Congratulations to all associated with, what will be, the biggest surprise moneymaking movie of 2016. Jaume Collet-Serra’s (Non-Stop, Run All Night) The Shallows will have used a highly successful marketing campaign (which included showing its terrifying trailers during sporting events and popular primetime television shows) along with positive scores from the critics (75% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) on its way to making, my guess, more than $300 million worldwide by the time everything is said and done. This will make The Shallows the biggest non-superhero, non-G-rated movie to be released in the first half of 2016. Of course, it’s exactly everything you would expect it to be, and, for a majority of its audience, that will be perfectly fine. If you want an escape from reality fare, this could be the movie for you. If you want to take your thinking cap off for an hour and a half, this could be the movie for you. If you want a movie that builds upon every single scene in its quest to terrify you, this could be the movie for you. Even if you are looking for a movie with beautiful cinematography, this could be the movie for you. But if you are looking for something that is even the slightest bit believable or you care about any top-of-quality acting in your lead or sub-characters, The Shallows most certainly is not your movie.
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