Director: Gerald Rascionato
Writer: Gerald Rascionato (Screenplay) Gerald Rascionato, Stephen Lister (Story)
Starring: Joel Hogan, Josh Potthoff, Megan Peta Hill, Pete Valley, Mark Fell
Plot: Three friends filming an audition tape for an extreme reality show, take part in shark cage diving, only to be left in great white infested waters, turning their recording into life and death.
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Sinks Like the Boat
Story: Open Water 3: Cage Dive starts as rescue attempts have been put in place after a cage diving boat was hit by a freak wave in shark infested water, three American tourists are still missing and their camera has been discovered, we look back through this video.
As we look back we meet Jeff (Hogan) his brother Josh (Potthoff) and Megan (Hill) who are auditing for an extreme reality show, where they must prove they can work as a team with the ultimate goal to go cage diving with great white sharks. When they make it to the cage dive the three are inside the cage when the freak wave hits and they go crashing into the open water needing to survive shark infested waters.
Thoughts on Open Water 3: Cage Dive
Characters – Josh and Jeff are brothers who both love their extreme sports, they seem to have a strong bond and even with Jeff having his girlfriend as part of the team we get the side story that Josh has a thing with her two. Megan is the girlfriend of Jeff that is part of the team and also enjoys the extreme sports, other than that we don’t learn too much about them until the disaster hits.
Performance – The performances from the three actors are just what you expect, they do come off believable with their chemistry without overacting any of the distress scenes.
Story – Three friends trapped or lost at sea after a freak accident record the moments, this is by the book found footage. The biggest problem here is the film is shot like a report of what happened and the camera was found, so it kind of implies the direction the film is going. Another big problem is that the film is called Cage Dive which makes you believe they will be trapped in a cage under or in the water, we also fall into the terrible decisions being made by three characters that believe they could be experts.
Horror/Thriller – Trapped in the water surrounded by sharks, well this should work but loses all the tension by pointing out just how the film is being shown like a documentary into what happened.
Settings – They are in the ocean, not a shark cage this just ends up being another re-hash of the original Open Water.
Special Effects – The wave is the only need for major special effects which looks good as do the shark moments which I imagine are CGI.
Scene of the Movie – The wave moment looks panic filled and true.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – Why did Megan become the stupid crazy character who doesn’t understand calm in the second half of the film, the group are meant to be together throughout not like this.
Final Thoughts – This is a film that is sold incorrectly, the only cage dive moment is in the calm, other than that it is just another Open Water movie of small group needing to survive potential shark attacks. Even though I disliked 47 Meters Down it is far superior.
Overall: How many times do we need to see survivors in water almost being eaten by sharks?
Rating
