Lively schlocky Aussie-Singapore killer animal movie with a deliriously over the top premise - a tsunami hits a coastal town and a bunch of people are stuck together in a flooded supermarket along with a killer shark. It's a throwback to those 70s disaster films with the bank robber subplot also reminiscent of late 50s Roger Corman films (where bank robbers often came across a monster).
A whole bunch of interesting characters are introduced and set up quite neatly - a former life guard traumatised by the death of his best friend, his former fiancee, a rich idiot and her himbo boyfriend, a kkleptomaniac and her estranged cop father and the klepto's boyfriend, some Asians, a battler and a few security guards. However the writers (a bunch of them are credited) never quite develop the subplots satisfactorily enough - we're not asking for Shakepeare just a bit of progression, but some promising characters and situations are thrown away - for example it could have done with less time spent on easy gags from the rich dopey girl, and more from say the klepto's boyfriend.
Also I feel they should have killed someone off towards the end (the death toll eases up in the last third) and even though the movie was made with Singapore finance and a fair few characters live at the end, they're all white and the two Asian characters get eaten.
Still it was easy to follow who was who, and the cast perform gamely: I really like Phoebe Tonkin, Martin Sacks and Dan Wyllie are always reliable and Julian McMahon shines in what is actually the film's best role, an anti-hero robber. He easily outclasses Xavier Samuel, who doesn't do much except look tormented until the end when he's heroic; Sharni Vinson, who was born to play an action hero, is shamefully wasted.
Solid production values, plenty of enjoyably cheesy over the top moments. It's a pity it couldn't have been performed in Aussie accents but for junky fun this easily beats Panic at Rock Island.
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