Clearly the general audience is still not tired of shark films, because The Shallows went on to make over $100-million worldwide on a mere budget of $17-million. And considering the premise really isn't anything new says a lot about the movie and what can be accomplished by some talented people behind and in front of the camera.

The flick follows a young med student named Nancy (Blake Lively) who visits a secluded beach somewhere in Mexico to do a little surfing. It also happens to be the very same spot that her recently deceased mother once surfed at. It's a little known place that very few people visit except for the occasional local or two, oh and a great white shark! Of course poor Nancy doesn't find this out until it's too late and she's left stranded on a small piece of rock that's a couple hundred yards from shore. Now wounded from the shark's attack, she must find a way to survive the ordeal before the tide forces her back into water where she must face the dreaded beast once again (*cue dramatic music*).

Back in 2003 we had another successful low-budget in-peril shark movie called Open Water, which bears some resemblance to this in terms of people being stranded in the ocean and having to survive the elements (including sharks), but next to that this is a completely different movie, and honestly a better one. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra (House of Wax, Orphan) the pic will keep the viewer squirming in their chair during certain scenes (did for me anyway) and if you have a fear of sharks you'll probably have to look away at times, because the shark here is pretty fierce and malevolent to the point that it seems personally out to get Nancy.  Obviously that's unrealistic to how sharks actually are, but I can suspend disbelief here, otherwise the movie wouldn't be as effective.

While there are some supporting characters that pop in and out of the film, it's really just Blake Lively's movie and she does a pretty good job carrying it. She's likable and believable enough for us to feel for her character and the plight she found herself in. The filmmakers also made the shark itself a powerful foe that comes in just at the right moments. And the CG used for the shark was done well enough that I barely even noticed it at all. Had the CG been bad it would've severely dampened the quality of the film and just made things silly and unbelievable.

Positive aside, it does take over 20-minutes for things to kick into gear, so we have to sit through a couple lengthy surfing montages before much happens and some of the visuals used during the phone scenes seemed a little out of place, but that's more of a nitpick than an actual complaint. Also it would've ended perfectly had the last couple minutes been removed, but they just had to throw that bit in there. Oh well.

The Shallows is a surprisingly tense and entertaining shark flick that successfully manages to put you in the plight of the protagonist, so you really feel for the character and want her to make it out alive. It's well directed and definitely worth looking into, especially if you like shark flicks or just tense survival movies in general.