An airplane disaster survival movie with sharks? Mash-up those genres and give me something scrappy and fun, please. The odds were not in its favor – and certainly based on user ratings expectations were low – but I was pleasantly pleased by this low budget flick.

It’s about a curiously cost-savingly empty airplane that goes down over the Pacific and sinks, leaving a handful of survivors in an air pocket at the back of the fuselage. And wouldn’t you know it? Sharks. Of course.

As an airline disaster movie, it’s pretty good. As a shark movie, it’s only ok. I guess all the budget went to the initial crash with vanishingly little left over for sharks. Which might ultimately be for the best… plenty of shark movies magic up some pretty unexceptional beasties.

The initial air disaster is solidly thrilling… not the best “fuselage peals away like a tin of tuna and bodies go flying” but surprisingly good given low expectations. The undersea predicament is also handled pretty well with a smart use of limited space and a ticking clock. There is some down-time and a decent number of moments where I wanted them to just hurry up and save themselves… but maybe that’s just called suspense.

The sharks… well, they have to be small enough to squeeze into an airplane fuselage so at least they aren’t predictable great whites. They are still movie-like sharks though… always hungry at every minute. We’re definitely in the realm of shark attack movies. But they aren’t on screen enough to make the budget go too far overboard. In fact, it’s arguable this isn’t really a shark attack movie at all.

I liked this flick way more than I’m supposed to. It’s a pretty solid B grade air disaster movie with a chilling scenario and some pretty decent acting. I was even a bit surprised at who lived and who died. It’s better than its trashed ratings curve suggests.

Score: 78