Review of Open Water 2: Adrift (2006) by Cal ( — 26 Apr 2008

"I am Jaques Cousteau!".

Adrift is an example of Hollywood studios cashing in on the success of a movie by tagging a completely unrelated film as its sequel. This movie boasts itself as the sequel to the 2004 film Open Water. I liked the 2004 movie, so I decided to give this a shot.

It comes as no shock that the movie was a complete disappointment and marketed as a sequel to get more money.

A group of 6 friends venture out in a yacht to the open ocean. They decide to go for a swim, but soon realise that no-one lowered the ladder and the boat is too big for anyone to climb on-board. So thus starts a stupendous drama that is unrealistic and quite laughably stupid at times.

The cast give it all they can, but it's clear that the screenwriter is what ultimately doomed the movie. There's no intensity to speak of, and instead of playing on human fears and using sharks we're given an episode of a dumb soap opera that's set out in the ocean.

I couldn't believe that no sharks turned up...even when there's lots of blood in the water! If only we lived in this alternate reality!

As a tale of survival, it's surprisingly unremarkable and uninteresting. The film loses steam extremely quickly, with the final 50 minutes becoming increasingly boring; forcing viewers to stare at their watches or just turn off the movie altogether.

For me, I just wanted to know what happened so I stuck with it. The hope of the group surviving maintained a bit of tension throughout. The direction was actually quite above average. It was well shot, directed and edited considering the very limited budget that the film was made on. But it's a shame some of that cash wasn't used to tidy up the script.

The film is incredibly stupid at times, but well made.