Dark Tide

Halle Berry and Olivier Martinez clearly enjoyed their time in Cape Town making this shark-attack flick, as they have since become engaged. But few others will share their fond memories, as while director John Stockwell (no stranger to aquatic adventures after Blue Crush and Into the Blue) and cinematographer Jean-François Hensgens make the ocean look simultaneously fascinating and forbidding, the screenplay simply strings together hoary clichés and caricatures. Traumatised after seeing her assistant (Sizwe Msufu) savaged by a great white, shark expert Berry has broken up with her cameraman boyfriend (Martinez) and allowed her boat trip business to decline. But an obnoxiously wealthy Brit (Ralph Brown) makes her an offer she can't refuse to let him and his son swim outside a shark cage, with all-too-predictable consequences. The cast works hard, but not even the climactic tempest can whip up much excitement.