BAIT

2012 / Director. Kimble Rendall. 

There's really not much to say about BAIT 3D other than it's an Australian creature feature which does exactly what it sets out to do. When it comes to these genre movies if you've seen one you've seen them all and the only things setting them apart are their hooks (excuse the pun). BAIT 3D's premise is as absurd as Sharknado... a tsunami strikes the east coast of Australia (presumedly the Gold Coast) and brings with it some of the oceans inhabitants. Inside a supermarket a handful of people are trapped with two 12 metre great white sharks. With the water bloodied with bodies these sharks have hit the jackpot. It's uber stupid stuff but as with any creature-feature, how you respond to it is entirely up to you. Embrace it and you'll have a good time. There's a few cruddy sub-plots thrown into the mix to give the characters a loose arch but at the end of the day we, the audience, are in it for the action. We want blood, chomp, idiot in the water, chomp, quick get out, chomp! - and that's exactly what we get. The shark creation looks good when under water but the moments when it leaps into the air are sloppy. The CGI leaves a lot to be desired but having said that I did not watch it in 3D to fully appreciate the effect. The cast is surprisingly strong for a genre movie of this type with people like Julian McMahon, Martin Sacks and Dan Wyllie offering more credibility than it deserves. One of the more perplexing qualities about BAIT 3D is the assortment of accents. For an Australian setting there's a lot of Americans in the one place... not to mention that some of the Aussie characters change accents mid-way through. Julian McMahon is introduced with a fairly thick Aussie accent, which was nice to see given that he's been riding high in Hollywood over the past decade... but then suddenly he's American for no reason. Such absurdities do add to the campy nature of the movie and hardly matter when blood & gore are the main draw cards. I had fun with this one.  

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