Above and Below, 2026.
Directed by Jesse V. Johnson.
Starring Laura Marano, Christina Ochoa, Mario Tardón, Antonio Banderas, Ryan Bertroche, Jess Liaudin, Timothy V. Murphy, Louis Mandylor, and Diego Llinás.
SYNOPSIS:
Friends embark on a dream vacation of parties and diving, but their trip takes a terrifying turn when criminals attack them at sea.
This much can be said about Jesse V. Johnson’s Above and Below: it’s better than some recent low-budget shark flicks, but still a tediously frustrating, nonsensical, sometimes boring experience.
Technically, there are characters here with established dynamics, but they’re quickly thrown out the window so the film can indulge in stupidity on their behalf, underwater shark-attack terror, and drug-cartel action above water. Laura Marano’s Tatiana is partying with her boyfriend in Mexico, joined by her best friend Kayle (Christina Ochoa) and brother Kyle (Diego Llinas), which is becoming something of an unofficial last dance for her relationship. They will be attending universities on different coasts of America, with Tatiana having decided that it will soon be time to end it.
None of that really matters (which is partially a blessing considering how wooden the performances are), as Kyle, off on his own gambling against the mysterious Burns (Antonio Banderas), loses the card game but is offered a consolation prize in the form of a private boating trip for his group involving deep-sea diving to observe sharks from inside a cage. Everyone is far too easily convinced that this is a solid idea (the flimsy screenplay comes courtesy of Tony Giordano), only to find out that they are not alone upon boarding. Sure, there is the captain (nothing too suspicious about that), but there are also no-nonsense men who seem to be up to no good, quickly making the women uncomfortable.
One of the biggest problems here is that the film takes an unforgivably long time to simply get going. There are fake-outs attempting suspense with one of the vacationer guys stupidly leaving the cage after losing his phone, but nothing remotely interesting or exciting happens until one of them inadvertently stumbles upon the cartel cocaine aboard the ship. Following this, there are a couple of surprising deaths, one of them resulting with the cocaine at the bottom of the ocean. Burns is called in to deal with the situation (say what you will about Antonio Banderas appearing in something far below his talent, but the performance is not a glorified cameo and he is genuinely acting), arriving via another boat with armed henchmen, terrorizing the vacationing group to get his drugs back or else.
That’s the gist of it, with stakes, well, above and below, which comes across as not only an attempt to do something different within the shark subgenre but also a way for the filmmaker to remain within his wheelhouse of generic action. Admittedly, there are bursts of tension where the film comes alive with unexpectedness, and this also might be the most technically accomplished movie of Jesse V. Johnson’s career so far (the staging of the set pieces is mostly fine, the look of the shark isn’t embarrassing, and the situation itself is mildly compelling even if the setup is absolutely preposterous).
However, Above and Below consistently struggles to sustain that momentum, falling into sluggish stretches and confounding shark attacks that don’t do nearly as much damage as what would realistically be inflicted (it gets a whole mouthful of a character’s leg at one point, only for there to be some scratches and light bleeding). There is also the fact that whatever characterization was set up becomes nonexistent before randomly trying to draw a line conflating gambling with money as no different from gambling with one’s life by way of getting into a shark cage, or even on a boat for such purposes. Aside from the occasional jolt of varied violence and a menacing Antonio Banderas, the quality routinely falls back down below.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder
