Dangerous Animals is a horror/thriller film without enough story so it dog paddles around trying to find something new to do. Cut thirty minutes, and it might have been a taught little thriller.

It’s about a surfer girl kidnapped by a whackadoodle shark preservationist. He really wants to keep the sharks well fed so he can continue his shark experience charter business. As you do.

So it’s not really a shark movie in the traditional sense… it’s a kidnap thriller. And, as such, can the girl escape her captor? Which begs the question what would YOU do in a similar situation. And, sadly, you could probably handle things better which is a problem that kept popping up.

Another problem… there’s serious repetition. They seem to go through the same problems over and over again, each time winding up right back where they started from. It’s a symptom of too much time and not enough plot. I’m not a big fan of entire escape or action sequences that circle right back to the start with no plot progression.

That said, the final act gets a little better as the characters finally progress to an end point. Still some dumb and unlikely stuff happens but at least there were more sharks and a finale.

Plus Jai Courtney as the villain has some campy moments playing this A1 nutbar. He’s having more fun than I was watching him dance around in his skivvies or yap about shark preservation.

The flick isn’t a total disaster in that, even when bored and annoyed, I kind of wanted to see where it was going next. In that I cared at all was a miracle… but it doesn’t save the day.

Score: 74