This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of Jaws, which led to cinemagoers hid ing behind their popcorn and one of the best pieces of movie music of all time.
Dangerous Animals challenges the idea that the main danger lurks in the water, as a pair of hapless gap-year students arrive for "Tucker's Experience", not paying enough attention to the massive red flag before they set sail ("so no one even knows you're here then"?). It seems the local police on the Gold Coast have also missed the fact that they have a murderous miscreant in their midst, as it quickly emerges he has longstanding form for his venus flytrap tours.
What follows is a slightly schlocky, but effective thriller. I liked the singing of Baby Shark before the students were lowered into their shark cage, and very much enjoyed Hassie Harrison's performance as free-spirited Zephyr. Luckily for her, a chance encounter with a dishy local Moses (Josh Heuston), means she had someone on dry land looking for her after being snatched by the crazy captain. Jai Courtney as Tucker plays the psychotic, unhinged main role pretty well, and it made a refreshing change that the sharks were not the bad guys. As Tucker himself ominously says, "it's not the shark's fault". It seems his previous encounter with one resulted in extensive bite marks, and left him "always awake" (read into that 'slightly unhinged to say the least'). A ticket for his shark tour is even more unwelcome than a Mrs Brown's Boys DVD box set.
The film itself is unflinchingly unpleasant to watch at times, especially one bone-crunching scene where Zephyr attempts to free herself from cuffs, but I thought it was neatly done. It perhaps could have ramped up the silliness a little, but Nicolas Cage had that covered in his recent surfing mov ie, to be fair. If you liked Wolf Creek, you'd enjoy this one, although not all critics have been convinced. A strong 3 stars out of 5 from me.
Also this week, Elio is the latest charming Disney Pixar adventure, and has had a terrible start at the box office, with the worst opening weekend for any modem film in Pixar's history, ac cording to Variety. I'm baffled by this, as I found it charming, with a lovely message and gorgeous animation. In a reverse ET scenario, Elio is beamed up to the Communiverse, and mistakenly identified as the leader of earth, despite being only eleven years old.
His journey across the galaxy sees him make a new friend in Glordon, and realise the value of his life back on earth after he sends back a compliant clone to take his place. It's colourful, heartwarming, and uplifting, and I really enjoyed it. I hope it finds its audience, as those who moan that Disney keep churning out remakes should be supporting original work like this. I'm hoping to see it again with my nephew, as the lead character reminded me a bit of him!
Next week, 28 Years Later.
Alex Cann's weekly film blog - 9th January
