‘Cage Dive’ DVD Review

Stars: Megan Peta Hill, Joel Hogan, Josh Potthoff, Pete Valley, Mark Fell, Tara Wraith | Written and Directed by Gerald Rascionato

OK, so you want to know whether or not Cage Dive is for you… Let me get straight to the point before you read any further. Answer the following questions:

1) Do you love found footage movies (I said LOVE not like)?
2) Do you like spending time watching a film full of unlikeable characters?
3) Are you happy to feel completely unsatisfied with the outcome of a film?
4) Have you seen The Reef?

If you’ve answered no to any of the first 3 questions and/or yes to the last question, the Cage Dive is NOT for you. If you’re still intrigued, then read on.

Cage Dive comes from writer/director Gerald Rascionato and is yet another entry into the growing number of shark attack movies eminating from down under. Only this particular film also throws the found-footage conciet into the mix… The film follows three friends from California who set out to film an audition tape for submission to an extreme reality game show. To ensure they stand out, they decide to travel to Australia where they will be documenting themselves taking part in a most extreme activity: Shark Cage Diving. While on the dive, a catastrophic (or rather ridiculously unbelieveable) turn of events leaves them in baited water full of hungry Great White Sharks and turns there audition tape into a survival diary.

Right. Back to the list(s). One, why the hell would you KEEP filming when you’re in distress in the water? Two, why oh why, wouldn’t you just knock your girlfriend out rather than let her put EVERYONE’S lives in danger? Three, why would you even try to make a film about being stranded at sea with deadly sharks when The Reef, Open Water and/or Adrift already exist?

There’s absolutley nothing new in Cage Dive. We’re stuck with the same shaky-cam found footage, the same idiotic characters and the same lapses in logic AND judgement that plague these types of genre films each and every time. Hey, but at least Rascionato’s film does have one thing going for it: the film actually explains how the footage was found and uses a decent framing device – a TV report/documentary – to allow the camcorder footage to spool out on the screen. But when that’s the ONLY interesting thing about your movie, it’s obvious that the finished product is more fail than win.

I don’t normally like to be so negative about any film, but this one’s literally for shark-movie completists only. The most exciting thing about Cage Dive is the DVD cover!