LAST BREATH, THE
(director: Joachim Hedén; screenwriters: Nick Saltrese, story by Andrew Prendergast; 2cinematographer: Eric Borjeson; music: Patrick Kirst; cast: Julian Sands (Levi), Jack Parr (Noah), Arlo Carter (Logan), Erin Mullen (Riley), Kim Spearman (Sam), Alexander Arnold (Brett); Runtime: 92; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Chris Reed, Andrew Prendergast; Filmgate Films/VOD/Signature Entertainment; 2024)
“So-so horror thriller about great white sharks trapping scuba divers in a WWII shipwreck in Caribbean waters.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Swedish journeyman helmer Joachim Hedén (“Breaking Surface”/”10,000 Timmar”) directs this clunky and so-so horror thriller about great white sharks trapping scuba divers in a WWII shipwreck in Caribbean waters. It’s based on a story by Andrew Prendergast and scripted by NickSaltrese. The renown Brit actor Julian Sands died while hiking in California after making this second-rate film his final one.
Sands plays Levi, a grizzled sea dog who with his assistant, Noah (Jack Parr), has a boat on the British Virgin Islands in which he takes tourists scuba diving. Levi’s life passion is searching for the WWII battleship, the USS Charlotte, which was never found after it sunk in 1944. One day Noah discovers the ship at the bottom of the sea. The college drop-out is then joined by four of his former New York college buddies, who are already on the island. They include his ex, Sam (Kim Spearman), a compassionate doctor; the scummy boastful Wall Street investment man, Brett (Alexander Arnold); the annoying comical buffoon stoner Logan (Arlo Carter); and the ditsy party girl blonde Riley (Erin Mullen).
Brett offers the boat owner $50,000 for the group to scuba dive down to the wreck. Because of a leg injury Levi stays aboard his boat while the others dive.
Once reaching the lost boat, the divers are trapped inside the rusted metal wreckage and surrounded by threatening great white sharks, with their oxygen tanks running low. According to genre convention, we might want to guess who will survive and who will be the first killed.
The film disappoints because its poor lighting makes it hard to clearly see the underwater scenes, there are too many shoddy CGIs due to the low budget, and the underdeveloped characters could have been more convincing if more was told about them that made them more than stereotypes.
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REVIEWED ON 7/18/2024 GRADE: C+