Michael Ledo WARNING: Plot Details. Not ending.The film takes place in scenic South Africa. We get the National Geographic tour. The film starts out great showing us Halle Berry's cleavage, a guy filming her cleavage, and then they throw a shark into the film...and no more cleavage. Halle's hobby is to pet Great Whites in open water out of a cage. She is married to Jeff who films the action. So when sharks suddenly behave badly, Halle quits diving with them.After a year, Jeff is trying to get back with Halle. The have fights about the relationship. The film contains Halle doing a first person philosophical narration and the music is very tame, not what one expects for an action/thriller. Halle who has spent 10 years in the water doesn't like the smell of fish and screams when someone tries to push her in. Clearly this is an action flick written for women, or by a woman (Amy Sorlie). In one scene Jeff apologizes for whatever it was that made Halle angry. Halle is angry that he doesn't know why she is angry and won't tell him...because he should know! She finally says, "You have no idea what's wrong with me!"As Halle's business starts to fail, a wealthy Brit (Ralph Brown) trying to connect with his son (Mark Elderkin) wants to swim with Great Whites without a cage. Halle is reluctant but agrees.They set out in the water to go dancing with sharks. And if everything went well, there wouldn't be a movie. Dad fights with son, Jeff fights with dad, Halle fights with Jeff, and Halle fights with dad. At this point I was hoping a two headed mega shark would swallow the whole boat. The climatic scene I can't detail because I have no idea what is happening. Everyone is in the same dark suits and it is dark. The full view film of the sharks appear to be stock footage. (Ed Wood would be so proud.) This is more of a drama with some poorly shot action scenes.No f-bombs (that I caught), sex, or nudity. Some PG-13 name calling. Might be enjoyed by women who like a soft female lead in an "action thriller."

nicholls_les It seems that a lot of people who review films in here try to make themselves sound clever and copy terms used by movie critics. But judging this film on it's merits rather what others say they think I loved it. Probably the most realistic shark movie I have seen ( let's face it Jaws looked like a fake shark and only the great acting saved it ) how they managed to film some of the sequences is beyond me especially the one where the guy near the beginning holds the Sharks nose and then gets killed. Now a word about the criticism of the lovely Halle Berry. These idiots saying she can't act, looks to glamorous etc are way off the mark in my opinion. In truth she would still look gorgeous if she had been dragged through a bush, but I don't think there was any attempt by her to look overly glam. She had me convinced and looked exactly the way I would expect her too. In the water she was amazing (unless that was a stunt double swimming?) OK the story had holes but so did Jaws and many other films like this but it was tense and had me on the edge of my seat at times. The only downside was the rather abrupt ending.

p-stepien Shark Valley near the Cape in Southern Africa is the optimal place for cage diving with the Great White. Or in the case of Kate Mathieson (Halle Berry) a superior opportunity to free dive with the monstrous sea fauna. Enticed by the intelligence and ferocious beauty, Kate dedicates her life to understanding the animals, thus earning the nickname Shark Whisperer. However, once her whispering remains unheard and a pesky shark chows down her father figure. This leads to Kate retreating from the water and leading a rundown life of ocean tour operator verging on bankruptcy. That is until her quasi-husband Jeff (Olivier Martinez) brings an offer that cannot be refused: entertain millionaire Will Brady (Ralph Brown) and his son Luke (Luke Tyler) the opportunity to swim with sharks in exchange for an obscene amount of cash.Save for monetary gain and the vacation of a lifetime, "Dark Tide" fails to truly deliver any explanation for its existence. Director John Stockwell obviously felt some one-on-one full-frontal action with sharks would make for a good movie, especially if it also incorporates hi-fives with seals, low-fives with penguins, riding the waves with dolphins and Halle Berry donning a bikini. Given the sharks turned out to be decent actors, the same can't however be said about the rest of the cast, who imitate impressions of former glory just to get a paycheck and have as much time to benefit from the surroundings as possible. The only somewhat interesting character is the obnoxious Will Brady, charmless and obvious fish chowder before the end credits. However, honestly I was hoping the rest of the cast get munched up as soon as possible, leaving the sharks to take over the remaining runtime and play out the remainder of the movie as a National Geographic documentary.The clumsy script naturally doesn't help, not sure of whether its more on the side of "The Big Blue" action-drama or the "Jaws" thriller-killer. Thankfully or not, the sharks seem to have the best fleshed out characters, not senseless killers, but predatory animals which work within their own set of rules. Overseeing them is a clichéd and lumbered tale with no ambition or zeal.

kosmasp If this would've been a documentary, I would've been full of praise. Beautiful pictures, even those without Halle Berry in them, and great environment. Unfortunately I cannot judge this just by those underwater shots. I have to also rate the dialog and the story. Both of which lack a lot, not only in comparison to the scenery.Halle Berry and her love interest in this are annoying to the point they make the real bad guy look like the only sane person in this thing. And that is just because he has a clear goal, nothing will get him off that. But our heroes? Better not ask. Especially because their answer will bore and/or annoy you to death. I love Halle, but only watching this because of her or the sharks has to be a decision only you can make ... don't count on an intriguing story though!