Open Water / Open Water 2: Adrift Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		2.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.0

Open Water / Open Water 2: Adrift Blu-ray Movie Review

These two films should keep you away from boats for a while.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 22, 2010

The names Thomas and Eileen Lonergan probably mean nothing to the vast majority of you reading this review, and yet their horrible fate spawned the two films contained on this recent Lionsgate release. In January 1998 the Lonergans set out on a long dreamed about scuba adventure off Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. Through a series of improbable events, they were left in the water when their tourist dive boat returned to port without them. In fact it wasn’t until a couple of days later that it was even discovered they were missing, and by the time search crews headed out to attempt to find them, they had disappeared forever. While some insisted the Lonergans disappeared purposely, or perhaps were part of a gruesome murder-suicide plot by Thomas, most investigators concluded the couple simply succumbed to the elements or, more horrifyingly, sharks. That ominous setup formed the basis of Open Water, a low (frankly, actually miniscule) budget 2004 thriller that pits a stranded couple against not just the elements but their own increasing psychological desperation after they’re left bobbing in the water as their dive boat glides away into the distance. Due perhaps to the film’s paltry budget, its midlevel box office success made it seem like more of a blockbuster than it actually was, and of course that meant a sequel was soon greenlit. Open Water 2: Adrift, which like the first feature proclaims itself based on true events, but which strains credulity considerably more than the premiere effort, detailing a bunch of frankly stupid young people jump off a vacation yacht without first remembering to lower the rope ladder over the side of the craft which will allow them to climb back up once they’re done swimming. D’oh!.

Ummm. . .you may want to surface before your boat leaves. Whoops, too late!

There are certain films which admirably recreate terror and foreboding but which nonetheless can be a strain to actually sit through. Whether or not this is due to the audience’s increasing tension as to the impossible straits the film’s characters have found themselves in, or is in fact a response to less than visceral filmmaking can probably be argued ad infinitum, but Open Water is a prime example of this phenomenon. We’re introduced to our heroes, couple Daniel (Daniel Travis) and Susan (Blanchard Ryan), a harried duo who are finally taking some well deserved time to relax together. Of course their best laid plans soon turn to horror as their scuba adventure leaves them abandoned in shark infested waters. One of the stomach churning things about Open Water is the improbable, yet sadly believable, comedy (or tragedy) of errors which accounts for the boat leaving the couple. The buddy system doesn’t just fail in this instance, it actually contributes to a series of miscommunications and tallying errors whereby the boat’s crew thinks there are actually 20 people back on board when there are only 18. This of course begs the question as to why no one actually simply counted heads (especially for such a relatively low number of divers), one moment where Open Water strains credulity to the breaking point.

Be that as it may, the main section of Open Water, where Susan and Daniel attempt to keep each other’s spirits up while maintaining buoyancy, both physically and emotionally, is riveting drama and helps elevate the film above run of the mill “who will die next?” horror outings. The couple’s repartee is believable and often heartbreaking as they slowly begin to realize that no rescue is forthcoming, at least not soon enough to actually help them. The final few moments of this film, which I won’t spoil for those who haven’t seen the movie, are an excellent study in hopelessness mixed with a fortitude of will that helps one character determine their fate, at least partially. Director Chris Kentis, himself an avid diver, does really good work in this final sequence, offering a harrowing portrait of two people who realize they are out of options but still cling to that most ephemeral of seeming pointlessness, hope.

Open Water 2: Adrift is a considerably sillier affair, not just because the setup is so patently ridiculous but also because the characters are much less sympathetic than Daniel and Susan of the first film. Here we’re treated to a Breakfast Club assemblage of former high school friends who journey out on a yacht belonging to the boss of one of them, and then do something so completely stupid that it’s hard to feel anything other than “you deserve whatever’s coming to you, idiots.” Screenwriters Adam Kreutner and David Mitchell also muddy up the emotional waters by having the supposedly most sympathetic of the characters, Amy (Susan May Pratt), suffer from a debilitating fear of water based on her inability to save her drowning father when she was a child. How much do you want to bet she gets the chance to redeem herself by saving someone in this film from drowning, or at least giving it her best college try? Even worse, Amy brings her infant daughter on the cruise with her and the film keeps cutting between the protagonists’ predicament off the side of the boat and the young girl crying in her bed inside the boat.

This second film plays like a typical high school slasher film, although without the sex and the chainsaw wielding villain. Instead we get a bunch of desperate and desperately whiny brats slowly being offed both by their own stupidity and the encroaching elements. Director Hans Horn attempts to invest the film with some style and flash, imbuing the final sequence with some ambiguity and supposed dread, but this is a hackneyed attempt to cash in on the first film’s success, all the more stupefying as evidently this film was actually written first and then simply co-opted the Open Water moniker to attract audiences. They failed to show up, as I suspect most of you will, too.

Open Water / Open Water 2: Adrift Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Both of these films look astoundingly soft and grainy in their new Blu-ray incarnation. With AVC encoded images in full 1080p and 1.85:1 and 2.35:1 aspect ratios, the first film especially resembles an upconverted SD-DVD, with really alarmingly fuzzy image quality at times, only exacerbated by some less than stellar stock footage which is occasionally utilized. But even the film's major original sequences have a pasty, smudged appearance here, made even less appealing by some really horribly milky blacks. Look at the opening scene, for example, when Daniel walks by some shadowed foliage in his front yard. The blacks here melt into a murky green-white color which is distressing and is pretty representative of the quality level of the entire film. Things are at least decent in close-ups, but this is a very troubling transfer.

Open Water 2 fares a bit better, but surprisingly not by much. While the image is noticeably sharper than in the first film, there's not the clarity and precision we've come to expect from most Blu-rays, and the grain here is even more prevalent than in the first film. On the plus side, colors here are nicely saturated and contrast and black levels are considerably better than in the first film. Overall, though, these two films are probably going to disappoint most videophiles.

Open Water / Open Water 2: Adrift Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The audio side of things is quite a bit better, with both of these films sporting very immersive DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 tracks. While the dialogue portions tend not to be extremely directional, the ambient environmental effects in both films are quite impressive. In the first film there's a very nice attention to detail paid between the "up top" segments and those underwater, and the lapping water noises slowly seem to morph from being calming to being outright sinister. The final shark sequence also is filled with some excellent sound effects which surround the listener in a very viscerally frightening manner.

The second film benefits from having more characters to deal with, and so dialogue tends to be spread over a much wider soundfield. Again, water sounds and passing ambient environmental sounds are well woven into the sonic space. Fidelity and clarity on both of these films is excellent, with occasional, but very robust, LFE.

Open Water / Open Water 2: Adrift Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Quite a few extras float by on this two-fer.

Open Water contains:

• Two good, if sometimes spotty, Commentaries, one with director Chris Kentis and his wife, producer Laura Lau, and the other with actors Blanchard Ryan and Daniel Travis;
• Deleted Scenes (SD; 9:37), an OK assemblage of cut material, including an alternate opening scene;
• The Indie Essentials (SD; 5:04), an unexpectedly excellent little featurette offering some Lionsgate execs telling you burgeoning filmmakers how to pitch an idea to a studio;
• Calm Before the Storm (SD; 15:51) a standard but interesting making of featurette;
• Bonus On Location Footage (SD; 2:30) where you'll get to see intrepid director Kentis swimming with the sharks.

The Theatrical Trailer rounds out the extras on the first feature.

Open Water 2 comes up a bit on the short end of the snorkel, with only a Making Of (SD; 20:08) featurette.

Open Water / Open Water 2: Adrift Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Open Water is horrifying, but it at least makes a visceral connection with the viewer and rates about a 3.5. Open Water 2 is one of those films where you're actually rooting for the idiots to die, never a good sign. It rates about a 2.5. That averages out to 3.0 for both features together, a decent enough score for an evening's rental if you're not too demanding.