Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Bait (2012)

A tsunami hits a supermarket in the middle of a robbery gone wrong, causing the store to flood and parking garage below to flood.  The survivors in the store gather on top of the shelving units and discover that not only is the water still rising and bare electrical wires dangling from the ceiling, but there are sharks swimming in the aisles too. Oh no!

Below in the garage, the few survivors stay in their cars as long as possible since there is nowhere else to go. But when something starts bumping the windows they realize they have a shark problem too.

Then there are various subplots regarding relationships. There's the robber whose accomplice killed a woman right before the tsunami hit and the injured cop who plans to arrest him when they get out.  The injured cop and his estranged juvenile delinquent daughter.  The former lifeguard (current grocery shelf stocker) Josh, and his ex-fiance who has just gotten back from a trip and has a new guy with her. There's is the biggest focus of all the stories as they split up after Josh's best friend/fiance's brother was killed by a shark while covering Josh's lifeguard duties.  Josh's efforts to pull him out of the water before the shark killed him were unsuccessful and a year later he's still not recovered mentally.  So sharks in the store are an extra kick in the slats.

While we get some of the back story for a few of the characters, it's not really emotionally engaging.  So there's no investment in whether they live or die.  We're left watching animatronic sharks cruise through the supermarket aisles and snap at survivors, some of whom are super annoying and others who don't think things through very well.  But overall, the threat of sharks in a building is an okay way to spend a few hours.

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