A serial Killer who used sharks to kill people? It sounded like a bad movie from the heyday of Sci-Fi Channel crap. Then I saw the hallowed name of IFC (Independent Film Company) attached to Dangerous Animals. I was in. Thankfully all it cost me was a trip to the library to pick up a DVD.
Dangerous Animals is a really well made movie. I was enjoying the camerawork, the offbeat story, and the shark scenes are especially unnerving. I also enjoyed the pop punk songs in the soundtrack.
Then I got to the end. I actually was hoping for a hard, downbeat finale. Not that I usually want to see lead characters being killed. I always pulled for Jamie and Heather and Jodie and Neve's characters to survive. It's just that I didn't care a bit about the ones in Dangerous Animals.
The lead is a generic badass girlboss. No personality whatsoever. And she's, whoa dude, a surfer! The would-be heroic guy is a bland prettyboy with a bullshit gushy soft side.
The best thing about this one is Jai Courtney. He's mesmerizing and gratefully his madness didn't go over the top. It's the first time I've seen him in anything. I see Courtney is a veteran actor, with a lot of roles, including that of "Captain Boomerang" in The Suicide Squad. I wouldn't know anything about that.
The final showdown is a complete disappointment. Our heroine faces off with a shark, has a tender moment, and the shark peacefully swims away. That was bad enough, but when surfer-girlboss finally dispatches her nemesis, she utters a cringe-inducing line that rivals a Bruce Willis zinger in a particularly rotten direct-to-video action movie: "Oogie Boogie, Motherfucker".
Add in the drippy final scene and I felt bushwhacked.
I am more forgiving of unapologetically bad movies than I am of ones that start off with great potential. Dangerous Animals had so much going for it in the first hour. Then the movie jumped the CGI shark.
Written by Mark Sieber
Dangerous Animals is a really well made movie. I was enjoying the camerawork, the offbeat story, and the shark scenes are especially unnerving. I also enjoyed the pop punk songs in the soundtrack.
Then I got to the end. I actually was hoping for a hard, downbeat finale. Not that I usually want to see lead characters being killed. I always pulled for Jamie and Heather and Jodie and Neve's characters to survive. It's just that I didn't care a bit about the ones in Dangerous Animals.
The lead is a generic badass girlboss. No personality whatsoever. And she's, whoa dude, a surfer! The would-be heroic guy is a bland prettyboy with a bullshit gushy soft side.
The best thing about this one is Jai Courtney. He's mesmerizing and gratefully his madness didn't go over the top. It's the first time I've seen him in anything. I see Courtney is a veteran actor, with a lot of roles, including that of "Captain Boomerang" in The Suicide Squad. I wouldn't know anything about that.
The final showdown is a complete disappointment. Our heroine faces off with a shark, has a tender moment, and the shark peacefully swims away. That was bad enough, but when surfer-girlboss finally dispatches her nemesis, she utters a cringe-inducing line that rivals a Bruce Willis zinger in a particularly rotten direct-to-video action movie: "Oogie Boogie, Motherfucker".
Add in the drippy final scene and I felt bushwhacked.
I am more forgiving of unapologetically bad movies than I am of ones that start off with great potential. Dangerous Animals had so much going for it in the first hour. Then the movie jumped the CGI shark.
Written by Mark Sieber
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