Movie Review: MANEATER

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer

Posted: August 19th, 2022 / 03:44 PM

Rating: R

MANEATER movie poster | ©2022 Saban Films

Stars: Nicky Whelan, Trace Adkins, Jeff Fahey, Shane West, Porscha Coleman, Ed Morrone, Branscombe Whitman, Zoe Cipres, Kim DeLonghi, Kelly Reiter, Alex Farnham
Writer: Justin Lee
Director: Justin Lee
Distributor: Saban Films
Release Date: August 26, 2022

MANEATER boasts a good cast, great gore effects, the scenery of Maui, and the basis of a decent premise. Unfortunately, it has problems with its shark footage. Given the title, this is a significant drawback.

Harlan (Trace Adkins) is an island fisherman. He is furious when his teen daughter is killed in an apparent shark attack and the local police refuse to do anything about it.

To be fair to the police, it’s not clear what they can do; they’re hardly equipped to do a miles-wide underwater search. Harlan takes this as his cue to take his fishing boat on a one-man shark-finding quest.

At the same time, newly-minted doctor Jessie (Nicky Whelan) is grieving over her broken wedding engagement. Jessie’s devoted friends arrange for her to go to Maui (the erstwhile honeymoon destination) anyway, and they all tag along.

The group includes lawyer Will (Shane West), realtor Sunny (Porscha Coleman), plus Brianna (Kelly Reiter), Emma (Zoe Cipres), and Ty (Alex Farnham). None of them are couples, though hookups aren’t out of the question; all of them look good in their swimsuits.

They charter a boat with amiable Captain Wally (Ed Morrone) and his equally friendly wife Beth (Kim DeLonghi). The plan is that our not-honeymoon partiers will spend the night on a pristine island by themselves, then be picked up the next day.

Harlan consults with a local professor/shark expert (Jeff Fahey), who agrees that the animal that killed Harlan’s daughter is most likely a Great White. However, since much of the body washed up on the beach, the two men come to the conclusion that this shark kills for sport, not for food.

This is an interesting notion. In reality, a Great White normally eats a seal every two to three days. Since MANEATER needs the title character to kill several people within the space of a minute on occasion, making the shark purposely homicidal gets around this issue.

On the other hand, MANEATER doesn’t have a lot of curiosity about why the shark is acting this way.

The screenplay by director/writer Justin Lee instead spends a good amount of time chatting about love and regret and the sorts of things we’d expect if this was a tropical rom-com.

We can understand the impulse. The cast is attractive and personable, and the locations are beautiful.

Still, this is called MANEATER. As such, it’s a bit of a letdown.

The gore effects by Vincent Guastini, showing the aftermath of the shark attacks, are impressive. However, while makeup effects enthusiasts will be pleased, there is little tension in the action. The editing on the attacks is so chaotic that we can hardly tell what we’re looking at until each assault has concluded.

The filmmakers seem to have had difficulty in acquiring/creating shark footage, so that the same few shots are used repeatedly. The shark also changes size, depending on our perspective. The animal is huge when seen from above, large when we see the open mouth, sometimes smallish when we just see the dorsal fin.

MANEATER will appeal to several distinct constituencies: fans of the actors involved, lovers of Maui in movies, and shark flick completists. Viewers who want suspense or even follow-through on a novel concept should swim elsewhere.

Follow us on Twitter at ASSIGNMENT X
Like us on Facebook at ASSIGNMENT X

Latest Buzz

A homicidal shark in Maui waters

Article Source: Assignment X
Article: Movie Review: MANEATER

Related

Related Posts:

Leave a Comment

Assignment X Poll

Newsletter subscription status