Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.0

Dark Tide Blu-ray Movie Review

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in your home theater. . .

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 25, 2012

A cynic might argue that Halle Berry was simply picking up what was probably a hefty paycheck with her appearance in Dark Tide. A real curmudgeon might argue that not only was she picking up a paycheck, she was also getting a nice vacation in South Africa, lounging about on yachts and catching a few rays in between undemanding takes of what is certainly one of the oddest, and quite possibly one of the worst, films in the Oscar winner’s surprisingly spotty career. Berry has never shied away from mainstream offerings (X-Men, anyone?) even as she’s plied her ambitions as a Serious Actress (Monster’s Ball, anyone?), but she’s also appeared in some pretty relentlessly stupid offerings (Catwoman and Gothika, anyone?), indicating either a serious lack in judgment or perhaps more charitably a compulsion to keep on working, no matter what that employment entails. In the case of Dark Tide, employment entails a patent bait and switch tactic that promises something akin to Jaws: The Reckoning and instead plops its characters down into a turgid interpersonal melodrama that Doulas Sirk might have filmed had had been more prone to taking to the seas than dealing with glamorous denizens of a burgeoning suburbia. Dark Tide is a mess of a film. It’s a really pretty mess at times, with gorgeous location photography and the always charismatic Berry (who once again proves she’s a Serious Actress who looks smokin’ hot in a bikini), but the movie is a stale rehash of clichés that never even totally capitalizes on what could have been a surefire crowd pleaser: that ever popular threat of being eaten alive by an attacking shark.

Dark Tide is one of the more peculiar “shark” films to come down the pike, but unfortunately that unusualness is not put to any good use. While the film doesn’t traffic in relentless threats from sharks (though there are a couple of semi-harrowing sequences dealing with just that subject), it also never seems to really know what it wants to be or do. Berry portrays marine biologist Kate Mathieson who has made a name for herself by literally swimming with the sharks, insisting they’re poor, misunderstood beasts who, in the infamous words of Norman Bates in Psycho, wouldn’t harm a fly. Kate soon discovers the folly of her presupposition when a filming expedition goes horribly awry, leading to a gruesome death at the teeth of a vicious shark. That leads Kate to reconsider her career options, and she decides to become a tour guide for “three hour tours” out into the vast blue seas.

We therefore have the well worn cliché of an emotionally scarred former denizen of the deep who must confront her fears and return to her life of yore, something that has been done to death in any number of water based films over the past several years. Helping Kate take the plunge again (sorry) is her kind of smarmy estranged husband, Jeff (Olivier Martinez), who brings Kate an offer she supposedly can’t refuse: he knows an even smarmier ultra-rich entrepreneur (Ralph Brown) who wants to teach his wimpy son to “man up” by having the kid, yes, swim with the sharks. And he’ll pay handsomely for the help Kate can provide. The absolute ludicrousness of this plot is only upped by the film’s desperate gambit in its third act to have the boat encounter a Perfect Storm swell of massive waves and calamitous winds, with havoc being wreaked indiscriminately, leaving several people tossed asunder into the shark infested waters.

Dark Tide might actually have worked had it played it closer to the bone and simply concentrated on Kate’s debilitating fear and the looming threat of a shark attack. Instead, scenarists Ronnie Christensen and Amy Sortie and director John Stockwell suck virtually all available life and energy out of this project by having Kate and Jeff spend what seems like countless hours discussing their failed relationship. This has to be one of the talkiest shark films ever, and it simply points out how relentlessly insipid the film’s approach and realization are.

Things spring fitfully to life (well, actually, death, but I digress) in a couple of well staged set pieces which combine increasing panic with the lightning quick attack technique of sharks, and it’s in those moments that Dark Tide finally delivers at least a little on its promise. The final big sequence of the film is hampered somewhat by its perhaps appropriately dusky setting (after all the film is called Dark Tide for a reason), making some of the proceedings a bit hard to make out, which actually works to the film’s benefit in two ways. There’s an increased terror quotient when one isn’t quite sure what’s lurking out there in the dark, but perhaps more importantly with regard to a film as incredibly lame brained as Dark Tide is, sometimes the less seen, the better.

Dark Tide Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Dark Tide is presented on Blu-ray by Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. For such an interminably stupid film, Dark Tide looks pretty darned fantastic for the most part, and taking a couple of important facets into consideration. The location photography in and around South Africa is just stupendously beautiful at times, with gorgeous rose hued horizons and lovely teal green water. Depth of field in the wide exterior shots (and virtually all of this film takes place outdoors) is awesome. Fine detail is also quite pleasing and the film boasts a naturally cinematic look. The film is intentionally dark in several key sequences, including some rather murky underwater segments. The underwater photography, while incredibly effective most of the time, obviously has the appearance of softness due to the filming conditions, and shadow detail is negligible throughout these sequences, once again probably quite intentionally. But overall this is an excellently sharp and well defined high definition presentation that at least partially helps to make up for the actual film's many shortcomings.

Dark Tide Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Dark Tide boasts a very effective lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround mix. The film benefits from some very smart and well placed directionality with regard to sound effects, including some jolt inducing LFE when sharks suddenly zoom in from nowhere. The underwater sequences have a sort of cliché ridden waterlogged sound added to them, but there's a looming sense of immersion (no pun intended) that helps generate a fair amount of tension and even claustrophobia throughout these segments. The big set piece that caps the film is a whirlwind (literally) of sonic activity, with some nice use of discrete channelization and once again really good immersive qualities. Fidelity is excellent throughout this track and dynamic range is also superb.

Dark Tide Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Trailer (HD; 1:50)

Dark Tide Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Halle Berry just kind of coasts through this exceptionally turgid film, one which rather incomprehensibly eschews the typical elements of a shark based thriller and instead gets bogged down in talk, talk, talk about relationships, regrets and healing. No wonder these sharks are so intent on killing several of these characters—it may well be the only way to get them to shut the heck up. There's a reason this film was never screened for critics before its mercifully short theatrical exhibition and why in fact it was so quickly dumped into the home video marketplace. The good news, if indeed there is any, is that this Blu-ray boasts really superior video and audio quality, but the fact is it's all for naught. This is one film that deserves to sink to the bottom of the sea and never be heard from again.