Shark Bait (2022) User Reviews

Steal a jetski, you get eaten by a shark.

[BandSAboutMovies · 5/10 · 22 August 2022]

Originally known as Jetski, this movie finds Nat (Holly Earl) and her boyfriend Tom (Jack Trueman) on a vacation with their friends Tyler (Malachi Pullar-Latchman), Milly (Catherine Hannay) and Greg (Thomas Flynn). She's the only one of them that seems to have any sense of morals, so when they decide to steal some jetskis and head out into open water, you'll cheer on the shark that finds them.

They're dumb before the shark even gets there, racing the jetskis at one another and causing an accident with numerous injuries, stranding them with no coast in sight. And then, there's that dorsal fin, and the shark saves us all.

Director James Nunn worked was the second unit director on 47 Meters Down and 47 Meters Down: Uncaged, so he knows how to shoot a shark attack scene, even one that's done with CGI. Writer Nick Saltrese has experience with soap operas, so that gives some dramatic gravitas to the film, as Tom hasn't exactly been loyal to Nat.

It's well shot, the gore isn't bad and the movie flies by. What more can you ask from a free shark movie in 2022?

Watchable

[bodhi_74 · 5/10 · 15 May 2022]

It's not a great film but compared to recent efforts it's not that bad either. The shark footage is acceptable, as is the acting, and the film moves along at a good pace. This isn't a film you would watch more than once, but it's still quite entertaining - I wasn't bored by it.

Blame the script

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 18 October 2022]

Here's another shark attack thriller by James Nunn, the director who has made at least two great films previously, namely TOWER BLOCK and ONE SHOT. Sadly, this is a much lesser quality production, although his direction's fine; it's the script and story which are at fault here. There's very little that's novel or interesting about the group of characters who get stranded out at sea after a violent accident on the waves. The SFX are pretty decent and the pacing isn't bad at all given the budget, but when all of the characters are so unlikeable it's the kind of film that's tough to sit through without getting a little bored.

Sharks do the world a favour by improving the human gene pool.

[silencer-72551 · 2/10 · 16 May 2022]

Story: A bunch of drunken, incredibly stupid total a-holes have a completely avoidable accident and get eaten by sharks.

All the characters are utterly unlikable and the movie is easily 30 minutes too long for its paper thin plot and dreadful writing.

If these had been real people you'd thank the sharks for doing the world a favour. Sadly they couldn't eat the film itself and save everyone that saw this some valuable time.

How the Hell?

[kskmah · 1/10 · 16 May 2022]

How does these movies get made? Stupid people does stupid things come to mind. And I'm taking about the people who made the movie and not just the characters. I know these characters are suppose to be dumb, but how far and long can you ride a jet ski before it runs out of gas? They ended up in the middle of the ocean with no land in site? You can paddle with your hands. I guess just sitting there with no water and in the burning sun is much better than trying something? The stupid guy lets his gf look at the phone with pictures of him cheating? And lets fight over this phone, because that matters more than living. There is a shark or more in the water, but lets swim for it? I think almost everyone was rooting for the shark by the end of the movie. LOL.

Even the shark needs acting classes

[imensan · 3/10 · 15 May 2022]

I'll always try a shark movie or an howler. But this one is irredeemable... a good 15 minutes into the movie you'll be rooting for any shark to finish all the cast.

Below average shark movie that spins its wheels with the barest minimum paid to character or investment

[IonicBreezeMachine · 4/10 · 20 May 2022]

College friends Nat (Holly Earl), Nat's boyfriend Tom (Jack Trueman), her best friend Milly (Catherine Hannay), and remaining friends Tyler (Malachi Pullar-Latchman) and Greg (Thomas Flynn) are vacationing in Mexico during spring break. The morning of their final day, the group steal two jet skis for a joy ride. When the group play a game of chicken injuring Greg and sinking one jet ski while damaging the other, they find themselves stranded in open water with the tide pulling them further away from shore. Things only get worse as a great white shark begins picking off the group one by one.

Shark Bait comes to us from British director James Nunn, well known for his low budget action films and thrillers like Tower Block, Marine 5&6, and most recently One Shot, and writer Nick Saltrese who got his start on British TV writer for soap operas such as Eastenders before transitioning to screenwriting with co-writing credit on the biography film A Prayer Before Dawn. Shopped to international distributors during the American Film Market in 2020, Shark Bait (then known as Jetski) was one of the productions filmed during the pandemic in Malta (like Jurassic World: Dominion) thanks Malta's more relaxed Covid protocols. The movie is pretty standard for the type of low budget shark movie you've seen in the likes of Open Water, 47 Meters Down, or even previous years Great White where you strand your cast somewhere in the ocean while periodically having the shark come get them. It's well made enough, but there's very little to this movie and it does little to distinguish itself from dozens of other shark movies.

The movie begins with our main characters partying and shouting on the beach with very little character development and it's almost setup like a slasher movie. With Nat being the "good girl", Milly being the "partier", Tom being the "jock d-bag" and Tyler and Greg just being "there"(they don't get anything to distinguish themselves) these are basically kill fodder you'd expect in a slasher film down to the fact the movie even has its own equivalent of the crazy old man from Friday the 13th with Manuel Cauchi's legless beggar character who tells them of how a shark ate his legs. Once we're out on the water with these characters there's really not much that happens and because the characters are so thin personality wise the writers come off with hackneyed cheating revelations to wring some semblance of something happening in the movie. The shark effects look fine in some instances, but when the movie has to do the more elaborate attack sequences you've seen in the trailer the low budget really starts to show with compositing during a chase scene in the climax looking particularly bad or the shark sometimes feeling like it's crudely pasted into a shot. Nobody in the movie is really all that engaging because the characters are so lacking in personality that you don't care when one of them dies and because you're so uninterested it's long stretches of not much happening as we wait for the next kill sequence with about 20 minute waits between the Shark appearing as the shark disappears for no real reason for long stretches (but we know the reason, it's to pad this movie to feature length). Also I know this is a predominantly British cast and crew, but as the group are established as being from Kansas, no American refers to the flashlight function on their phone as "torch". If you're going to make your cast subdue their natural accents, at least commit to it and proofread your terminology.

Shark Bait is yet another bare basics shark movie that's just "there", It's not smart or engaging enough to stand out like The Shallows, nor is it campy or cheesy enough like The Meg or Bait 3D to be cheesy fun. It's a movie that takes up time, ends, and then you forget about it. Maybe if you're a die hard shark movie fan you'll find something to appreciate here, but for anyone else just stick to what you know.

There is no scene in this film with a bikini babe in a red string bikini

[doujyr · 5/10 · 15 May 2022]

Shark films have to have some decent t & a otherwise there's not much point to them as the genre really has been done to death. The last few I've stupidly sat through have been sadly lacking. At least the lead character in this ends up in her bra and panties for the latter 3rd of the film, having slowly shed all her other clothes for no apparent reason, and is a good looking girl.

But I can confirm that there is no scene in this film with a bikini babe in a red string bikini as in the promotional material!

Surprisingly good actually...

[paul_haakonsen · 6/10 · 16 May 2022]

Well, I have to admit that I was initially expecting the 2022 thriller "Shark Bait" (aka "Jetski") to be just another generic shark movie. But truth be told, I am a sucker for shark movies, so of course I had to watch what writer Nick Saltrese had to offer here.

"Shark Bait" started out a bit slow and seemed to be a rather generic shark movie. You know, the kind where a group of youngsters get a bit too precarious and go up against Mother Nature. And yeah, it was also true here to some extend, and the young people get marooned far out in the open sea, and then a shark enters the frame.

Writer Nick Saltrese actually managed to churn "Shark Bait" into more than just a run-of-the-mill shark movie. And by that I mean that it was actually an entertaining and enjoyable movie. Sure, the storyline here was generic to the core, not to mention predictable as well, and was essentially something that has been seen many, many times before in other shark movies. And yeah, it is one of those movies where the shark keeps stalking the protagonists and linger around for way longer than it should or would, just to get to chomp on the protagonists one by one. Makes zero sense, but it was entertaining.

I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble that were in "Shark Bait", but they actually put on good enough performances here. Sure, "Shark Bait" is not Shakespearian storytelling, but you get my drift.

Visually then "Shark Bait" was actually good. Lots of blood and enough visceral gore to keep a seasoned gorehound such as myself happy. And as a shark movie, then having blood and believable effects is a must. And yeah, even the shark was realistic here, and that counts for a lot in these types of movies.

I was genuinely entertained by what director James Nunn delivered with "Shark Bait", and it is a shark movie that is well-worth sitting down to watch if you like shark movies.

My rating of "Shark Bait" lands on a six out of ten stars.

A bit of a surprise

[okpilak · 4/10 · 29 August 2022]

I didn't have many expectations for this movie. And in most ways, it was what I expected. One could not care about the people. They did a terrible job with blood. The body contains about 5 liters of blood (about 10 pints) yet some of the scenes it seemed like the person lost a gallon, and other times very little. The less said about the shark attacks the better. And it played to all the stereotypes of shark movies. A very mediocre movie done many times before. But what was a surprise for me was the camera work. They used a drone, and got some very good shots and also some very nice POV shots. The early scenes when they were racing the jetskis was visually done well. And even the underwater scenes were better than expected. Too bad the rest of the movie didn't meet those standards. I really am only giving it a four due to the camera work. It is simple entertainment and for that it serves its purpose.

Unbiased Evaluation

[Luv2Spooge · 8/10 · 16 May 2022]

Problem with a lot of reviews in my opinion is that they are using the same criteria for all films and often because expectations are misplaced. It would be unfair to evaluate this film based on the same criteria and expectation say one would of Avatar or Lord of the Rings, right?

That being said, this film is exactly as it advertised and served the function for which it has advertised which is a quick 1 and a half hour of shark carnage fun for you and your friends on a Friday night with popcorn and soda. That's what it is and that's what it did, for that it should be evaluated accordingly.

Comparing this film to Jaws is also misguided. One just assume because both films are about sharks, they're in the same genre. Jaws is much more in the drama genre, with a detailed story that covers a lot of character detail, morality, social construct, and the likes. They are completely different genre.

This film should be compared to films like The Shallows, Horizon Line, 47 Meters Down, etc... because they all serve as more of a quick thriller than a long dramatic story telling. And as such this film delivered what it promised.

• Annoying young people? Check.

• Stupid dumb decisions? Check.

• Formulaic simple story? Check.

• Total shark carnage? Check.

What more could you ask for? Turn off your head and just enjoy the fun. The CGI is actually fantastic in this one and I have to say it is far more gore than some others I've seen, which makes it a great fright fest.

Considering some very disappointing films of the same genre I've watched recently such as The Requin (2022), Great White (2021), Dark Tide (2012), etc... this one definite beat them all out and ranked up there with 47 Meters Down, The Shallow, etc... in which if you enjoy these kinds of film, this genre of casual thrillers with friends, this is a must see. You're going to have a lot of fun.

If you are going into this expecting it to be Avatar, then you're going to be disappointed. Great film, great acting, great CGI, great entertainment, no political crap, just fun fun fun.

8/10.

Fairly well done shark movie

[BonesMacenz · 6/10 · 10 July 2023]

Two minutes into the movie, I was already rooting for the shark. Overall, though, it was an entertaining movie (more of a guilty pleasure).

The acting and filming was very well done, setting this apart from the typical B movie. The film was visually and audibly stimulating. I felt like the film whisked the viewer to a vacation isle, then out to a vast, lonely, dangerous ocean.

And there were a couple of attack and wound scenes that made me cringe. Well done. The poor guy with the leg wound. Ow.

Of course, the characters were some of the most obnoxious and morally corrupt college kids ever portrayed. Only one had an ounce of common sense, which often came too late. As long as you cheer for the shark, you should have a jolly time with this film.

Too much aggravation, too little payoff

[Flexi · 15 May 2022]

I know the people in these movies have to be unsympathetic douchenozzles so the audience enjoys them being massacred, but this one really overdoes it. I was siding with the shark two minutes into the film, and it took half an hour before it even showed its fin.

After that, it's just a couple of people being dragged under the surface and some underwater scenes that are so dark you barely see anything. Way too little, way too late.

Idiots and sharks

[MB-reviewer185 · 1/10 · 16 May 2022]

I am tired of these kinds of shark movies; they have idiotic characters, a type of animal attacking them, and they must get out of it in some way. Its formulaic.

The characters are idiotic and annoying, they make dumb choices, and I could not stand watching them in the first 3 minutes of the movie.

The shark was not impressive, and the shark would attack in over-the-top ways that make me laugh but also ask questions. The characters would do something that would get them killed and just give themselves to the shark.

The movie would just end at a certain point and the credits would start rolling, but I did not care I was glad that the movie was over. Do not waste your time watching this.

Nothing wrong but nothing new

[zeratul_mrye · 4/10 · 15 May 2022]

College kids did some stupid shxt and got themselves stuck in the middle of the ocean where one crazy blood thirst shark just won't leave them alone, meanwhile the girl found that her boyfriend is cheating on her because the screen writer couldn't find a better way for character development... yep I've seen this too many times. On the bright side it's not as bad as your typical $5 CGI brain dead flying shark movie.

Pedigree Chum...

[Xstal · 1/10 · 2 June 2022]

Clearly the shark had read Student Fishing for Dummies (the students had only read Acting by Dummies), as it ripped, sliced, sheared into teenage torso tummies, although since that's its modus operandi, you can't be too critical of how it takes its candy, but it does leave you in guffaws, when you think of all the flaws and curious whether Michael Caine might appear in Shark Bait 4, as he had done in a similar film some years previously (about 1987 if you want to look it up, although I wouldn't be tempted to watch it, unless you enjoyed this!).

Alas poor Robert Shaw and Roy Scheider are no longer with us, in a similar way that this film won't be with you this time tomorrow, which is a plus.

Not that bad

[tfwqmicz · 18 May 2022]

Sure I can understand some of the reviews. Some of them are brilliant written and some of them are short. But considering the budget and the length of the film , the cast and the special effects and the shark then this is not all that bad. I have enjoyed this film and the young but annoying cast.

Thank you so much Shark

[olcayozfirat · 3/10 · 28 May 2022]

Shark horror movie from 2022. 5 idiots, 1 of them a little smarter, steal 2 jetskis where they go on vacation and sail out to the ocean. They clash because they are openly stupid. The shark is also clearing the world of idiots. Shark attack movies are generally good thrillers, but most are crap movies. This is one of the bad movies.

The movie can be watched with the family.

FINish them!

[wooden_leg · 2/10 · 25 September 2022]

I mean, where to start with this? A group of people I didn't like take jet skis that aren't theirs out on a sea they're unfamiliar with and get attacked by a shark I didn't believe.

Only one main character had the semblance of a redeeming feature. I was frankly rooting for the shark.

The plot progressed in much the same way as my poor attempts at crochet - the tension is mismanaged and there were gaping holes. There is some gore for the horror fans but if you want to watch a really good modern shark flick, watch the Shallows. Of course that had a better budget but there is no need for low budget films to be low quality (look at The Babadook).

I really wanted to like it

[original-apparel · 4/10 · 28 June 2022]

This movie is so frustrating and it's the little things that piss you off that ruin movie. I don't know where to start. Halfway through the movie I wanted the shark to eat them all.

So the black guy wanted to swim to the boat that they saw while jet skiing, but suddenly they're in the middle of the ocean and can't even see any see the boat or land. He doesn't even know which direction to swim AND he'd have to be an Olympic swimmer and probably still not make it.

Ok so the cell phone drops in the ocean... my phone drops in the toilet and it's history. Yet, Tom dives in the ocean to retrieve it. Even if he finds it, it's not going to work.

The main girl discovers that the problem with the motor of the jet ski is a torn hose. She puts her mcguyver hat on and figured out that she can fix it with a tube from the life jacket that's floating in the water. She swims out to it, mind you there's a shark in the water, so rather than taking the whole life jacket back to the jet ski asap, she decides to float around and take the part she needs to fix the jet ski motor. And of course the shark shows up and almost eats her. Too bad he didn't.

Then just as mcguyver has fixed the jet ski and she and Tom are jet skiing to freedom, Tom decides that he's a piece of doodoo and doesn't deserve to live, because he cheated on his girlfriend. Sounds about right. Death is vindication for cheating. So he jumps off the jet ski and offers himself to the shark. This time he eats him. So that's good. But wait out girl, his girlfriend drives the jet ski back to towards Tom to save him, but she doesn't park the jet ski right next to him, no, she stops it 10 feet away and extends her 20" arm to him. And furthermore, rather than yelling at him telling him to get his f'n arse back on the jet ski, now!!! She calmly says "you can't still make it. Come on".

And finally she's almost back to shore when our friend, the great white, comes raging towards her. Ignore the fact the he had a human buffer earlier, he still want to eat our hero. So this stupidest shark in the world tries to dart between two rocks in the water and of course because he's never seen rocks underwater before and doesn't realize his own size, he attempts to swim through the narrow path and gets lodged in between and our hero gets the time to swim to shore.

Not as bad I expected due to reviews

[geoffreypizzey · 6/10 · 8 October 2022]

The movie was ok and not as bad as some of the reviews say yes there is room for improvement but as shark movies go I enjoyed it giving it a above average rating I've realised that taking notice of lots of negative reviews on here in many cases I've been pleasantly surprised but I also agree with many but I guess the only way one will know is to start viewing a movie that may have negative reviews but it still appeals to you for your own reasons .

Give it a try and be honest in your opinions rather than what I believe many write movies off far to easily . One last thing could the movie have been better yes it could have very easily but it was still not a bad flick.

Maybe not great, but not bad either.

[roadbytheriver · 5/10 · 15 October 2023]

It has an interesting progression in terms of its subject. The psychopathic shark is hunting young people one by one. It is obsessed with them and won't let them go. From this perspective, it can even be said that it has a slasher flavor. This was the first thing that made me sympathize with the movie. It fulfills its duty and provides entertainment without getting boring. Don't expect any more. Towards the end, the shark scenes get a little artificial. This may be a little disturbing for the attentive viewer because it seems more realistic at first. I think it is slightly better than its counterparts. Of course, better could have been done on this issue.

I actually enjoyed this movie

[dan_fango · 8/10 · 15 May 2022]

Of course there is only so much you can do with "shark movies" and I would imagine it's very difficult to come up with an original plot. However "Shark Bait" was an ok movie where at least the shark was believable and the actors and actresses were very good. I wasn't bored and was quite entertained by this movie.

Not terrible

[MTM23 · 6/10 · 23 August 2022]

Very predictable plot and full of clichés.

Rational sober good girl Cheating douche boyfriend Slutty drunk girl Possible gay guy Cool black guy

However, the movie wasn't as bad as I thought it would be and was actually entertaining. CGI was decent and the acting was good. It wasn't a complete chore to sit through so give it a watch.

Student film?

[FeastMode · 1/10 · 28 May 2022]

Calling this a movie is too generous. It is complete and utter trash. I could tell IMMEDIATELY it was going to be horrible. I thought maybe I could enjoy it as a bad movie in a fun way. That didn't work. It's amateur on every level. And it's so unbelievably dumb all over. The story, the characters, everything that happens is dumb. And not just a little dumb, the absolute maximum dumbness possible. (1 viewing, 5/27/2022)