another gets stabbed. They should have just had the one person get stabbed and a shark comes along. Don't sharks sense blood within 5 miles? Its amazing with that amount of blood there were NO sharks. So really, the first 70 minutes aren't that bad. If you can overlook these little problems, you'd enjoy the movie a lot more.

As for the ending, its so so, I felt it was a tad silly, but it is what it is.

Gore: There is blood in the movie. Nothing major. This is one of those movies that gore doesn't really play a part, its not supposed to, its all the fear of trying not to drown and attempting to get back onto the boat.

Character Development: The movie takes a group of friends, and shows them having fun the the beginning through a series of little home video clips. Flash forward to five years later, the group for some reason hasn't seen each other in those five years, and certain

characters don't appear to be couples anymore, which doesn't seem to play a major role in the film, but with the home video clips in the beginning you might think it should. Only two of the characters really have any subplots to them, and both come into play with their situation.

Sexual Content: We get a little sex scene in the beginning. Later on we see plenty of nude butts. Male and female.

Acting: I didn't have any issues with the acting at all. I actually enjoyed it. I loved the fact that I knew some of the

characters from other films, or TV shows. Such as Eric Dane. He's on Grey's Anatomy as Dr. McSteamy AKA Mark Sloan, and he was also in the horror film Feast as Hero. Susan May Pratt is in one of my all time favorite non-horror films - 10 Things I Hate About You.

Overall: The movie was 100% better then the original. It wasn't a snooze fest. The characters were interesting and the concept was interesting. I'd perhaps watch it again at some point in my life, totally unlike the first film which I hope to never see again. But, I wouldn't care about owning this flick.