The Requin review by Bobby Blakey
Nothing is better than a good shark attack flick, but sadly with all the ones that get released more often than not they fail to deliver. The latest looking to chomp down its own legacy in the genre is The Requin starring Alicia Silverstone and James Tupper from Furie director Le-Van Kiet. Could this film be swimming with the intensity fans hope for or will it sink to the bottom of the ocean?
The Requin follows Jaelyn and Kyle who arrive at a remote seaside villa in Vietnam for a romantic getaway. A torrential storm descends, reducing the villa to little more than a raft and sweeping the young couple out to sea. Suddenly, another danger appears: a school of great white sharks. With her injured husband watching helplessly, Jaelyn must battle the deadly predators alone in this tense thriller that rides an unrelenting wave of fear.
I admit that I am not that big fan of Silverstone, but haven’t seen her in anything for a while so was intrigued to see what she brought to this kind of film. While she was fine for the most part the film is just not so much. Per usual they have to force in some sort of personal tragedy for the character to deal with before getting thrust into the current situation and it just isn’t necessary. The side drama doesn’t add much to the story other than to give them a reason to fight or for Silverstone to freak out and cry. I get trying to give them more depth, but for this story it just isn’t needed.
Once we get to the meat of it there is some interesting moments and how they handle, stuff but also full on dumb decision making at times. The shark element takes quite a long time before it comes into play and when it does it never hits that mark like it could have. Sure they offer up plenty
of blood and attempt to build the tension, but it just never fully succeeds. There is even a secondary situation at the end that I think was the best of the movie, but sadly it was not what we got the most of.
In the end the film just didn’t hit the marks I was hoping for and just didn’t work for me. Fans of shark flicks might find something here they enjoy so decide for yourself and check out The Requin when it hits Blu-ray and DVD on March 29th from Lionsgate Home Entertainment.